The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

Table Maestro, a personalized answering service and remote booking service for the restaurant industry, is going national this week — offering their services across the United States. I'm not quite sure what the differences are between Table Maestro and Open Table, but they claim to be the only ones doing what they're doing. (Isn't that just the way it goes?)

Here's the press release:

Charleston, S.C. - Table Maestro, the country's only business to provide personalized answering and reservation services to the fine dining industry will begin this week to offer its services nationally.

Beginning this week, Table Maestro will begin accepting new client requests from restaurants throughout the continental U.S., adding to its portfolio of some 20 restaurants on the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic. The company marks the first to offer restaurants a reliable way to increase revenues by outsourcing the burdensome process of taking and confirming reservations, while offering valuable customer interaction at the same time.

Table Maestro - which launched in 2006 to revive the bygone days of the restaurant maître d - serves as an alternative to the traditional hostess by answering incoming calls, making and confirming reservations, managing customer databases, and maximizing table turnover. The company offers restaurants all the advantages of an in house staff at less than the cost of minimum wage, providing a way to increase the bottom line while taking customer service to new heights.

"The call for reservations is the first point of contact for restaurants, but so many of them are either missing the opportunity for bookings or are relying on web-based services that don't provide personalized customer assistance," said founder and CEO Alicia Aloe. "Table Maestro offers a cost-effective way for restaurants to make sure each call is greeted within two rings by a friendly voice and with superior service."

With 12 years of experience in the restaurant industry, Aloe created Table Maestro after noticing how many fine dining establishments lose revenue when no one's available to answer phones.

When a call goes unanswered, studies show that 65 percent of diners won't leave a message for a reservation. At the same time, the average reservation includes three people. Together, these statistics mean that answering just five additional calls a day during off-peak times could capture as many as 24 potential clients who would otherwise have hung up.

Since launching operations at the age of 26, Aloe has remained committed to the belief that restaurants can return to an era of personalized hospitality while still meeting today's mass needs. Her mission has helped grow Table Maestro's business by 1000 percent in just two years.