Empty Tables Tonight? Fill Them Fast with One Text.
The Done-With-You SMS System for restaurant and bar owners. We write your campaigns together, handle carrier compliance, you hit send. Start seeing results fast.
- We write your campaigns + handle A2P compliance (you do nothing)
- Fill slow Tuesday nights, boost happy hour traffic, pack your events
- 98% industry avg open rate* (your emails? ~20% on a good day)
The Restaurant Marketing Problem Nobody Talks About
You spent years perfecting your menu. You hired great staff. Your regulars love you. But here's what keeps you up at night:
The Slow Night Death Spiral
Tuesday through Thursday, your dining room is half-empty. You're paying the same rent, same utilities, same labor costs. But instead of 200 covers, you're doing 80. Every empty table is $75-$150 walking out the door. You've tried Instagram posts. You've tried Facebook ads. You've tried Groupon (and hated the customers it brought). Nothing fills those seats consistently.
Email is Dead (And You Know It)
Your email list of 3,000 customers? Only 600 opened your last 'Happy Hour Special' email. And of those 600, maybe 15 actually showed up. That's a 0.5% conversion rate. For an email that took you 2 hours to write.
Events Nobody Knows About
You booked an amazing jazz trio for Friday night. You put it on your website. You posted on social media. Attendance? 12 people. Your regular Friday crowd, minus a few who stayed home because they thought it would be 'too crowded.' You spent $800 on the band. Made $900 in sales. After food cost and labor? You lost money on an 'event.'
Regulars Who Disappeared
Remember Mike and Sarah? Used to come every Saturday for three years. Then they stopped. You don't know why. They didn't complain. They just vanished. You have 200 customers like Mike and Sarah. People who loved your restaurant, then drifted away. You have no way to reach them that actually works.
Every month you operate at 60% capacity instead of 85%, you're leaving $15,000-$40,000 on the table. That's $180,000-$480,000 per year in revenue you'll never see. Your competitors who figure out how to fill slow nights? They're hiring your best servers.
What If 98% of Your Customers Actually SAW Your Messages?
Your customers aren't ignoring you because your offers are bad. They're ignoring you because they never SEE your messages. Email open rate: 20%. SMS open rate: 98%. Same message. Same offer. 20X more people actually see it.
Slow Night Filler
Turn your slowest night into a predictable revenue stream
[Your Restaurant Name] Tuesday just got interesting. Chef's testing 3 new dishes for the spring menu. First 30 guests tonight get to vote on which ones make the cut. Plus: $5 glasses of the wine we're pairing. Reply STOP to opt out
Event Promoter
Pack your events with actual attendees (not just Instagram likes)
[Your Restaurant Name] Live jazz Friday 8pm. Full band. No cover. Last month we hit capacity by 8:30. Reserve a table: [link] Reply STOP to opt out
Win-Back Campaign
Bring back the regulars who disappeared
[Your Restaurant Name] Hey [First Name], It's been a while. We just added craft cocktails to happy hour (finally). Your usual table is waiting. This week: first round on us. Reply STOP to opt out
The Numbers Don't Lie
Before SMS Marketing
- ✗Monday email: 'Happy Hour Special This Week!'
- ✗3,000 subscribers, 600 opens, 18 clicks, 3 walk-ins
- ✗Time spent: 2 hours writing + designing
- ✗Result: $225 in sales, barely covered the effort
After SMS Marketing
- ✓Monday text: 'Happy hour starts in 2 hours. First 20 customers: apps half off.'
- ✓1,000 subscribers, 980 reads, 147 responses, 42 walk-ins
- ✓Time spent: 30 seconds to hit send (we wrote the campaign)
- ✓Result: $3,150 in sales from a single text
Hermes cost: our monthly rate. Revenue from ONE campaign: $3,150.
Monthly ROI: 21X return on investment
From Sign-Up to Full Tables in 4 Simple Steps
Account setup happens during your onboarding call. A2P carrier verification takes 2-3 weeks (required by carriers, we handle it for you). You'll be ready to send within 3-4 weeks of signing up.
Strategy Call (60 Minutes)
We get on a call and learn your restaurant. Your slow nights. Your events. Your customer base. Your goals. This isn't a sales call—it's a working session where we map out your SMS strategy.
We Import & Organize Your Contacts
Send us your customer list (from your POS, reservation system, or wherever you have it). We handle the import, clean duplicates, and organize by last visit date, visit frequency, and preferences.
We Write Your First 3 Campaigns
Based on our strategy call, we write your Slow Night Filler, Event Promoter, and Win-Back campaigns. You review, approve, and we're ready to send.
You Hit Send, Tables Fill Up
When you're ready, log into Hermes (takes 30 seconds to learn). Select the campaign. Hit send. Then watch your phone light up with reservation requests.
The 90-Day Restaurant & Bar Growth Accelerator
Everything you need to launch SMS marketing—set up for you, written for you, ready to send.
What You Get:
Questions Restaurant Owners Ask Before Signing Up
How is this different from Mailchimp or Constant Contact?
Those are email tools. Email has a 20% open rate that drops 3% every year. SMS has a 98% open rate and 45% response rate. Your customers don't check email at 5pm wondering where to eat. They check their phones. Plus, we write your campaigns WITH you. Mailchimp gives you a blank screen and says 'good luck.'
I tried SMS marketing before and it didn't work. Why would this be different?
Most restaurant owners who try SMS fail for 3 reasons: (1) They don't know what to write (we write it with you), (2) They blast everyone with the same generic message (we help you segment), (3) They give up after 2 campaigns (we give you 90 days and a strategy). The platform isn't the problem. The strategy is. That's why we include the strategy call and done-with-you campaigns.
How long does it take to see results?
SMS is fast. You send at 4pm, customers can walk in at 7pm. The setup takes about 3 weeks (mostly waiting for carrier verification, which is required by law). But once you're live, results come quickly. Most owners see measurable engagement within their first few campaigns.
What if my customers don't want to receive texts?
This is actually a feature, not a bug. People who opt in to your SMS list WANT to hear from you. They're your most engaged customers. Unlike email where people sign up for a discount and ignore you forever, SMS subscribers are actively choosing to receive your messages. Quality over quantity.
Is this legal? I've heard about SMS compliance issues.
Great question. SMS marketing is heavily regulated, and most restaurants get it wrong. We handle all the compliance for you: A2P 10DLC registration (required by carriers since 2021), TCPA compliance (the federal law governing text messages), opt-out management (every message includes 'Reply STOP to opt out'), and consent tracking. If you try to do SMS yourself without proper registration, your messages get blocked or filtered. We make sure you're fully compliant so your messages actually deliver.
What happens after the 90 days?
You choose: Option A: Continue for our monthly rate with 3,000 messages included. Cancel anytime, no contracts. Option B: Cancel with zero obligation. Keep the campaigns we wrote. Keep your contact list. No hard feelings. Most restaurants continue because the ROI is obvious. But there's zero pressure.
Stop Watching Empty Tables. Start Filling Them.
Every day you wait, another slow night passes. Another event undersells. Another regular forgets about you. SMS changes the math. 98% open rates. Responses within minutes. Customers who actually see your messages. We write your campaigns. We handle the compliance. You click send.