A diner with 8+ recorded covers is not a guest — they are an asset. They bring friends. They eat dessert. They tip 25%. The VIP Table Flow automation watches every contact’s visit count, auto-applies the VIP tag the moment the threshold is crossed, pings the GM the next time the VIP books, and fires a retention-protect alert the moment that VIP goes silent for 30 days.
What it ships with
- GHL workflows:
VIP – Auto-Tag,VIP – Chef's Table Invite,VIP – GM Notify on Booking,VIP – Comp Tracking,VIP – Retention Protect - Custom fields:
vip_tier,vip_tagged_at,vip_visit_count,vip_lifetime_spend,vip_last_visit_at,vip_comp_total,chef_table_invited_at - Pre-built SMS and email templates: chef’s table invite, GM alert, retention alert
- Dashboard view for the GM: “VIPs sat tonight,” “VIPs going silent,” “VIP comp running”
- POS comp-tracking integration: every VIP comp posted at the POS rolls up to the contact
The flow (step-by-step)
1. Auto-tag at threshold
Every check close updates vip_visit_count. When the field hits 8, vip_tier flips to vip and vip_tagged_at stamps. No manual host-stand work.
2. Chef’s table invitation
Within 24 hours of VIP tagging, the diner gets a one-time SMS: “[first_name], we noticed you’ve made us your spot. We’d love to put you on the chef’s table list for our next tasting menu. Interested?” Diners who reply YES enter the chef’s table waitlist segment.
3. GM notify on booking
The next time the VIP makes a reservation through any channel — phone, web, OpenTable, Resy, Tock — the GM gets an SMS + Slack alert with the booking details, the diner’s seating preference, last allergen notes, and vip_comp_total so the GM knows the relationship history before the diner walks in.
4. Service touchpoints
On the night of the reservation, the FOH lead sees the VIP tag on the floor plan. Standard moves: pre-set water with a lemon if noted, walk the server through allergens, send a comp amuse if the kitchen has bandwidth. The GM stops by the table. None of this is automated — but the data that makes it possible is.
5. Comp tracking
Every comp (amuse, dessert, glass of wine, full apology) posted against the VIP at the POS flows into vip_comp_total. The GM sees the running tab — useful when deciding whether tonight’s comp is a routine touch or a generosity that’s getting taken advantage of.
6. Retention-protect alert
If vip_last_visit_at crosses 30 days, the GM gets a quiet ping: “VIP [name] hasn’t been in for 30 days.” This is intentionally separate from the Win-Back sequence — for a VIP, the GM should pick up the phone, not let the automation handle it.
What you can expect
Operators typically see VIP retention rates climb materially once GMs have a clean retention-protect alert — these diners are roughly 4-7x more valuable than the average contact and noticed personally being the difference between a loyal regular and a defector. Chef’s-table invitation conversion runs 35-55%, which fills tasting-menu nights that used to require manual GM outreach. Comp tracking gives operators a real number on what hospitality costs against what loyalty produces, which makes the math defendable when the bookkeeper asks.
Setup & customization
Pre-built: the auto-tag threshold, all five workflows, the dashboard, the chef’s table invite logic, and the comp-tracking sync.
What you tweak in 10 minutes: the visit-count threshold (8 default; fine-dining concepts often run 5, casual concepts 12+), the chef’s table invite copy, the GM phone numbers, the retention-protect timer (30 days default), and which staff get the on-night floor-plan notification.
Compliance notes
VIP SMS messages run on the same 10DLC-registered marketing campaign as the rest of the snapshot. Chef’s-table invites are technically marketing (offering a future experience) and carry STOP language; GM-alert pings are internal-only (staff phones, not diner phones) and do not require diner-side consent. Comp tracking is internal accounting data — no diner-facing notification, no compliance surface. Retention-protect alerts are also internal-only. The VIP tag itself lives on the contact record and is portable if the operator ever moves off GHL — diners’ relationship history is the restaurant’s data, not a vendor’s.
Protect the diners who pay your rent. Install the Restaurant Snapshot for $997 full or $997 lite, 30-day money-back guarantee. Buy now or book a walkthrough to see the VIP flow running on a live floor plan.