Places to put your assistant besides your website

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A restaurant reaches more people through a code on the table, its Google listing and its Instagram bio than through its website. None of those need code, a plan upgrade or a web designer, which makes them both easier and busier than the thing everybody assumes is the main event.

First: what should the link open?

Everything below is one link. In your dashboard, open SMART Voice → Put your assistant to work → Everywhere else and choose once what that link opens. Every QR code and copy button on that screen then uses it.

• A page we host for you. A real web address that opens straight into a conversation, with nothing else on the page competing for attention. This is the answer if your website cannot take code, and it is the better answer for a poster or an ad even when it can.
• Your own website, but only once the widget is actually on that page. Otherwise somebody scanning your table tent lands on an ordinary page with nothing to talk to.

A QR code on the table

The highest-traffic surface a restaurant owns. Every seated guest looks at the table. Your dashboard prints a ready-made table tent, or gives you the code as an image to hand to whoever prints your menus.

• Print it at least three quarters of an inch across for a table, bigger for a window or a poster.
• Keep the white border. Cropping to the black edge is the single most common reason a printed code will not scan.
• Scan it with your own phone before you print a hundred of them.
• The same image works on a menu, a window, a flyer, a delivery bag, a business card or a van.

Your Google listing

For most local businesses, more people see the Google listing than the website. Search for your own business while signed in to the account that manages it, click Edit profile, and add the link under Bookings or Appointments. That is the one that shows as a button. You can also put it in a Post, which is worth doing for a promotion.

Your guest Wi-Fi sign-in page

Every guest who connects to your Wi-Fi sees one screen, and almost nobody uses it for anything. Whoever manages your guest network - usually a UniFi, Meraki or Omada controller, or a page in your internet provider's business portal - has a setting for where people land after they sign in. Point it at your link and test it with your own phone.

The link in your bio

Instagram, TikTok and Facebook give you exactly one clickable link, and most businesses point it at a homepage. Pointing it at a conversation converts better because there is nothing else on the page to do. Separately, your Facebook page has a big button under the cover photo - click it, choose Edit button, and point it at the same link.

Your email signature and your out-of-office reply

Every email you already send becomes a way to reach the assistant, and it costs one line. Your dashboard gives you the wording to paste. Do it on your phone's mail app too, which usually keeps a separate signature. The same line belongs in your out-of-office reply: somebody who emails at 9pm can get an answer now instead of tomorrow.

A tablet at the host stand

An old iPad in a stand is enough for a waiting area, a counter or a lobby. Open the link, add it to the home screen so it opens without the address bar, turn on Guided Access on an iPad or Screen Pinning on Android so a guest cannot wander off, turn off auto-lock and leave it plugged in. Put it somewhere the room is not too loud.

How do I know which one worked?

Every link your dashboard gives you carries a tag saying where it came from, so the table tent, the Google listing and the Instagram bio show up separately in your page's numbers. You do not have to do anything to make that happen. It is the difference between "we get some enquiries" and "the table tents are earning".

Things we would not do

• Reading a web address out in your voicemail greeting. Somebody who called you is already on the phone. If that line goes to voicemail after hours, the better fix is to let the assistant answer the phone.
• Texting the link to people who did not contact you first. The rules on that are strict and the fines are real. Use it as a reply, not a broadcast.