Unexpected surprises: How OpenTable uses Pendo guides

Taylor Dodds is a product manager and a self-proclaimed “open seat filler” at online restaurant reservation leader OpenTable.

The company originally purchased Pendo to help onboard their users. They were looking to provide a “white glove” onboarding experience for their elite restaurants—but at scale. As a bonus, they discovered they could also use Pendo to position themselves as a marketing tool.

Restaurants need help attracting patrons for mid-day seatings during the week. OpenTable’s marketing features help restaurants fill those less popular times. The company set up guides, Pendo’s in-app messaging feature, to notify specific restaurants of OpenTable’s new capability, resulting in a 25x increase in engagement.

Looking ahead, OpenTable plans on expanding their Pendo usage by implementing new marketing campaigns, rolling out a low-to-no touch onboarding system to all their users, and creating a guide center to reduce support calls.