The Setup

Hawksmoor is an award-winning restaurant group serving steak and sustainable seafood across 14 locations in the UK, Ireland, and the US. They were the first UK restaurant to achieve B Corp Certification and have been recognised as a 'Best Company to Work For' for 12 consecutive years.

But their phone systems hadn't kept pace. What worked for three or four restaurants was now failing across fourteen.

It wasn't just ageing hardware. It was zero visibility. The legacy systems couldn't tell them how many calls were coming in, what type they were, or how many were being missed. Reservations, private dining enquiries, general questions, it was all a black box.

Their US and UK operations were running on completely different platforms. With a new Chicago location on the way, the fragmentation was only going to get worse.

As Alex Grace-Smith, Group Head of Reservations, put it:

"The previous phone systems were implemented when we were a brand of three or four restaurants. But as we'd grown, they hadn't grown with us."

They needed a partner who could unify everything technically and operationally.

What Global Telecom Networks did

We proposed a single hosted telephony platform to replace the patchwork. Hawksmoor didn't choose us based on relationships. They chose us because the solution was right and the approach felt different.

"The product's capabilities were a big factor because the solution had the reporting we needed around the call context. But GTN also felt like a team of genuinely nice people who cared about Hawksmoor as well as their product. And they were a lot more collaborative than other companies."

The rollout was hands-on. Engineers arrived at each site at 8am, swapped all the hardware, and had routing checked before restaurant staff arrived at 10am. All 14 restaurants were completed on schedule within two and a half weeks.

"It wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, putting a whole new phone system into 11 sites in the UK alone. The engineers were so helpful and very hands-on."

What Changed

Missed calls dropped dramatically. The reliability issues that plagued the old systems disappeared. Calls now connect consistently, and the guest experience starts right from the first ring.

Visibility appeared overnight. For the first time, Hawksmoor can see exactly what's happening. They now track 5,500 inbound calls per week and know that 36% are reservation requests.

The business restructured based on real data. Call data revealed that only 6% of calls were private dining enquiries, lower than expected. Hawksmoor used this insight to refocus their sales team on proactive outreach.

Vendor management got simpler. Multiple legacy providers replaced by one platform. One support team. One invoice for telephony services worldwide.

"Data helps us drive decisions around how to structure the business. Knowing that has helped us to prioritise calls for reservations over general enquiries."

"The main improvement is a massive reduction in missed and abandoned calls, so calls are getting answered and we've improved the customer service journey."

What's Next

Hawksmoor is now exploring how AI and automation could handle FAQs and low-value enquiries, freeing their team to focus on conversations that matter. They're not doing it alone. When they shared the vision, GTN built a custom demo tailored to their operations. Not off-the-shelf. Designed around how Hawksmoor actually works.

"We're looking at ways to deflect those low-value interactions so our team can focus on the conversations that really matter."

The Bottom Line

Hawksmoor didn't just need new phones. They needed a unified system that could scale with them, give them visibility they'd never had, and support their guest experience from the very first touchpoint.

That's what GTN delivered. Fourteen restaurants. Two and a half weeks. One platform. Zero chaos.