## WHAT RESTAURANT CRM ACTUALLY MEANSThe term covers two different products and buyers regularly end up with the wrong one.

Marketing CRM exists to bring guests back: segmentation, campaigns, automated email and text, loyalty, attribution. It is measured in revenue generated from people who were not coming in tonight.

Service CRM exists to look after the guests who are already booked: who they are, what they cannot eat, what they are celebrating, where they like to sit, what happened last time. It is measured at the table.

Fork Time is the second one. Every guest record is built to be useful in the ninety seconds before a party reaches the host stand, and it updates from every channel automatically because the conversations and the bookings run in the same system.

If your next dollar comes from campaigns and segmentation rather than from recognising the people already walking in, you want a marketing platform, and SevenRooms is the stronger tool for it. We would rather say that than sell you something narrower than what you need.

Is Fork Time a restaurant CRM?

It holds a full guest record: name, contact, visit history, dietary needs, allergies, occasions, seating preferences and notes, updated from every channel. It is built for service rather than marketing, so it does not run segmented campaigns or loyalty programmes.

How is this different from a marketing CRM?

A marketing CRM is measured by the guests it brings back. Fork Time's guest records are measured at the table, by whether your team knows who is arriving and what they need before the party reaches the stand.

Does the guest record include guests who did not book?

Yes. Walk-ins, waitlist guests and anyone who called or messaged all attach to a guest record.