Restaurants, Please Just Answer Your Phone
How restaurants lost the plot between efficiency and basic customer service
Look, I get it. OpenTable revolutionized dining. Click, confirm, show up. No awkward phone conversations with hurried hosts who can barely hear you over the dinner crowd. It's streamlined, it's efficient, and it probably saved restaurants thousands of hours of "Um, do you have anything available for tonight?" calls.
But somewhere between embracing the digital age and optimizing ops, restaurants forgot something pretty simple: sometimes people need to actually talk to another human being.
Here's what drives me up the wall. You're running 20 minutes late to your 7 p.m. reservation. Traffic was a nightmare, parking was worse, and now you're spiraling because you know they probably gave away your table. So you do what any reasonable person would do — you call the restaurant.
Except there's no number. Or if there is a number, it goes straight to a voicemail that sounds like it hasn't been checked since 2019. Or it's one of those automated systems that loops you through five different options before dumping you back to the main menu.
Meanwhile, you're burning through the exact minutes you were trying to save by calling in the first place.
This isn't just about tardiness anxiety. What if you have a serious food allergy and need to double-check ingredients? What if you're bringing someone who uses a wheelchair and want to confirm accessibility? What if the online reservation system glitched and you need to verify your booking actually went through?
Listen, I understand the economics behind it. Labor costs are brutal right now, and dedicating someone to answer phones feels like an easy line item to cut when you're already operating on super-thin margins. But here's the reality: when you make it impossible for customers to reach you, you're not just streamlining operations. You're creating bigger problems.
The current system forces you to either show up late and hope for the best, or waste time hunting for their Instagram account to send a message they might not even see (or at least in time).
Please keep the online reservations — they work. But bring back one person who can pick up a phone during service hours. Even if it's just the host multitasking between seating guests and answering basic questions.
When you make it impossible for customers to reach you, you're not just streamlining operations. You're telling people their time doesn't matter. And that's not a great way to start your meal.