What this helps you do
Sending a Blast delivers your message to the phones and computers of everyone in the audience you pick, and by email to the guests who chose email. You can send now, schedule for later, or repeat weekly. The composer supports formatting, links and images (a photo of the dish), up to three attached files (a menu PDF), a YES / NO reply the Hub counts, and Send a test to me so you see exactly what guests will receive.
When to use it
Use it for the messages a guest is glad to get: an unexpected or weather closure, a change of hours, a private-event closure, a reservation change you need to tell a group about, tonight's entertainment, a special event, a sold-out or limited-seat update, a wait-list opportunity when seats open, last-minute availability when a large party cancels, holiday hours and pre-order deadlines, and, among all of that, an honest offer on a slow night.
How to do it
- Open Send, or start from one of the starter templates your Hub seeds for specials, open tables, events, hours changes and thank-yous.
- Pick an audience: your regulars, VIP, the events list, private dining, or All Guests.
- Type the message and add a photo of the dish. Attach the menu if it helps (up to three files, 5 MB each).
- For a tasting with limited seats, ask for a YES / NO reply and the Hub counts the answers.
- Read the Delivery panel: one Blasts credit per guest on Blasts, one email credit per email.
- Click Send a test to me, then choose Send now, Schedule for later, or Repeat weekly for a specials note.
- If you are sending to All Guests, confirm with your passkey or on your phone when asked.
Example
A water main breaks at 3 p.m. and the kitchen is down for the night. The manager picks All Guests, says the restaurant is closed tonight, that anyone with a booking will hear from the host directly, and that tomorrow is on as normal, and clicks Send now. Two hours later a party of forty cancels for Saturday, so the same manager offers those tables to the regulars audience and fills half of them from replies.
Good to know
- An immediate send is held for about a minute so you can cancel it from Sent & Scheduled; nothing is charged for a cancelled Blast.
- Delivered and read counts come from confirmed actions in the Blasts app, not from open pixels, so you know who actually saw tonight's notice. A read is not an acknowledgement: ask for a YES / NO reply when you need one.
- Recurring Blasts, such as a weekly specials note, are managed under Sent & Scheduled: pause, resume or delete them there.
- If a manager's Blasts require approval (Settings), their send waits under Sent & Scheduled until an administrator approves it.
- The Hub suggests the hour your Blasts are read most, based on the last 60 days.