Memories of sitting on Santa’s lap can evoke strong feelings of nostalgia for many of us, and continuing the tradition of capturing these magical moments can be a must-do for parents and grandparents of younger children.  The problem is that the holiday season is already a very busy time of year, and getting a turn on Santa’s lap usually requires some waiting. In worst case scenarios, it can even take several hours. Santa’s Playground and Santa’s Castle in Calgary have found a way to give back some of this precious time to families this holiday season by using NoshList for their waitlist.

Believe Imaging, an event photography company founded by Shelagh Anderson, photographs children with Santa at two of the busiest malls in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. At each location, employees are tasked with the responsibility of making sure every child who visits gets a turn to tell Santa what they would like for Christmas.

On average, the two centers combined receive upwards of 7,000 visits per week during the holiday season from November 23 through December 24.  To better handle the large number of visitors, Anderson was able to streamline the registration process and improve the customer experience by rolling out NoshList at both locations.

Prior to the launch of NoshList, employees were using pen and paper to take down names and numbers.

“The problem with pen and paper was the constant barrage of customers coming to ask if it was their turn because there was no visual display letting the customers know where they were in line,” Anderson said.

At first Anderson researched paging system, but the high initial and ongoing costs led her to seek an alternative solution.

“Originally in 2013 I sought out pagers, but after speaking to someone who had a system in excess of $3,000 I thought to myself that it didn’t make sense to invest in that archaic technology and there had to be a better way,” she said. “So I started looking on the Internet and came across NoshList in March 2014. This type of concept has been in my head for a number of years, so finding NoshList has definitely helped us realize some of the vision that I’ve had over the years.”

With the busiest days bringing over 700 kids to see Santa, children and their families can wait up to an hour for their turn.  While there is a play room in each location to ease the boredom, having a waitlist system like NoshList gives parents and families the ability to do other things while waiting for their turn.

“In terms of improving communications with our customers and allowing them the opportunity to roam the shopping center rather than stand in line, NoshList has been extremely well received by both mall administration and customers,” Anderson said. “Mothers are thrilled because they can register and know their kids are going to see Santa, while they have the freedom to go get a drink, use the restroom, continue shopping, or do other things.”

Registration is handled by three employees who are each armed with an iPad to start the waitlist process.Customers can see their places in line by clicking on a link to the public waitlist view and get a better estimate of how much longer it will be before their turn. The company also encourages their customer service desks to also log on to www.waitlist.me/n/believe_mm to accurately convey to customers who phone in asking about the wait times.

But the best part is that employees can also take down the children’s names and ages so Santa is prepared even before the child makes it to his lap.

“The elf standing next to Santa can relay the names of the next kids to him, and it adds that extra level of magic to the experience,” Anderson said. “If you’re a child and you round the corner and Santa calls you by name, that’s pretty awesome.”

Waitlist Me Pro keeps the balance between your congenial, community atmosphere and top-notch customer service, by keeping things running smoothly and improving the waiting experience.   It is also designed to be intuitive and quick to use no matter how tech-savvy (or not) you and your clientele are.

Here are 4 customer-approved ways Waitlist Me Pro can help your barbershop:

Keep track of who’s busy (and who’s not)

What’s better than flipping through a paper calendar with scribbled-down availability? Honestly: just about anything. Waitlist Me Pro makes it easy to keep track of appointments for each barber at the same time as you manage your highly variable walk-in traffic.

The app allows you to see your upcoming appointments and the walk-in customers waiting for each barber as well as the customers they are currently serving and how long they have been with them. Waitlist Me’s intuitive visual layout shows the barbers who aren’t “in” as grayed out, while those who are busy are highlighted in red and show a time counter of how long they have been busy.  You can also see who the next person waiting for each barber is and what time they were told they would be served.

Run a more efficient business

Having a good time at work is a bonus. Enjoying your colleagues and your clientele? That’s the cherry on top of the sundae. But you are running a business—and that’s a reality you never forget.

Waitlist Me Pro keeps track of your resources, helping you focus a little more on the work you love and a little less on management. The app helps you keep track of many things: the amount of time your barbers spend on each client, how long customers wait before they hit the chair, who works the most and who works the least. You can run reports whenever you want and use the knowledge they impart to make decisions about staffing, expansion, business hours—anything and everything.

Customize your online waitlist and appointments tools

You know your business better than anyone. That’s why we built Waitlist Me Pro to give you as much freedom as possible over how you set up your waitlist and your appointments.

The pro-level app allows you to set your business hours as well as blackout days for appointments. Clients leave notes for you on their preferences or any accommodations they require. Have a regular client bringing a child in for his first cut? Prefer a certain style that might add on more time? All of that can be added as a note, allowing you to provide top-notch customer service, every single time.

Promote your loyalty program or current special offerings

Waitlist Me Pro offers the highest level of personalization. Whether you want to bring your brand colors and logo to the “add me” website widget or to a public waitlist you display online or in-store, Waitlist Me Pro lets you add custom HTML, change colors, and customize the wording.

If you offer a loyalty program, discounted products, or a new service, the public waitlist is a great way to let your clientele know. You can change the HTML to include graphics, videos, or plain text that keep your customers up-to-date on everything that’s going on in your shop.

Public Waitlist in settings – The public waitlist page can be customized in the “Settings” area of the “Account” after logging into www.noshlist.com. In addition to being able to customize the link of the public waitlist and change the settings on how guests can add themselves to the list, you can customize the page itself by clicking on the “Customize page” link

Customize page – You can add text or any HTML to the bottom of your public page and preview it on the customize page. When you want to push it live, just click “Publish”. In the example below simple HTML has been added to reference an image (which would be hosted on another website) and add a link to that image

Customized page example – Below is an example of how the public waitlist page would look with the above example, and you can link to this page from your restaurant website as an easy way for people to see the current waitlist and add themselves to the list. You can also see this example live here: http://www.noshlist.com/n/brianscafe

When a person adds themselves to the list the hostess will see a notification on their NoshList app and can choose a wait time and add other information through the regular flow for adding parties. The information the person submitted will automatically be pre-populated in this flow and the customer will get a confirmation message when they are added to the list. You can also choose in the settings to have the person automatically added to the list.

Customized public page on the phone – Whenever a person is added to the waitlist with the NoshList application they get a text message confirming that they have been added to the list if they have given their phone number. There is also a link to the public waitlist so the customer can check their place in line from their phone, and their initials will be highlighted in the list. This makes it easy for people to estimate their remaining wait without finding and bothering the hostess. By customizing the public waitlist page, you can also give customers information about daily specials, coupons or your loyalty program that they can check out while they wait

Default notifications in settings – You can also customize the two text messages that customers receive while they wait. The first message confirms the person has been added to the waitlist and gives them a short link to check their place in line. The second message notifies the customer that their table is ready and gives them a couple simple options for replying whether they need more time or if they have decided to go somewhere else. These will appear in the NoshList app so the hostess can see the customer’s response. Here is what the default messages look like:

And this is how the default messages look on the phone

Customized Notifications – NoshList Premium gives the ability to customize both of the messages in the settings. In the example below the first message has been changed to give an additional prompt to check out a coupon while they wait on the public waitlist page, and the second message gives another reminder to check out other online offers, which could go to the loyalty program

And here is how the customized messages would look on the phone

The rows of tread mills, stationary bikes, and weight machines make it look like your fitness studio is all about the equipment. While the equipment is a must-have, maintaining your membership is do-or-die.

Waitlist Me is a waitlist management app that helps you provide VIP customer service and troubleshoot the best problem a business like yours can have: an active membership that’s keeping your gym packed 24/7.

Here’s how our app can help make your gym a neighborhood stand-out…

Give all members equal-access to popular equipment

Nobody goes to the gym to stand around for 30 minutes waiting for an elliptical. With Waitlist Me, they don’t have to. Front desk attendants can add them to the waitlist for certain equipment, or they can add themselves. The app will hold their place in line, and you can display whose turn it is on a screen using our public waitlist feature.

Bonus: Waitlist Me has a kiosk mode where you can turn an iPad into a self-check in station that guests can use to easily add themselves to the line for the next available machine.

Let members reserve tanning beds on their own time

Unlimited tanning is a huge perk for many fitness club members. Walking in to find them all in use, though, can be a week-ruiner. The simplest way to ensure that never happens to any of your guests again is to enlist Waitlist Me’s reservation feature. Members can make appointments online or when they walk in the door of your club, go about their routine, and get their golden glow right on schedule.

Bonus: The app’s easy-to-use interface makes it a cinch for your staff to see which units are in use or becoming available, letting you schedule regular cleanings and maintenance efficiently.

Allow guests to build spa services into their workout routine

Whether you offer basic member favorites like steam showers and saunas, or a full complement of spa offerings, Waitlist Me can elevate the way your membership takes advantage of these services and ensure that nobody leaves your facility disappointed. Members can reserve services before they get their sweat on, making the transition from workout to refresh seamless.

Bonus: Waitlist Me recognizes return customers when they check in and allows you to create notes on individual clients. If you know that a certain member always hits the sauna after a boot camp, you can add them to the waitlist automatically when they sign up for class.

Make the most of your personal trainers

Not every member wants a private session with a personal trainer or thinks to schedule one in advance. But if they have questions during a workout or want a quick refresher on a piece of equipment, Waitlist Me makes it easy for them to get on a wait list for a little pro help without missing a beat. Keeping your membership happy and injury-free? That’s a win-win.

Bonus: Waitlist Me syncs across multiple devices. That means that each member of your staff can check the waitlist on their own smartphone, tablet, or computer, and see where and when they’re needed.

The new web widget makes it easy for customers to add themselves to your waitlist from your website and have their waitlist requests appear in the Waitlist Me app.  The widget has two main views and is simple to customize and add to your site in a few quick steps.

Customers can view estimated wait times or people waiting:

Customers can then submit their info for adding themselves to the list:

Creating the widget is as easy as switching the toggle to “ON” from your widget settings page on the Waitlist Me website. A unique widget will be created and all you need to do is copy the line of code onto your website where you’d like the widget to display.

The widget can be customized at any time, and you will see how it looks in the preview section at the top of the page. Press “Save” to keep changes and automatically update the widget on your site. Here are some of the options:

Titles – Change the text that appears on the two different screens of the widget. The first screen shows the estimated wait and the second screen appears after customers click to add themselves and enter their information

Colors – Match the widget to your website the way you like with the flexibility to change the colors of the text, background, borders, and links.

Display types – There are a couple options on what you may want to display to give people a feel of how long the wait might be, or if you choose “None” it will not show the view of the wait estimate at all and just have the fields for people to add their information.

Also, if you want to go back to the default settings after you can always click the Reset link at the bottom.

The web widget is a Waitlist Me Premium feature and adds another option beyond using the public waitlist page for customers to add themselves to the waitlist.