Introduction example: While other companies were revising their prices, they offered flat-rate pricing and zero commission fees for customer referrals. We couldn’t find a single reason not to use it. (Restaurant Cresson)

Loved locally for 24 years under the concept of local production for local consumption

What inspired you to start your own business?

Thanks to all of you, our shop will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year. We opened in November 1999. I had been involved in the food and beverage industry since I was about 20, and seeing the senior colleagues around me go independent and open their own places made me think that one day I would do the same. The late 1990s to around 2000 was also a favorable time thanks to the IT bubble, which made it easier to raise funds. Back then, I also had the desire to try my hand in Tokyo, but the place I ultimately chose to open my shop was my hometown where I was born and raised: Numata City in Gunma Prefecture.

Of course I have a special attachment to my hometown, but more than that, I felt that opening a shop in the area where I was born and raised would involve less business risk. Even when it comes to buying land or sourcing products, it’s advantageous to work in a place you’ve known for a long time. I also have friends, acquaintances, and family nearby, so being able to start out in an environment where I could get information and count on people’s support was a huge plus.

— The shop’s name, “Cresson,” and its green exterior are very striking. Could you tell us about the characteristics of your shop?

Gunma Prefecture is one of Japan’s leading vegetable-producing regions, so from the time we first opened, we’ve operated under the concept of “local production for local consumption,” making generous use of locally harvested vegetables as well as ingredients such as Gunma-raised black pork and local chicken. We serve Western-style dishes and drinks, including hamburg steaks, omelet rice, steak, pasta, and salads made with mushrooms.

We wanted the restaurant’s name to feel soft and familiar to a wide range of customers, so we took watercress—an ingredient that’s easy to source locally all year round and is almost a byword for local production for local consumption—and wrote it in hiragana as “くれそん” (Kureson). Every dish comes with watercress as a side. About 70% of our customers are locals, and because we’re close to Numata Interchange, the gateway to Nikko, around 30% are tourists who stop by while traveling. We welcome people of all ages, men and women alike.

A flat monthly fee that keeps things worry-free even when you add optional features. Combine multiple systems to boost cost-effectiveness.

— You introduced the Respo ledger in September 2023; how were you managing reservations before that?

Up to now we’ve used several different reservation ledgers from other companies, and having a computerized reservation book had become absolutely essential. However, when the system was updated, the pricing was revised: it had originally been a flat-rate plan, but they changed it so that every time a booking came in through the dedicated site, an additional referral fee was charged. The new company we switched to made a similar change, and we ended up in a situation where we had to budget an extra 40,000–50,000 yen per month in fees as a new expense.

So, in order to keep costs down even a little, I built my own reservation system and used it for primary management, and for a while I ran it in parallel with the contracted reservation ledger system. There weren’t any particular problems, but transferring the information from my homemade system into the reservation ledger took a lot of time and effort. Making sure everything was entered accurately so there were no transcription errors or omissions gradually became a source of pressure.

At that time, I learned about Respo’s reservation ledger and POS register system provided by Hello, which operates AutoReserve, with its plan of “a fixed monthly fee + zero commission for bringing in customers,” and I felt there was no reason not to use them. We introduced the Respo reservation ledger and POS register system in September 2023, and even though it’s a flat-rate plan, we can use all the features we want, so we’re very pleased with it.

— How do you find the usability of the Respo reservation ledger?

As for the reservation ledger, customers who book online are automatically reflected in the ledger. Because of this, the restaurant doesn’t have to spend time entering the information, and there are no input errors. Back when we were also using our own in-house system, we had to check every morning to see if any new reservations had come in the previous day, and whenever there was a new reservation, we had to manually copy it into the reservation ledger. To keep costs down, we managed things with a homemade system separate from the reservation ledger, but in the end it just increased the amount of work, time, and complexity. It really made us realize that there’s no point unless the reservation system and the reservation ledger are managed within the same system.

On busy weekends, quite a few customers call to make a reservation before coming to our shop, but since manually entering the information into the Respo reservation ledger is not a difficult task, any of our 6–7 staff members can take the call and enter the reservation without any problem. At the moment, only about 10% of our customers book online, but after switching to the Respo reservation ledger, each of us can focus on our own role, so the time savings, labor costs, and sense of security are all noticeably better.

—How do you feel about using the POS register?

We’re using the “kitchen monitor” as an optional add-on to our POS register, and the feature that lets us display multiple customers’ order lists in real time is really convenient.

In the kitchen, water and oil can splash, and since we’re in the middle of cooking our hands get dirty, so we normally have to be very careful when handling order slips, but going paperless is a huge help. In addition to the series of POS register functions from receiving orders to checking them and handling payment, I’m really pleased that Respo’s POS register has a flat fee that stays reassuringly the same even if we add optional features like the “kitchen monitor.” I think the real appeal is that you can clearly feel the cost-effectiveness when you combine the Respo reservation ledger with the POS register.

You can sense the creators’ passion in the robust support system and the meticulous, frequent updates.

— How is the support system for the Respo reservation ledger?

System updates are really frequent, aren’t they? You can really feel how the operations staff are trying to listen to what’s happening on the ground and are seriously committed to improving the Respo reservation ledger app. It makes me look forward to it becoming even more user-friendly from here on out.

I was amazed at how exceptionally thorough the initial setup support was compared to other companies. AutoReserve even takes care of things that, with other services, the restaurant itself as the user has to enter, such as the shop’s address, business hours, and menu settings.

If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can also talk to a representative online, so I don’t think the barrier is very high even for people who aren’t good with things like initial setup and are hesitant. In rural areas, I think there are many shops that don’t use any system management, but if you have a chance to try this out, there’s really no reason not to use it.

Heading toward our 25th anniversary, we pursue both eliminating unnecessary “effort” through systemization and investing wholehearted “effort” where it truly matters.

— Next year marks the 25th anniversary of your opening. Could you tell us about your outlook for the future?

I don’t have any special feelings just because it’s our 25th anniversary, but I do hope we can continue here for a long time without changing what we do. In today’s restaurant industry there’s a trend toward cutting labor costs, and I think young people no longer feel anything strange about robots serving food. That’s part of the times, of course, but at our restaurant we value the fundamentals of service and cuisine that restaurants have been developing over the years, and, to put it a bit grandly, we want to keep passing that culture down unchanged.

Store Information

Restaurant Cresson

Address: 2046-96 Yokotsuka-machi, Numata-shi, Gunma Prefecture
Phone number: 0278-24-9088
Store details:https://autoreserve.com/restaurants/LGV2dwfHF8cuvxDTyuqo