ONE INBOX
Every guest conversation in one place, wherever it started.
One Inbox is Fork Time's single view of every guest conversation across phone, email, SMS, WhatsApp and web chat, so a restaurant checks one place instead of five. Each enquiry appears in one stream, linked to the guest, tagged with the channel it arrived on, and marked with what has already been handled. Fork Time answers what your approved menu and restaurant knowledge cover, books directly into your reservation book, and flags anything that needs a decision from your team with the conversation attached. Resolved conversations are marked done. Open ones carry their next step. Each morning opens with last night's recap: covers, no-shows, refills, and anything still waiting on a reply. Nothing sits unread in a channel nobody checked during service, and nothing needs five separate apps to find. One Inbox is included on every Fork Time plan.
Medusa Italian Osteria RomanaFRONT OF HOUSECould you move my booking to 7:45 and keep the allergy notes on the table?
Absolutely, Abeer. Your table is now booked for 7:45 PM and the kitchen can see all three dietary notes.
Phone call 2m 58s12:42 PM · 34 turns
ReadINVERSE ATTENTION
Guest enquiries arrive in five places, and most arrive during service when nobody is watching any of them. The phone rings through. The function email sits behind supplier invoices. The WhatsApp message is seen at eleven at night.
There is a pattern underneath that nobody has named. Call it inverse attention: the value of a guest enquiry is inversely correlated with the attention its channel receives. The largest enquiries, functions and catering, arrive by email, the channel checked least often. The smallest, opening hours and parking, arrive by phone and interrupt service immediately.
The failure is not effort. No one can watch five inboxes and run a floor at the same time.
HOW IT WORKS
Every channel feeds the same stream. When a message arrives, Fork Time answers what your approved knowledge covers, checks live availability, and books, changes or cancels alongside every other channel. When a conversation needs your judgement, it is flagged with the context and the decision it needs, and your reply is one word.
Each conversation shows its source channel, so you know the catering enquiry came by email and the anniversary request came by WhatsApp. Each is linked to the guest record: visit count, dietary needs, history. When your team picks up a handover, the whole thread is already there.
WHAT CHANGES DAY TO DAY
Where most restaurants check a phone, an email account, a WhatsApp Business app and a website widget separately, Fork Time gives the team one place to look and marks what is done. The morning check takes a minute: resolved conversations are closed, open ones carry their next step, and last night's recap sits at the top.
BEST FOR
Full-service restaurants taking enquiries across three or more channels. Venues where function and catering enquiries arrive by email and die there. Teams where the person who saw the message and the person who can answer it are different people.
NOT DESIGNED FOR
One Inbox manages conversations guests start. It is not a marketing broadcast tool, and a venue looking to run campaigns should keep using whatever sends those.
A venue that takes almost everything by phone and gets few messages will also see less from it than the description suggests. The value comes from consolidation, and consolidating one channel is not consolidation.