Before you hand the phone to software: a short checklist
Whoever answers your phone answers in your name. Before that is a new host, a booking service, or Kade, write these things down. It takes an hour and it is the hour that decides whether the phone gets answered well.
Hours, with the exceptions
Opening hours by day, kitchen last orders, and the days you close that a stranger would not guess: the Monday after a bank holiday, the week in January. A receptionist that does not know about the January week will book someone into it.
The table rules
Largest party you seat without a manager, how long a table is held, whether you take walk-ins at the bar, and what happens at ten past the booking time. Write the rule you actually apply, not the one on the website from three years ago.
The menu, as it is tonight
A current menu, marked for the common dietary questions, and a line on what changes: the specials, the Sunday roast, the dish that ran out last week. If the menu lives in a photo on your website, this is the moment to turn it into text somebody can read aloud.
Directions a local would give
Which entrance, where to park, what the building looks like, what to do if the door is locked at five to six. One paragraph in plain words.
Who takes the handoff
The questions that need a person: allergies, large parties, complaints, suppliers, press. Name the person who takes them on each shift, and the number they answer. A handoff to nobody is a missed call with extra steps.
How to say the restaurant's name
Sounds obvious. It is the first thing every caller hears, and it is the thing owners most often forget to specify. If the name is Oriol, say how it is pronounced.
What to do with this sheet
Pin it by the phone for whoever answers this week. When you talk to Kade, bring it to the call: it is most of what we need to set up a receptionist that answers the way you would, and it is the same sheet a new host should get on their first day.