Often dubbed “the best Thai food in Sydney” and beyond, David Thompson’s Long Chim needs no introduction. The casual dining spot gives street-style Thai food an upgrade that only meticulous attention to detail and finesse can. From Chiang Mai curries to fan favourite pad thai, they deliver on flavours — all sweet, spicy, sour and salty ones.
In the raw yet modern dining room replete with disco balls, parties of two, four, ten appear with bookings in tow. There’s no sign of slowing down for the business that started as a humble one-location in 2015 and quickly mushroomed across the states in Australia.
We wanted to learn what makes Long Chim such a tasty business over the years, and how they innovate with help from powerful restaurant tech platforms.
Authencity comes first
The fiery food is the heart and soul of Long Chim, and that’s no accident.
Thompson talks about how the produce makes a solid difference across his menu, whether it’s the lime and chillies in his quintessential tom yum or the fish sauce that makes the stir-fries sizzle. The latter he makes in-house, and the rest he imports to maintain crucial ingredients to the cuisine.
Even at the bar, which customers love, these same ingredients shine albeit with a slightly different flair. Think a punchy cocktail list that spans coconut and lemongrass-kissed gin and pandan with lychees in margarita.
The experience matters
No one knows better than Long Chim the importance of a great experience in hospo. They are one of our early customers, adopting a new platform to the business without hesitation. That’s because the team understands how at the heart of it, bookings are the beginning and the end of a customer’s dining experience.
One of the standout features of Now Book It for Long Chim has been the ability to send automated and customisable reminders and thank you messages. Along with the intentional service at the restaurant, they can extend the same personalisation across touch points with customers.
On the other side of the counter, the staff at Long Chim also love the experience and ease of using Now Book It’s system. It’s simple, takes minutes to learn and strays away from the clutter of other platforms.
Tracking impact, from efficiency to growth
Leveraging Now Book It doesn’t end with seamless booking processes, even though that does take a massive load off the previously manually taken reservations. A major impact that drives Long Chim’s success is in the control of customer data.
As the only platform that offers exclusive ownership of guest database, Now Book It empowers Long Chim to make use of this to grow their sales. Armed with the database and consistent booking insights, the team is able to reach wider audiences and retain their regulars.
Since joining Now Book It in 2018 with a desire to take control of their data, Long Chim Sydney is now delivering record covers, resulting its biggest financial year to date in 2023 with 2024 looking to surpass that.
“Focusing on the growth of our reach and using multiple engagement strategies with our database has meant we are feeling more robust than ever about our business. Without the CRM & database building capabilities of Now Book It we simply couldn’t achieve the results we have so far.” — The Long Chim team
