We are here at the National Restaurant Association Show, and what better timing than to hit our one millionth diner seated using the NoshList free waitlist app for iPad that notifies diners via text messaging that their tables are ready. NoshList helps restaurants easily and efficiently manage their waitlist and improves the dining experience by replacing paper lists, microphones and alert buzzers with text messages sent directly to the diner’s cell phone.

“We are thrilled to celebrate our millionth diner seated using NoshList. We are extremely happy with the high rate of adoption by restaurants since our launch a little over two months ago and seating over one million diners in that short time has exceeded our wildest expectations,” said Craig Walker, CEO and founder of Firespotter Labs. “Diners want an easy, convenient way to know when their table is ready and restaurants need an efficient solution that improves the experience for their customer. That is what NoshList delivers.”

NoshList launched in February 2012 to restaurants in San Francisco and has since gone nationwide to independent, multi-unit and casual dining restaurants alike.

“NoshList has provided Umami Burger an efficient and streamlined way of managing our waitlist,” said Jason Berkowitz, Vice President of Hospitality at Umami Burger. “Our patrons appreciate the ease of NoshList’s text messaging when their tables are ready and we appreciate the unlimited free texting and phone calls to patrons.”

At Waitlist Me, we are always working on making the service better. We aspire to help more businesses improve wait experiences and customer service, and ultimately improve their business results. And we hope to help more of their customers save time, have a better day, and be happier.

It is a challenge for any company developing software or apps to know and execute on the most important ways to build a great product and service. There is no single correct path to take, but for us we think it takes a talented team, a focused mission, a lot of passion and hard work, some luck, and a few other things.

For a peek into the history and culture of Waitlist Me, check out this article. Waitlist Me CEO, Brian Hutchins, was recently interviewed as part of The Charleston Digital Corridor’s Leadership Profile Series, which is focused on the individuals who are driving the Charleston tech scene forward.

Everything from plastic straws to disposable containers are getting 86ed left and right. Why should paper clutter be any different because it’s piled up on your hostess stand instead of your tables?

But truth be told, it’s not just the toll paper takes on the ecosystem that should inspire you to transition toward digital waitlist and reservation management systems. There are a host of other reasons to switch to a waitlist and reservation app, like Waitlist Me, that go beyond your recycling bin. 

Need an example of why paper is passé? Here are 6:

You’re annoying your guests (and your staff)

A datebook can’t be in two places at once, but an app can. You can put Waitlist Me on as many tablets, smartphones, and computers as you want. While your hostess seats guests, a front-of-house manager can keep tabs on staff efficiency, a GM can track long-term customer trends, and a regional manager can check in on a few different locations.

Your wait times are inaccurate

How long will it take for that two-top to scarf down their chocolate mousse? When will you be able to squeeze a few tables together for a large party? With paper, you’re left guessing. Digital waitlist solutions, however, make it easier to make accurate wait estimates. That means your hosts can focus on customer service, not crunching numbers. 

You look unprofessional

Scrabbling through crumpled reservation book pages and scribbling party sizes onto a grease board makes your restaurant look like a slap-dash operation. Switching to an app lets you move all that mess onto one simple screen. No more MIA reservations, no more hard-to-read handwriting, and no more endless flipping while customers tap their toes.

You can’t multitask

Nobody likes the holler-back method of seating guests. For hosts, it’s laryngitis in the making. For next-in-line diners, it’s round after round of the “wait, did they just call our name?” game. And for even the most patient of waiting customers, it shatters the ambiance. An app like Waitlist Me lets you quickly, quietly, and easily text guests when it’s their turn.

You can’t gather data

Sure, you can tally up the heads served and tables turned by the end of the night, but with a pen and paper, a pile of chicken scratch is all you’ve got. Digital tools are built with analytics running automatically in the background as you and your staff go about your day. When you’re ready to see how your team has performed (and analyze trends, like your average table turnover time), the data is waiting for you.

You’re not serving your customers to the best of your ability

A hostess with a grease board in hand and a line to manage is working the numbers, not focusing on customer experience. But while lines are a fact of life that guests can deal with, a bad experience can wreck your restaurant’s reputation. Waitlist Me offers a bunch of features that helps hosts serve. One of our favorites: the public waitlist. Guests can check it on their smartphone or a monitor in your waiting area to see exactly where they are in line (and stop asking your hostess for an ETA!).

Bowling is a great form of entertainment for for those times when we’re one-on-one or with a group of friends. But waiting for a lane can deflate even the most enthusiastic crowd. Using NoshList to manage their waitlist, the team at 10 Park Lanes found a way to make it easy for guests to eat, drink and play.

When 10 Park Lanes first opened in Charlotte, N.C., the venue consisted of bowling lanes and not much else. However, a renovation nearly three years ago included the addition of several restaurants and bars, and is considered a premier entertainment center.

Prior to NoshList, 10 Park Lanes staff wrote each name down using pen and paper, and often lost customers as a result of long wait times. The bowling alley has now been using NoshList for two years to handle the more than 2,000 people that walk through its doors every weekend. With such a high volume of clientele, waits can last anywhere from three to five hours.

The NoshList app was easy to install and easy to use for both staff and customers.

“Our demographic is people who are used to using technology like this,” said Jeff Burns, 10 Park Lanes bowling manager. “They really had no issues with this sort of communication.”

It also has given people the ability to put their name on the waitlist, leave and come back when their lane is ready.

“We have a 3-hour wait and we needed a way to track people down,” said Aaron Sheets, 10 Park Lanes director of operations. “We’re in a trendy area in Charlotte with a series of bars surround the street so we use the app to tell people their lanes are available. If we’re busy, customers can walk next door or go outside and still be able to receive our texts.”

The app is used across two iPads and the company uses it to track not only waiting customers, but also where they’re from. Using the QuickNotes feature, 10 Park Lanes staff can input customer zip codes and uses the information for marketing purposes.

The system works fantastic,” Burns said. “It does what it is definitely supposed to do. It allows us to track people, page them and get them back into the building when their lane is ready.”

– By Valerie Killifer, special to NoshList

We’ve added some new features and UI improvements to help manage customer requests made from your website or social media page if you are using the Waitlist Me web widget. When a request is received, you’ll be able to see more information in the waitlist view about what it is for and where it came from. The entries appear at the top of the waitlist and will flash orange. If you’re on the Reservation or Resource Management view, a quick pop up will alert you to the new request.

For waitlist requests, you can see all the key information about the customer request such as name, group size, and any notes the customer added. Simply press on the row to accept the request, and move through the same steps you’d normally take to add customers to the list, but with the information the customer entered already pre-populated. You can also change the status color, assign a resource, and add any notes you need for your own reference. Then chose an estimated wait as the final step. Accepting reservation requests work similarly, with the added benefit of when you press on the row, it will show the request in the context of that day’s list of reservations to see if you have availability.

If a request was accidentally rejected, you can still see it in the History section by tapping on the “Show History” bar at the bottom of the waitlist. The History section also has some filters on the right side that can be used to show customers that have been served and removed from the waitlist in addition to rejected requests. Use the return arrow button on the right to accept a previously rejected request.