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I would predict about one year to 18 months to get to 3000 restaurants - but then we were never told that was the target as that was just the figure that Tom and his telesales team had achieved for Table Now.

Taking off the 17 that have delisted that make 51 new additions for the week of which 52 were Wildwood and dim T. Telesales figures for the week are -1 (minus 1).

Roughly +16 for the day and -16 though the overall figure seems to have grown by 1 to 394 which are spread over 89 locations.

68 added for the week of which 52 are Wildwood and dim T

I would say exactly the opposite. The TM's, who are gone now so it doesn't matter, signed a very good selection of British and round the world restaurants. Telesales though seems to be signing anything they can get their hands on with a predominance of Indian restaurants, very few British and a lot of joke tea-shops.

Manchester - telesales - 19 total with 10 Indian and 1 British (which is the "Most Booked" by the way) and 0 Italian.
Sheffield - telesales - 8 total with 3 Indian and 1 British
York - telesales - 4 total with 3 Indian plus a Wildwood

Brighton - TM's - total 39 with 20 British and 1 Indian and 4 Italian.
Birmingham - mainly TM's - 47 total with 7 British and 9 Indian and 6 Italian.

It's far too early to judge as Manchester is the only sizeable location the telesales have added as London is half TM's and half telesales but logic says that you are going to get much better quality of restaurants sign face-to-face rather than on the phone.

Telesales is putting quantity before quality.

Not sure how many hade been added today but overall it won't be many as 16 restaurants left yesterday.

Bournemouth - 6, Birmingham - 4, Brighton -2, Bristol -1. Bath -1, Exeter -1, Southampton -1.

It's easy to see which ones want to leave. They have "No seats Available" even today.

Lesson 1: don't phone them or speak to them and they will stay on board for now.

Lesson 2: Bring in a bigger range of lower discounts and they they will be happy to offer seats again. Big Dish can charge a higher booking fee for the lower discounts.

Or just be a big-headed slob and let them go.

Aidan ultimately makes the decisions here and he's the one who has much to learn. If a restaurant wants to delist then Big Dish should speak to them and find out why. 99.9% will want to go because the discounts are too high. Big Dish should then have man to man chat and find out what discounts they are happy to give and facilitate some lower discounts. And obviously charge a higher booking fee. They cannot afford to let them go

To reiterate the point the tech team is adding the Wildwood chain and that is nothing to do with the telesales team. Meanwhile they haven't added any new restaurants for 2 days. So have they been on "account management" duties? Someone high up in this company needs to think back to the last time they did account management here - it was a f*cking disaster.

I always fear the worst.

I can just imagine Aidan phones Tom and says "We have the Wildwood chain coming onboard over the next few days" and Tom says "Okay, shall we keep signing up" and Aidan says "Oh no, give it a rest for a few days. Do some account management instead. Ask them how much they are loving the Big Dish platform" and so Tom goes and does that and they start delisting.

Maybe he never realized that last time they did any "account management" they lost 50 out of 150 restaurants.

Big Dish is not such a "hot ticket" yet. There is a long way to go before that. In the meantime, it is best to leave well alone.

I don't think they'd be delisting all on the same day if someone wasn't meddling and phoning them asking them how they are getting on with Big Dish. They just don't need to do that at this stage - or any stage for that matter.

First rule of sales - if you've got a sale in the bag then shut up and disappear. Don't risk losing it.

Restaurants delisting looks ominous. I've noticed they haven't signed any restaurants for the last couple of days while Wildwoods have been loading on. I hope some idiot hasn't had them doing any "account management" as last time they stopped signing to do this was a total disaster and cost the company 1//3rd of all their restaurants.

They don't need to ask the restaurants how they are getting on with the platform - leave well alone.

The telesales shouldn't stop for anything - just keep signing.

No-one around for any sensible discussion. I wouldn't expect there to be. I am not being rude, as someone tried to insinuate a few days ago, but it would help to get the locations done properly and professionally.

I am pretty good at geography but if someone asked me to name three towns or cities in the Philippines I would say Manilla, Manila and Mannila. One of those is definitely correct. If asked to name any more I could not.

I am not faulting anyone. I am just saying that someone who does know UK geography should be assisting the team so this is done correctly and professionally. This really does count both in terms of keeping the restaurant owners happy as well as the customers.

Sorry the London line was meant to be added to the bottom.

Sometimes I wish we could edit our posts on this website.

The Manila team could learn a lot by looking at the Open Table website.

Counties such as Kent and Essex and Surrey work very well just as counties.

London has 5816 today, out of a possible 11875.

For example Kent has 614 restaurants on today but spread over 56 locations with the largest being Canterbury with 58 and Maidstone with 50.

Surrey has 51 locations with Guildford the biggest at 37.

Manchester has 487 of which 337 are in Manchester and the rest in surrounding towns with 34 in Stockport and 29 in Bolton.

The Manila team could learn a lot by looking at the

Late

In future you should speak for yourself please.

Oh yes, I forgot that.

I find the App location listing is excellent and as good as any competitors.

As far as websites are concerned, I find that Open Table has the best by miles. If you go to the home webpage and click on the down pointer that is just to the right of the logo it brings up a location list - cities and counties - and then whichever you click on gives the region within the location. That is brilliant and also gives the number of restaurants in each location.

Obviously later, when the whole country is covered, the search will be done automatically to find the nearest or by postcode but for now that is pointless as the nearest restaurant maybe 100 miles away or more.

However

And here is another great idea, if someone would be so kind as to pass it on to management - give Wildwood it's very own location on the App/ website. So as well as the individual listings in the towns and cities, Wildwood can have a location link that opens and lists all of their restaurants.

And out of respect for them listing their chain first, give them the top location just above Aberdeen.

Great idea, though I say it myself. Will it happen? - only if someone would be so good as to suggest it. Thanks in advance.

It just happens that it might be the restaurant owners and managers go on the website to take a look at what other restaurants are signed up nearby or whatever and it certainly doesn't look very good to them to have the location list not working.

One down in Edinburgh by the looks of it - 4 earlier and now only 3.

It is actually very clever to do these in postcodes, as well as big cities which is usually the postcode anyway, as well as some by counties.

Kenilworth is Coventry, Dewsbury is Wakefield, Rushden is Northampton, Wantage is Oxford when it appears and it can go in with Thame which is Oxford too, Skipton is Bradford, etc, etc.

For goodness sake will someone email them, please.

You might want to suggest that they introduce a bigger range of discounts. This will allow Big Dish to charge a higher booking fee. This is a no-lose situation. The smaller the discount the higher the booking fee.

Give the restaurant complete control over what discount to offer according to the time of day and day of week.