About Hawksmoor
Founded in 2006, Hawksmoor is an award-winning British steakhouse group renowned for its sustainably sourced beef, exceptional hospitality and critically acclaimed dining experiences. With restaurants across the UK and internationally, the business has built a reputation for delivering consistently high standards in every location.
As the business continued to grow, reliable communication became essential to keeping its restaurants, support teams and operations connected, ensuring staff could focus on delivering the service Hawksmoor is known for.
Supporting International Growth
Hawksmoor's existing phone systems had been introduced at different stages of the company's growth. While they had supported the business for many years, separate platforms across the UK and US made it increasingly difficult to manage communications consistently.
The business had limited visibility into inbound call activity, making it difficult to understand call volumes, identify missed opportunities or use reporting to support operational decision-making. With a new restaurant planned in Chicago, Hawksmoor wanted a single communications platform capable of supporting future growth across every location.
As Alex Grace-Smith, Group Head of Reservations, explained:
"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."
Delivering the Project
Working closely with Hawksmoor, GTN designed and implemented a hosted telephony platform that would bring every restaurant onto one connected communications environment.
Comprehensive reporting capabilities formed an important part of the decision, giving the reservations team access to insights that had previously been unavailable. Alongside the technology, Hawksmoor valued GTN's collaborative approach throughout the project.
The rollout was carefully planned to minimise disruption across every restaurant. Engineers completed hardware replacement, configuration and testing before each site opened for service, ensuring teams could continue operating without interruption.
All 14 restaurants were successfully migrated to the new platform within two and a half weeks.
“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.
"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 GTN engineers were so helpful and very hands-on."
The Results
The new communications platform has transformed the way Hawksmoor manages customer interactions.
For the first time, the business has complete visibility of inbound call activity, allowing teams to understand customer demand and make more informed operational decisions. Hawksmoor now manages approximately 5,500 inbound calls each week, with reporting showing that 36% of calls relate to reservations.
The data has also helped the business challenge assumptions. Analysis revealed that private dining enquiries accounted for around 6% of inbound calls, enabling Hawksmoor to refocus its sales team on more proactive business development activity.
Alongside improved reporting, the new platform has significantly reduced missed and abandoned calls, helping the reservations team deliver a more consistent customer experience.
"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."
"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."
"Data helps us drive decisions around how to structure the business. Knowing that has helped us to prioritise calls for reservations over general enquiries."
Alex Grace-Smith, Group Head of Reservations, Hawkmoor
Moving to a single hosted platform has also simplified day-to-day management, replacing multiple legacy providers with one communications solution supporting restaurants across the UK, Ireland and the United States.
With a scalable communications platform now in place, Hawksmoor is exploring how AI and automation can support the next stage of its customer service strategy.
By automating routine enquiries, the business aims to give its reservations team more time to focus on conversations that create greater value for guests.
