The restaurant customer database (CRM) that runs itself, included
TableNest is the Australian online booking platform with a full customer database (CRM) included on every plan, priced from $29 to $69 AUD per month, flat. Every plan includes 120 / 240 / 400 SMS confirmations by tier, the embeddable booking widget, a printable run sheet, and the customer CRM with one-click CSV import and export at no additional cost; the Business tier and up add Square POS integration and Xero invoicing. Visit counts, last-visit dates, birthday and anniversary dates, VIP flags, no-show counts, and your own free-text notes all build up on the customer record as bookings come in. The CRM is exportable as a CSV at any time, with no data lock-in. There are no per-cover commissions or contracts, and the 30-day free trial starts without a card. TableNest is Australian-built, operated by Fyrge Lab Pty Ltd. Replace a separate CRM subscription with one tool that builds the customer record as a side-effect of taking bookings.
What the customer database record contains
Every customer in TableNest has a single record that grows as bookings come in: name, email, mobile, business name, total bookings, last visit date, birthday and anniversary, a VIP flag with its own note explaining why, an automatic no-show count, and a free-text notes field the floor team uses for allergies, preferences and history. Nothing has to be entered twice — the record updates itself every time that guest books again.
VIP flags, no-show counts, and phone-only guests
Any customer can be flagged VIP, with a short note on why, so whoever is on the floor knows what to do about it rather than just seeing a star. The customer list sorts by most bookings, most recent visit, name or business name, filters down to VIPs only, and searches across name, email and phone. TableNest also counts no-shows on its own — and when a guest has earned it, you can restrict them to phone bookings only with the reason recorded against them. They stay in your book; they just can't take an online table any more.
Allergies and preferences: where they actually live
Two different things, and it is worth being precise about which is which. When a guest books online they can tick the allergies box and type into Dietaries / Requests — that travels with THAT booking, and the run sheet flags it so the kitchen sees it for that service. Separately, every customer has a free-text notes field on their record for the things that are permanently true of them: the coeliac diagnosis, the nut allergy, the fact they always want the corner table. The floor team fills that in once, or it arrives from your old system on import. TableNest does not guess one from the other, and there is no fixed dietary tick-list to fit your guests into.
Birthday and anniversary capture without asking awkwardly
You never have to ask. When a guest books, the Dietaries / Requests section lets them mark the booking as a birthday or an anniversary — and TableNest takes the date of that booking and remembers it against the customer for next year, recording whether the date was entered explicitly or inferred. Bookings made under a company name are skipped, so a work lunch never becomes somebody's birthday. The booking itself is flagged on the run sheet for the night, so the floor knows before the cake question comes up.
CSV export, no data lock-in
The customer list exports to CSV from the dashboard at any time, and it is the whole record, not a summary — name, email, phone, business name, VIP status and the VIP note, any booking restriction and the reason recorded against it, no-show count, total bookings, last visit, your free-text notes, date of birth, and the birthday and anniversary dates. Where a date was inferred from a booking rather than confirmed by the guest, the export says so in its own column, so an estimate never arrives in your mail-merge dressed up as a fact. The export follows whatever you have filtered and sorted on screen, so a VIP-only export is one filter and one click. There is no premium tier required to enable it, no row limit, and no "we'll email it to you within 24 hours" delay. The data is the venue's, and TableNest does not gate access to it.
What the CRM does and does not automate
It does run three automated campaigns off the customer database, all email, all off until you switch them on: a birthday email, an anniversary email, and a lapsed-guest email for regulars who have stopped coming in. You choose how many days ahead each one goes, you write the offer in your own words, and you set what counts as lapsed for your venue. What it does not do is general marketing automation — no drip sequences, no SMS campaigns, no lead scoring, and no native Mailchimp or Klaviyo integration; for those, the CSV export lands cleanly in any external tool. It also does not run loyalty programs or stamp-card rewards.
Common questions
Is there a separate CRM tier or fee?
No. The customer CRM is included on every TableNest plan — Starter at $29, Business at $49, and Pro at $69 AUD per month. There is no row limit on the customer list, no premium CRM tier, no per-customer surcharge, and no add-on subscription. The 30-day free trial includes the full CRM from day one, so the venue can import an existing customer list and explore the workflow before deciding whether to subscribe.
Can I import my existing customer list?
Yes. The customer-import workflow accepts a CSV with name, email, phone, total visits, last visit date, and free-text notes. Existing visit counts can be preserved on import, so a venue switching from another platform does not lose its loyalty history. The importer matches on email then phone to avoid creating duplicates if the same customer is already in TableNest. A single CSV can import thousands of customers in a few seconds.
Does the CRM track customer spend?
No, and that is a deliberate choice rather than a gap we are getting to. TableNest tracks how often a guest books and when they last came in, not what they spent. The booking platform never sees the at-table transaction value, and connecting Square does not change that — the Square integration keeps your customer contact details in sync between the two systems, it does not pull takings back onto the customer record. We looked at building it and decided against shipping it: a table sale only carries a guest's name if a staff member attached one at the terminal, so the figure would be blank or wrong for most of your regulars with nothing on the screen to tell you which. A spend number you cannot trust is worse than no spend number. If lifetime spend per guest is how you run your business, that lives in your POS reporting, and TableNest is not trying to replace it.
Can I delete a customer record on request (privacy)?
Yes. Customers can be archived (soft-delete, reversible) or fully anonymised (hard-delete, irreversible — APP 11 compliant). The hard-delete option removes personally identifiable information from the customer record and from every historical booking that customer appears on, while preserving the booking record itself for accounting and reporting purposes. Both options are available from the customer detail screen for the venue owner.
Are dietary preferences and allergies visible to the kitchen?
Yes, through the run sheet, and from two directions. When a guest books they can tick the allergies box and write into Dietaries / Requests; that note and an allergy marker appear against their booking on the printable run sheet, ordered by sitting time so the chef sees what is coming. Separately, the free-text note on the customer's own record — the coeliac diagnosis, the nut allergy, the things that are permanently true of them — prints on the run sheet too, labelled as a standing note, on every future booking they make. Enter it once and it keeps arriving in the kitchen without anyone having to remember. The kitchen does not log in to TableNest directly; the run sheet is printed at the start of service or emailed to a kitchen device.
Will the CRM still work if I cancel?
The CRM data belongs to the venue, not to TableNest. On cancellation, the full customer list can be exported as a CSV before the subscription ends. After cancellation, the data is retained for 90 days and is downloadable on request via support@tablenest.app, then permanently deleted. There is no fee to recover data during the retention window, and no contract clause that prevents export — the data was always exportable.
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