The last thing you want to see is would-be customers walk in your shop, eager to take home a new piece of jewelry, and then they walk right back out because none of your sales associates is free to help them. That could be thousands of dollars in current and future purchases, trotting down the street to a competitor.

But what if you could capture walk-outs before they, well, walk out? With a reservation management app like Waitlist Me, you can.  Here’s what a waitlist app would allow you to do:

Treat customers like VIPS—even when you’re slammed

Forget about splitting your attention between the woman eyeing earrings in the case in front of you and the couple that just walked through the door. Greet people when they come in the door to find out what they need, so you add them to the waitlist and let them know you will be with them soon. This let’s new visitors know you care and helps your sales associates feel comfortable giving 100 percent of their attention to the client at hand.

Wow new clients with efficient communication and prompt service

What happens to the couple you can’t help right this second? You can text them the moment an associate is free (or schedule an appointment). When they walk through the door again, you’ll be prepared—maybe with a tray of engagement rings already on the counter—because Waitlist Me lets you add details to every customer, like what they’re currently shopping for.

Don’t let customers slip away during a sales rush

A lot of time and money goes into planning sales events, and they are a sure-fire way to bring in a larger crowd. It can be frustrating, though, to see people leaving because they don’t know when it might be their turn to get some help. For those days, Waitlist Me has an option to use an additional iPad as a self-check in station. It gives customers a simple way to get their spot in line, so they can relax as they browse through the store, or even step outside, without worrying about losing their turn.

Increase repeat customers

An exceptional experience is what transforms a one-time customer into a long-time customer. A waitlist app can help you eliminate the elements clients despise: feeling rushed as they browse, ignored when they come in, or forgotten as soon as they pay for their purchase.

Earlier this month, Clover added two new devices to their Point of Sale solutions, Clover Mini and Clover Mobile. As an early app developer for Clover, we are very excited about this launch because it opens new ways for businesses to use Waitlist Me for their waitlists and reservations.  Clover Mobile is a perfect fit for Waitlist Me because it lets businesses add customers to the waitlist right at the door as well as update statuses and check people off the list from other parts of their store or restaurant.

Clover Mobile is a wireless device, so merchants can do a variety of activities from anywhere. They can place orders, take payments, scan inventory, manage employee hours, sync sales data with accounting software, and other activities from where it is most convenient. The Clover Mini is designed to be a simple but powerful replacement to the traditional credit card terminal, so it does the core credit card processing and receipt printing needed for payment transactions, plus a lot more.  Both devices have the sleek designs Clover is known for and the flexibility of customizing functionality through their integrated App Market.  Waitlist Me is available and optimized for both of the new devices.

POS terminals have changed over the course of several years, and Clover is at the forefront of creating better and more efficient hardware and solutions for businesses in this category.  Because of the deeper integration Clover allows, Waitlist Me is able to offer more efficient tools for businesses and better experiences for their customers on the Clover platform.

Did you know you can add a button to your Facebook page to take reservations or appointments? Allowing customers to book directly from social media is easy, and a great way to increase bookings.

Start by logging into your Waitlist Me account and copying the unique link for your hosted Web Widget. You can find this at www.waitlist.me > Account > Settings > Add Yourself. The link will be at the top of the page.

Next, go to your business’s Facebook page. Choose the Add a Button option on the right.

Choose Book with you, and then Book Now.

Select the Link to Website option, enter your Waitlist Me link in the pop up, press Save and then Finish. That’s it! You now have your very own reservation (or appointment) button on Facebook.

Managing the door and the floor is one of the biggest balancing acts in the hospitality industry. Giving your customers the ability to easily add themselves to a waitlist or schedule reservations online can make things run more smoothly.

Waitlist Me’s self-scheduling tools are designed to scale alongside your restaurant or business, offering different tiers of features tailored to your specific operational needs. Let’s explore how you can streamline your front-of-house operations, starting from the straightforward basics all the way to advanced, automated table management.

Premium: Simplicity to Get Started in Minutes

If you are looking for a friction-free way to manage your waitlist and basic scheduling, the Premium tier is the easiest starting point. You can literally be up and running in minutes.

• Web Widget & Hosted Links: Embed a simple line of code on your website to launch the booking widget, or use a hosted link directly on your social media channels.
• Join From Google: Capture high-intent diners by allowing customers to join your waitlist directly from their Google search results.
• Kiosk Mode & QR Codes: Convert an extra tablet into a self-check-in kiosk for your lobby, or print a QR code so guests can join the list right from their cell phones when they walk in.

The takeaway: Premium is the perfect choice for businesses that just need to handle a standard waitlist and basic scheduling without fussing over complex configurations.

Pro: The Flexibility of Simple Customization

When your business requires more structure around how and when guests can book, the Pro tier offers a flexible suite of controls without overwhelming your staff.

• Pacing and Capacity Limits: Set maximums for how many people can book per hour or day to keep your kitchen from getting swamped.
• Targeted Scheduling: Take control of your calendar by setting limits on party sizes, defining specific business hours, and establishing blackout dates for holidays or private events.
• Custom Communication & Branding: Use simple HTML to add your logo and specific instructions to the widget. You can also automate reminder emails to send right before a guest’s ETA, dramatically reducing no-show rates.

The takeaway: Pro is geared toward managers who need to customize the flow of daily reservations and want to integrate basic branding into their guest communications.

Platinum: Power, Full Customization, and Smart Automation

For restaurants demanding a completely bespoke booking experience and an automated front-of-house, Platinum is the ultimate tool.

Total Brand Control Platinum grants you Custom HTML Display capabilities, giving you the power to completely redesign the widget and kiosk screens. You can move fields around the page, change button copy, and tailor the look and feel so it acts as a seamless extension of your brand. While it requires some web development experience, your tech team will find it incredibly easy to mold.

Advanced Scheduling Rules Beyond visuals, Platinum unlocks intelligent table automation. The system effectively plays “table Tetris” for your hosts so they can focus entirely on hospitality. By leveraging advanced scheduling logic, Platinum offers three massive operational upgrades:

1. Capacity Utilization: Stop a party of two from hogging an eight-top table. By setting “minimum party size” rules for specific tables, the system acts as an automated gatekeeper. If a party is too small for the remaining large tables, the system intelligently hides that time slot—protecting your most profitable inventory for large groups.
2. Table Availability and Priority: You maintain total control over your dining room. Availability settings let you hold back your best “power tables” for VIPs or walk-ins so they are never booked online. Priority settings let you rank the exact order tables are filled, helping you seat popular window areas first or spread guests evenly to balance server workloads.
3. Duration Rules: End double-bookings and awkward overlaps forever. Duration Rules automatically reserve a table for a highly specific time limit based on the size of the party and the time of day (like a quick 45-minute lunch vs. a lingering 2-hour dinner). The system calculates this instantly, ensuring realistic table turnover and flawless self-scheduling.

The takeaway: Platinum is perfect for high-volume restaurants that want full control over their brand touchpoints while trusting intelligent software to maximize dining room efficiency.

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.