For serving customers more effectively, Waitlist Me has a set of features for managing tables across a couple main views.  The floorplan view displays tables as they would appear spatially across one or more rooms with the basic table sizes, shapes, and positioning.  The grid view gives a flexible way to sort and view tables by different dimensions such as section, size, and status.  The views can be used together or independently, depending on business preferences, to track availability and easily know where to seat the next customer.

Previously, the phone versions of our apps only offered a list view of tables, optimized for smaller phone interfaces.  To provide more flexibility in managing customer visits across devices, we have recently added the floorplan view and features to our apps for iPhones and Android phones.  While detailed floorplans can often be more efficiently managed on larger devices like iPads or Android tablets, the phone versions are great for managers that may want to zoom in on a particular area or servers wanting to keep tabs on their sections from their phones.   

Features for setting up and managing sections and layouts are also now available on the phone applications, along with the tools for placing tables, lines, and data elements in the floorplan edit mode.  Check out this page for more information on setting up floorplans.

Want to save time entering customer information when using Square and Waitlist Me together? Our new integration passes basic customer information between the two systems to make serving customers more efficient. For example, when you add a customer to the waitlist or a reservation in Waitlist Me, you can pull it up later in Square when it is time to pay. Or for scenarios where customers pay first or are already in Square, you can look up their information when adding them to Waitlist Me to manage their wait and send notifications when their order is ready. In these and other cases, businesses can save time by not having to add customer info twice.

To get started, in your Waitlist Me app go to the gear icon and select Square Integration. Select On for the Square Authentication option, and you’ll be prompted to enter your Square login information. 

An acceptance page will come up; choose Allow to let Waitlist Me read and modify your customer information. Once you’ve done that, you can then turn on one or both of the next two options. 

Square Customers Search, when enabled, would allow you to search your Square customers in the Waitlist Me app by phone number. Start typing their phone number to see a list of matching names and phone numbers as you type.

The last option lets you add customers to your Square customer database from the Waitlist Me app. Choose Yes to have them all automatically added, or Ask Me to be prompted whether to add customers. 

If you’re using multiple devices, your settings will sync across devices automatically. 

Whether you’re using the Waitlist Me web widget to let customers self-schedule or your team is entering reservations or appointments for customers, there are some optimizations you can make in your settings to get the most out of the scheduling features. 

If you plan to use the widget, on the Waitlist Me website go to Account > Settings > Add Yourself. The Main View section has a feature called Time Increments, which will control how frequently the time selection option shows reservation slots to customers. You can choose every 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes. (If you haven’t started using your widget yet, also see this page for the basic setup information.)

Click Waitlist at the top to go to the main waitlist page, then click on the settings gear icon and choose Reservations. You can customize the time increments you want displayed on your calendar view and the average time a table or resource is occupied.  Based on these settings you can block out your reservation availability visually in your calendar view.

Choose to show tables as occupied either by how many parties will be arriving in a time block or by how many parties are expected to be currently seated in the time block. The Arrivals option shows the total number of people arriving, with the number of groups in smaller font below if more than one group is arriving in that time block:

The Scheduled option shows the total number of people and groups being served, regardless of when they arrived:

Some settings (including many view settings) are device-specific. These settings for how you prefer to view reservations would also need to be set on tablets you plan to use. In the tablet you can navigate to the calendar and press in any time block to see an additional option on the upper right for changing views.

A Waitlist Me Pro or Platinum subscription offers more controls for scheduling. You can set up party size limits by going to Account > Settings > Add Yourself > Input Fields. Under Size Limits, select reservations, waitlist, or both. Then you’ll see the option for minimums and maximums. There are also more scheduling features available with Business Hours, Display Hours, Scheduling Rules, and Blackout Dates. Please see this page to walk through these features. 

Running a restaurant isn’t the same as it was a couple years ago.  With the introduction of government mandates regarding COVID-19, technology has shaped customer expectations around service in all parts of their lives, and people are less willing to put up with unnecessary waiting to get the goods and services they want. Fortunately, there are applications like Waitlist Me that help restaurants and other businesses raise the bar and deliver at a higher level of service that meets today’s expectations.

Cut the clutter and stay organized

When the phone is ringing off the hook at the front desk, it can be near impossible for a frazzled host to serve the line of customers spilling out of the entrance, waiting to be acknowledged. Forget grease pens and paper planners. Waitlist Me eliminates hostess stand clutter and makes it easy to add and seat dining parties. Your front of house staff can see your business’ waitlist in a single glance and add customers to it with a swipe.

Over-deliver on wait expectations

With Waitlist Me, even a rookie host can quote accurate wait times and set the right expectations. The app shows real-time waits next to quoted times to make it easy to improve and know when things are running ahead or slow. Using status colors and notes to organize and keep tabs on waiting customers helps you get them seated more efficiently. And with the smart historical wait estimate features available with Waitlist Me Pro, you can take into account the previous 4 weeks of data to get more accurate estimates. You can’t always control the wait time, but you can improve the wait experience by serving customers on time, when you say you will.

Set your guests free

With so many new mandates on restaurant capacities, having guests wait in the lobby is no longer an option for many businesses. The text notification feature does away with diners’ worries about losing their place in queue without requiring them to physically be there. No more looking for a socially distanced area around your hostess stand, and no more long queues stretched 6 feet apart around the corner turning off new walk-ins. Whether they choose to window shop, walk down the block, or hang out in the car, one quick text lets them know when their table is ready. All you have to do is tap a button, and the customer will be paged instantly.

Give people visibility into their wait

The number one question your host doesn’t want to answer when it’s busy: Is my table ready yet? A close second: Where are we on the list? Waitlist Me keeps customers in-the-know automatically with its popular public waitlist feature. Once they’re added to your waitlist, they’ll receive a text confirmation that includes a link to your public waitlist that they can check in their phone browser (no app download required). In real time, they’ll see exactly where they are in the queue along with their wait time.

Never lose a reservation

The worst problem customers face on busy nights or big holidays is lost reservations. When your restaurant relies on overstuffed date books, though, hostesses get used to saying, “What was the name again? I’m not seeing it in the book.” Your guests deserve better, and Waitlist Me helps you stay organized and manage your reservations in one location that you can access from multiple iPads or Android tablets. You can even login from your home computer or your smartphone to keep tabs on your reservations.

Make waiting less painful with Waitlist Me.

Waitlist Me offers several methods for calculating and displaying estimated wait times to help improve quote accuracy. The default option provides a rolling average wait that is recalculated every time a party is checked off the waitlist by being marked as served. You can choose a time period to include in this average, from 1 – 24 hours. Three group size ranges can be customized for displaying these averages. These settings are in the app under the gear icon > Customization > Waitlist View > Wait Estimates.

With Pro and Platinum subscriptions, there are advanced features to help you estimate wait times based on party size and time of day. The calculations can be set to use the previous week or previous four weeks of data for parties served. To enable this option, select Historical for the Calculations option from the menu shown above. Then you can access the data any time by pressing on the Avg Wait option from the main waitlist screen. (These settings can be accessed again quickly by selecting Historical on the main waitlist screen.)

The Waitlist Me iPad and Android tablet apps let you view graphs and charts that average the data for the previous week or four weeks, which makes it easy to spot trends over time. Use the menus at the top to switch between days of the weeks and various group views. This view shows a breakout of group ranges: 

While the combined view gives a historical waits that includes all group sizes:

If the data shows you consistently have waits for specific group sizes, it may be beneficial to remove some of the lesser used table sizes and add more to accommodate the group sizes that usually wait the longest. These metrics can help you plan future staffing so you can ensure coverage for the busiest times. Beyond helping with the real-time process of providing more accurate wait estimates, reducing walkaways, and improving customer satisfaction, the data can be used for strategic analysis and improvements.