We can think from our perspective that after we have booked the restaurant , How our experience can be improved:

1. No waiting if we have booked the table at specific time : Send Notification to customer 30 min before booking time that – “We are excited to serve you to our restaurant in 30 min”
2. No Cancellation if cancellation is done then it need to communicated effectively i.e. Push Notif / IVR Calling / Customer Support Call
3. Any popular / special dish item to try in that restaurant
4. Any discount or offers on restaurant i.e. complimentary dish etc.

OpenTable is an application that helps diners discover and plan a trip to a restaurant and helps business owners grow their restaurant by allowing diners to easily book tables.

Competitors:

• OpenTables’ biggest competitor would be Google. Google not only has a mechanism for discovering restaurants, but also has an integration for booking.

Goal:

• OpenTable already has a very clear utility and their process for booking a table is easy and clean. When coming up with improvements, I would avoid over complicating this process because this simplicity is what makes OpenTable stand out as a product.
• Going out to eat is an inherently social activity. The diner who is planning the activity is likely the one gathering friends and family for an outing. I would focus on improvement around engagement on OpenTable, not only creating a utility for booking but also a utility for planning once the booking has been made.

User Personas:

• If we are thinking about the post-booking experience we would want to focus on 3 user personas:
  • The diner who plans for tonight
  • The diner who plans months in advance
  • The restaurant
• Since we are focusing on engagement on OpenTable, I would focus on enhancing the diner persona experience. This may result in more user acquisition and therefore more bookings through OpenTable.

Pain Points:

• Once a diner makes a reservation, they cannot easily share it with their party
• The diner is the only person able to make changes to the reservation
• There is no social utility when booking a table, no one in your party can interact with the reservation.

Ideas:

• Create an easy way to both (1) share your reservation with your party and (2) allow other party members to change the reservation
  • For a diner that is planning in advance, plans are likely to change. Allowing other members of the party to change the time and date can help ease the planning process.
• Create an in-app chat feature to allow diners to chat about the event together.
  • Creating a small experience around the event can help bring a social aspect to the dining experience before it begins.
• Similar to the last idea – just allow users to easily share the reservation on other chat applications so there is some sort of discussion around the chat. Once they are added to the chat, allow all party members to receive notifications about the reservation.

Though I like all the ideas, I think the last one is the best in terms of effort and outcome. Not only will this bring a social aspect to OpenTable, it will also allow OpenTable to gather more users for potential acquisition. If the last idea is successful, potentially building a in-app chat feature in OpenTable would be worth it.

Metrics:

• Focusing on the Breadth of the OpenTable user base, I would think that with new users being added to each reservation that the MAU, DAU and WAU would increase over time.
• Focusing on the Depth of the feature itself. I would take a look at users who are active in a given month, how many of those users add their party to their reservation.
  • (# of people making reservations with > 2 people and who add more than 2 people to the reservation)
  • # of people who were added to the reservation who end up booking on OpenTable after that reservation

Summary:

• After identifying some pain points of the diner experience post booking and looking at competitors in the market, I identified that adding a social utility to OpenTable would allow both for engagement and eventually user acquisition. Taking a look at broader metrics such as MAU, DAU and WAU we could see if our changes made an impact on KPIs. Diving deeper into the feature itself, it would be beneficial to track the # of people making reservations that are adding their party. If we want to track downstream effects on acquisition we could then see how many of those users that were added to the party later made a reservation on Open Table

1. Identify company mission and goal
   1. OpenTable is a restaurant booking app. Their goal is to make a seamless experience for customers to book a reservation at a restaurant and to help restaurants fill their seats.
2. Who are the customers/ users
   1. The customers using the app are individuals who are looking to make restaurant reservations. They enjoy going out to eat and try new restaurants. They are also looking to be efficient with their time and thus make reservations.
3. What are the problems they’re seeing
   1. This is a rough outline of the customer journey
      1. They want to find a restaurant
      2. They want to book the restaurant
      3. They want to be reminded of when the reservation will happen
      4. They want to go to the restaurant at the right date and time
      5. They want to have a great experience
      6. Find other restaurants later
   2. Focusing on after the booking experience, we can say that the main issues are
      1. Being reminded of when the reservation will happen
      2. Having a great experience at the restaurant
      3. Finding new restaurants later
4. Identify Solutions 3. Improving the experience at the restaurant 1. OpenTable special entree only for repeat OpenTable guests 2. Discount after a certain number of reservations 3. Free appetizer after a number of reservations or visits to the restaurant 4. Find new restaurants later 1. Based on their OpenTable review, it can suggest new restaurants for the customers 5. Reminders of the reservation 1. Give instructions on how to go to the restaurant from their home or workplace 2. Give timely reminder (1 or 2 hours before the reservation) 3. Provide food recommendations or show reviews to get customers excited about the restaurant
5. Prioritizing and picking a solution 6. We want to focus on a solution that is lower impact and will have a high customer delight. We also want a solution that will keep OpenTable top of mind for the customer when they think of not just reservations but the entire experience. 7. I would recommend focusing on improving the experience before and up to the reservation
6. Identify metrics
   1. # of times people click on the instructions to the restaurant
   2. % of users that open the text / email reminders
   3. NPS of OpenTable experience
7. Evaluate
   1. Reviewing this exercise, we want to continue to identify methods to improve the customer experience into a delightful one both for the restaurant and for OpenTable
   2. In addition, we want to tie the solution to the mission of the company, and how by improving the experience, we will create repeat users and help customers come back to OpenTable and continue to fill seats at restaurants.

Sounds like interesting problem! First I’d like to clarify a few things….

1. Clarify/Find Constraints.
   1. WHO – who are we improving the post-booking experience for? restaurant visitors? or restaurant staff who view reservations? new vs existing users?
   2. WHAT – what do we mean by improve? is there a specific metric we’re looking to improve upon (user experience? increasing show-up rate? booking a second time? etc.?) confirm process/JTBD – are we referring to the standard OpenTable platform where a user searches for restaurants, chooses an available date/time, adds information about their dining party, and books? and is the “post-booking” experience the experience including the time leading up to the reservation and completing the res? does it include the time after the reservation ends?
   3. WHEN – during what period of time are trying to improve this experience? short term i.e. over the next month or quarter? or long-term? has there been a dip?
   4. WHERE – is there a specific region we want to focus on? is there a specific device/platform we want to focus on? and we’re talking about the core OT app as is?
   5. WHY – is there a reason we want to do this? do we have a stated goal or any feedback from users indicating this is an issue?

Clarified statement: I’m going to make an assumption that we’re talking about improving the “post-booking” experience for restaurant visitors in the US who have made a booking in the last week via the mobile app.

Check in: does this sound like a good place to start?

Can I have a couple minutes to jot down some notes?

1. Set Plan
   1. The mission/vision of Open Table is to “Find a Table for any occasion.” The product emphasizes last-minute or real-time readiness as well as making it easier to plan a fancy reservation mos in advance…
   2. The second thing I want to do is view improvement through the lens of competition with a site like Resy. I believe the interface on both are similar and the post-booking experience offers things like text reminders, sending a link of the reservation to your friends/family, pre-emptively giving directions etc. , getting points for booking the table or getting to the res with a ride share company , all of which affect the post booking experience.
   3. Next I want to analyze the customer: 3 types
      1. Last minute booker vs Pre-planner
         1. Motivated by…searching for….pain points are…
      2. Date Night Booker vs large group i.e. Birthday Party Planner
         1. Motivated by…searching for….pain points are…
      3. Major foodie vs casual eater
         1. Motivated by….searching for…pain points are…

Check in: Is there a customer type you’d like me to prioritize?

I’m going to prioritize the last minute vs pre-planner.

1. The last minute booker is motivated by expediency & convenience. As such they are likely booking 1-2 hours before they are supposed to show up. Since they’re booking last minute, they may be emotionally less attached to keeping the res & more likely to follow whims -> therefore cancel last minute.
   1. Some solutions might be:
      1. Offering a solution to preschedule/book a ride to ensure the booker shows up.
      2. Let them preview the menu so they’re excited to show up.
      3. Offer a special incentive i.e. (welcome drink) or surge points
2. The pre-planner is motivated by curating a good experience. They are probably a repeat booker, very proactive in planning, detail oriented. They may have more than 1 booking at various restaurants, letting their friends weigh in months in advance. They are likely to care a lot about special menus, the chef, read reviews, etc. This person needs to feel special. 2. Some solutions might be: 1. Custom text messages from the host & chef welcoming the guest so they feel special 2. Reveal chef special 24 hours before so this user has “exclusive access” 3. Since this is a group res, make sure there’s an easy way to incentivize the whole group to show up. Points, additional confirmations, etc.

Check in: What do you think about these solutions?

Finish up with….

• Designing a test
• Discussing success metrics/KPIs
• Discussing Risks/Tradeoffs