The complete guide · for restaurant owners
★★★★★

How Kudello works, start to finish

Everything from the moment you sign in, to what your guest sees after they leave, to how you see it and text them back — walked through screen by screen, exactly as it appears in the app.

You'll see two sides: 🟢 The owner app — what you run from your phone 🔵 The guest's screen — what your customer sees
Part 1

Getting set up

You start in practice mode — the whole app, loaded with pretend guests, where nothing is ever sent for real. Explore freely, then connect your systems when you're ready.

★★★★★
Kudello
Owner sign-in. Enter your email and we'll email you a magic link. No password to remember.
Email
you@yourrestaurant.com
Email me a sign-in link
Just exploring? See the whole app with sample data — no account needed.
View a live demo — no sign-in needed
🟢 Owner app · Step 1

Sign in — no password, ever

Kudello never asks you to invent and remember a password. You type your email, we text— no wait, we email — you a one-tap link, and you're in. That link is the whole login.

Just want to look around first? The “View a live demo” button drops you into a fully-loaded sample restaurant with zero setup. That's the mode this entire guide walks through.

kudello
Demo Bistro
PRACTICE MODE
Sign out
This is your demo restaurant 🍽️

Every guest, text, and booking here is pretend — poke anything, nothing sends. When you're ready to run the real thing:

Set up your restaurant
Good evening, Demo Bistro
Friday, July 24
Guests in your list
5
VIPs
2
Low ratings to rescue
0
Customers saved 🏆
0
Home 💬Inbox 👤Guests 📅Bookings ⚙️Settings
🟢 Owner app · Home

Your home screen — the whole business at a glance

The moment you open the app, you see the numbers that matter: how many guests are in your list, how many VIPs, any low ratings that need rescuing, and customers you've saved. Scroll down for review requests sent, Google review clicks, upcoming bookings, and win-backs.

The five buttons along the bottom are the whole app: Home, Inbox, Guests, Bookings, and Settings.

Everything reads “Demo Bistro / Practice Mode” until you connect your own restaurant — a safe sandbox to learn in.

Part 2

What your guest sees after they leave

This is the heart of Kudello. A short while after a guest's check closes, they get a friendly text from your number. One tap opens this — and the magic is where it sends them next.

DB
Demo Bistro
How was everything?
Tap a star — it takes two seconds and it means the world to a neighborhood restaurant.
👆 go on — tap a star
Guest feedback by Kudello
🔵 Guest screen · Try it yourself

“How was everything?” — tap the stars 👆

Your guest taps the link in their text (or scans the QR on the table) and lands here. Go ahead and tap the stars in the phone — watch where each rating sends them. That fork in the road is the whole magic of Kudello.

  • 4–5 stars → straight to Google, while the good feeling is fresh — a great night becomes a public review.
  • 1–3 stars → straight to you, privately, and you get a text the instant they submit — so you can make it right before it ever goes public. That's a “customer saved.”

You choose the cutoff — 3★, 4★, or 5★ — in Settings. One rule quietly protects your reputation every single night.

Book a table
Takes 20 seconds. We'll text your confirmation.
Your name
Mobile number
Guests
Time tonight
Anything we should know?
🔵 Guest screen · Reservations

Your own booking page

Kudello gives you a public booking link to put everywhere — your Instagram bio, Google listing, and website. Guests fill in four quick fields and get an instant text confirmation, plus an automatic reminder before the reservation.

It only offers times you're actually open (you set your hours in Settings), so you never get a booking for a closed Monday.

Part 3

What you see, and how you respond

Every reply, review, and rescue lands in one calm inbox on your phone. Here's how you read it and text back — in two taps, between tables.

kudello
Demo Bistro
PRACTICE MODE
Sign out
Inbox
Alice Reyes
Jul 15
Priya Patel
Jul 13
Omar Haddad
Jul 11
Home💬Inbox👤Guests📅Bookings⚙️Settings
🟢 Owner app · Inbox

One inbox for every guest text

When a guest replies to any Kudello text, it lands here — praise, questions, “can I move my booking,” everything. Unread messages carry a badge, so you always know what's waiting. Tap any name to open the full conversation.

kudello
Demo Bistro
PRACTICE MODE
Sign out
← Inbox
Alice Reyes VIP
Conversation
Loved the meal — thank you!
Jul 15
$84 lifetime · 2 visits
+1 718 555 0200
First seen Mar 17 · from Toast POS · last visit Jul 15
★ VIP — tap to remove 📅 Book a reservation Ask for feedback in 2 hours
Home💬Inbox👤Guests📅Bookings⚙️Settings
🟢 Owner app · Reply & act

Text back — and see who you're talking to

Open a conversation and you get the whole picture: the message, a reply box (“Reply as Demo Bistro…”), and the guest's card — lifetime spend, visit count, phone, where they came from (Toast POS), and last visit.

From right here you can:

  • Type a reply and hit Send — it texts them from your number
  • Tag or untag them as a VIP
  • Book a reservation for them on the spot
  • Schedule a follow-up: “Ask for feedback in 2 hours”
  • Add private Notes (allergies, favorite table, comps) the whole team sees
kudello
Demo Bistro
PRACTICE MODE
Sign out
Guests
AllVIPsRecentNo-textOpted out
Alice Reyes VIP
Marcus Chen
Priya Patel
Dana Fields
Omar Haddad VIP
Home💬Inbox👤Guests📅Bookings⚙️Settings
🟢 Owner app · Guests

Your guest list — every regular, remembered

Every guest who's ever come through your POS or booking page lives here, with visit count, lifetime spend, and last visit. Filter to VIPs, Recent, guests with No-text number, or those who Opted out.

Add a guest by hand, or bring your whole list in at once with Import CSV. VIPs are tagged automatically once a guest's lifetime spend crosses your threshold.

Part 4

The parts that run on their own

Some of Kudello's best work happens without you touching anything — quietly bringing back guests who drift away, and telling you every Monday what last week earned.

Demo Bistro
+1 718-555-0100
Marcus quiet 60 days · win-back sent automatically
We miss you at Demo Bistro, Marcus! It's been a while — come back this week and dessert is on us. Just show this text. 🍰
Aw, you got me! Table for 2 on Friday?
Done — booked you for Friday at 7. Save room for dessert.
🟢 Automatic · Win-back & promos

The 60-day “we miss you”

Kudello watches your POS. The moment a regular who used to come in twice a month goes quiet for 60 days, it sends them a warm “we miss you” — from your number, with your offer attached. No list to build, no reminder to set.

  • Triggers on real POS activity, not a stale spreadsheet
  • It pauses itself the instant that guest orders again
  • You set the offer and the wait — it handles the rest

Want to run a one-off promo instead — a slow-Tuesday deal, a holiday special? Send it to everyone or just your VIPs in a couple of taps. The same master “Marketing pause” switch in Settings stops all of it instantly if you ever need quiet.

Kudello · Demo Bistro
Monday · 8:00 AM
📋 Your week at Demo Bistro

• 12 review requests sent
• 3 new Google reviews ⭐
• 1 guest won back — $42 in return spend
• 2 low ratings caught privately, before they went public

Nice work. Here's to next week.
🟢 Automatic · Monday digest

Your week, in plain words — every Monday

You never have to open a dashboard or read a chart. Every Monday morning, Kudello texts you a short, plain-English summary of what last week actually did: reviews earned, guests won back, low ratings you caught before they went public, and the dollars behind it all.

No spreadsheets, no jargon — just “here's what your texts earned this week,” waiting for you with your coffee.

Part 5

The controls — set it once, let it run

Settings is where you connect your systems and set the rules. Kudello works in practice mode until you're ready, and you can change any of this anytime.

kudello
Demo Bistro
PRACTICE MODE
Sign out
Settings
Your feedback page

Put this QR on table tents and receipts. Happy guests go to Google; unhappy ones tell you privately — and you get a text the moment it happens.

kudello.com/r/demo-review/feedback
Connect your systems (optional)

Texting: not connected (dry run) · Toast: not connected

Set up connections ▾
Post-order feedback timing

How long after a check closes should the “How was everything?” text go out?

30 min1 hr2 hrs4 hrs
Google review threshold

Which ratings get your Google button? Everything below stays private.

3★+4★+5★+
Home💬Inbox👤Guests📅Bookings⚙️Settings
🟢 Owner app · Settings

Connect once, then set your rules

Everything that makes Kudello yours lives here:

  • Your feedback page & QR — the link/QR for table tents and receipts
  • Connect Toast & texting — paste your credentials; they're encrypted, tested live, and never shown back
  • Feedback timing — when the “How was everything?” text goes out (15 min to 4 hours)
  • Google threshold — the star cutoff for the Google button (4★+ recommended)
  • Marketing pause — one master switch stops all review, win-back & promo texts instantly
  • Opening hours & blackout dates — controls what your booking page offers
  • Your team — add staff by email, choose what each person can see
  • Billing profile — for invoices; card payments run through secure Stripe checkout
In one subscription

Four tools other companies sell separately

Two-way texting

Your own dedicated local number, set up for you. Guests text it; you answer from one simple inbox. No app for them to download, ever.

Review campaigns

Every guest gets a friendly post-visit text. Happy ones go to Google in a tap; concerns come to you first, in private, instantly.

Win-back & promos

Kudello watches your POS. When a regular goes quiet for 60 days, they get a warm “we miss you” — automatically, with your offer.

Reservations

A clean booking page with SMS confirmations, reminders, and cancel-by-reply — only offering the hours you're open.

★★★★★

That's the whole loop

A guest dines → gets a friendly text → happy ones become Google reviews, unhappy ones become private saves → the ones who drift away get quietly invited back. You run all of it from one screen in your pocket, between tables.

Start in practice mode with pretend guests — nothing sends until you connect a number. When it feels right, connect your restaurant and go live.