TL;DR: Chits are guest-profile tickets that print automatically at your host stand the moment a table is seated — table number, time, party size, and every tag that matters (VIP, allergies, occasion, seating preference). Your front of house walks up already knowing the guest. No new hardware: Chits run on the Epson receipt printers most restaurants already have.
1. The Problem: Front of House Walks In Blind
The kitchen has a ticket for every dish. The floor has nothing.
Servers and hosts are expected to remember which table has a shellfish allergy, which guest is a regular celebrating an anniversary, and which VIP prefers the quiet corner — all from a POS screen they don't have time to check mid-service. When that memory fails, the cost isn't small:
| Risk | Silent Front-of-House | With a Chit at the Table |
|---|---|---|
| Allergy incidents | Depends on staff recall | Printed warning, impossible to miss |
| Regulars treated like walk-ins | Common | Recognized on arrival |
| Table turn prep time | Reactive, mid-seating | Ready before the guest sits |
| Upsell relevance (birthdays, anniversaries) | Rarely surfaced | Flagged on the ticket |
2. What a Chit Actually Is
A Chit is a guest-profile ticket — a small printed card, generated automatically from your Bistrochat reservation data, that gives your host or server everything they need to know about a table in a five-second glance.
Each Chit includes:
- Time, table, and party size — so the right table is set before the guest arrives
- Guest name — recognize them by name at the door, not just a booking number
- Tags — VIP, regular, birthday, anniversary, red wine or seafood preference, quiet-table request, and more, pulled straight from the guest's Bistrochat profile
- Allergy and dietary warnings — printed in bold at the bottom, so a "No Dairy" or "Gluten Free" note is the last thing staff see before they approach the table
3. How It Works
Chits print themselves. There's no extra step for your team:
- A reservation is confirmed or a guest is seated in Bistrochat.
- Bistrochat pulls that guest's profile — visit history, preferences, allergies, tags — from your CRM.
- A Chit prints automatically at the host stand on your existing Epson printer, moments before the table needs it.
No new hardware, no new habits for your staff to learn — just a printer that was already sitting at the host stand, now doing more work for you.
4. Why It Matters
Personalized service is the single biggest lever restaurants have for repeat visits and better reviews — but only if the person seating the table actually knows who they're seating. Chits close that gap at the exact moment it matters: the walk-up, before the first hello.
They also close a safety gap. Allergy information buried in a POS note field gets missed under pressure. An allergy warning printed on a physical ticket, handed directly to the server, does not.
5. Getting Started
Chits are built into Bistrochat and compatible with the Epson printers most venues already use at the host stand — no additional hardware purchase required. If your front of house is still working from memory, it's time to give them a ticket too.
Ask your Bistrochat contact to turn on Chits for your restaurant.
