As you deck the halls and adjust your playlists, you should seriously consider giving your waitlist and table management system an update, too. With holiday parties a-plenty, this is no time for clutter and inefficiency!

You need to reboot your hostess stand and kick that datebook-and-grease-board duo to the curb. We have a shiny digital solution that will keep your season truly merry and bright—and save you plenty of woe (and money) to boot. We’re talking about a waitlist app that brings your queue, your reservations, and your resources together on one easy-to-use interface. It’s called Waitlist Me Pro.

Why do you need it? Let us count the ways:

#1. You need an intuitive way to balance walk-ins and reservations

What’s worse than losing a reservation fora twosome on date night? Losing a reservation for a 12-top the week before Christmas. Yikes. Still, it happens.It’s easy to forget a group—yes, even a big one—when you’re struggling to handle the nightly dinner rush.

When you upgrade your restaurant to a digital waitlist and reservation system, you say “goodbye” to misplaced reservations.With Waitlist Me Pro, you can use our flexible reservation views to see what your restaurant has in store for the holiday season and beyond. Plus, we built the app to incorporate reservations and walk-ins seamlessly. That makes it a cinch to navigate your guest list, no matter what.

#2. You need to visualize the best places to seat parties in your restaurant

Forget about peering behind the hostess stand to survey available seating options. Your hosts won’t even have to squint at hard-to-decipher grids anymore, either! With simple, digital table and resource management, confusion over where to seat your large and small parties is a relic of yesteryear.

Waitlist Me lets you view your tables indifferent ways, including by availability, by size, and by server. They’recolored coded so that you can immediately tell what’s open and what’s not. The Pro-level version of the app also gives you access to our layouts and sections feature, which allows you to build more detailed floor plans that are still easy to read.

#3. You need to keep bringing in foot traffic, no matter how busy you are

A wall of waiting guests in your lobby is intimidating to newcomers. To them, one large group waiting for a few tables to be pushed together can look like a dozen parties—and that’s enough to make anyone want to try the restaurant down the street rather than risk a queue.

Technology can transform your vestibule and the way you run your restaurant. With Waitlist Me’s text notification feature, you can set your guests free. Instead of lingering around your hostess stand, waiting for their name to be called, they can hang out at the bar or wander around the area without worrying about losing their table. When they’re next in line, you can let them know, no shouting necessary.

#4. You need to ensure that all your guests have a great experience

With a paper waitlist and reservation system, you’re constantly flipping back and forth and scrabbling around for notes. It’s unprepared and unprofessional, and that’s frustrating for your hosts and for your customers. And ETAs? Let’s not even go there.

Our app brings a new level of sophistication to eating out. We designed it to be easy to use from the get-go,which will decrease employee training time. And because Waitlist Me is so simple, hosts can focus their attention where it should be: on the guests,rather than on the paper they use to keep track of them.

With spring comes warmer weather and sandal-shoppers, and more customers in your salon. Don’t leave them stuck sitting on a bench, frustrated with the wait times. With Waitlist Me, you can give your clients the freedom to take a walk in the spring weather while tracking their wait on their phone…without losing their spot in line. They will receive a text notification when they are added to Waitlist Me, and can check to see how many people are ahead of them from their phones. Then just press a button to send a text notification to let them know when you are ready for them.

An easier waiting process will encourage customers to return and refer friends. Waitlist Me also allows you to schedule reservations, so you can keep things running smoothly with both your regular visits and larger bookings like for birthday parties, bridal showers, and outings with friends. Reservations for the current day will automatically appear in the same view as your waitlist so managing your schedule and walk-ins is a breeze.

When giving their name, customers can also specify what they would like for a service, from the person they would like to help them to the style of manicure or pedicure they would like. This makes it easier to schedule them for available or preferred nail technicians, and speeds up the entire process, so you can serve more people per day while providing a more and a more relaxing experience for your clients.

With a waitlist system that gives you more valuable information, you can measure how many people are coming into your salon every day, and how quickly those customers are being helped. This will help you improve the wait estimates you give to your clients and improve their wait experiences. Set your nail salon above the rest by streamlining your services and getting rid of paper waitlists and reservation books. No more remembering to buy another reservation book, losing pens, running out of space and deciphering illegible handwriting.

Spring is the perfect time to clean up your reservation system, so try Waitlist Me.

Is your business seeing a summertime boom? The easiest way to boost your earnings from now through Labor Day is to make it easier for you to serve your customers—and for you customers to work with you and enjoy your products and services. Waitlist Me is a free app that helps you do exactly that.

Ready to find out how your business can reap the benefits of all those happy vacationers walking through your door this season? Read on.

Restaurant

It doesn’t matter if you’re a year-round dining favorite or a beach bar open for the season, an influx of foot traffic in the summer months can overwhelm hosts and servers. Without a waitlist management app, that overwhelm can lead to table pile-ups and frustratingly long lines.

Good for you: Get rid of the grease pens and toss the paper trail. Waitlist Me streamlines your hostess stand. Within the app, you can add parties to your waitlist, estimate wait times at a glance, and contact waiting customers via text messages, keeping your service running smoothly from breakfast through last call.

Great for your customers: Nobody wants to wait around in a foyer or entrance area for a hostess to call their name. Waitlist Me’s public waitlist and text alert features let tourists take in the views (and the corner knick-knack shop) without missing their table.

Boat and equipment rentals

Whether you rent out sailboats or kayaks, paddle boats or stand-up paddle boards, inner tubes or jet skis, you’ve got an equipment roster you have to keep an eye on and customers you have to keep happy.

Good for you: Got one boat that’s broken down, another that should’ve been returned an hour ago, and a line of tourists eager to hit the water? Waitlist Me helps you manage your availability and your ETAs, and our text alerts will ensure that your renters are docked on time, every time.

Great for your customers: Vacationers can hit the water without worrying about when they have to return to dry land. Assure them before they go that you’ll text them when it’s time to head back in, leaving them free to enjoy their rental.

Ropes and adventure courses

A vacation is the best time to do something wild and crazy and completely spur-of-the-moment. Sure, you’ve got the planners, who made reservations before their plane touched down in your town. But you’re also juggling the tourists who fly by the seat of their pants.

Good for you: An intuitive app like Waitlist Me allows you to add groups quickly (and makes notes about their wants and needs). That level of efficiency means you can move through a line of waiting guests quickly, which keeps foot traffic flowing and prevents customers from taking one look at a long line and running the other direction.

Great for your customers: Nothing kills an adrenaline rush like standing in line. Waitlist Me lets you add customers to a public waitlist they can check from anywhere and text them when it’s their turn to hit the course. That means they can get up to an adventure of their own—without missing their turn.

Surf and swim shops

Your store is a novelty to tourists. They can’t wait to inspect every nook and cranny, but when it comes to choosing a new equipment or trying on apparel, sometimes they need a little more help than the average shopper.

Good for you: No sales associate wants to split their focus on a dozen customers clamoring for their assistance. When you add them to a waitlist, you guarantee that your associates will deliver the level of service you want to be known for.

Great for your customers: Forget the frustration of hunting down a sales assistant or wondering where that guy with the name tag disappeared to. When customers are placed on a waiting list, they know that the focus will be 100-percent on them from dressing room to check-out.

Hotel pools and beaches

Your guests expect the highest level of service, no matter how slammed you are. Treat them like the sunscreen-toting VIPs they are with a little help from Waitlist Me, which has been proven to increase customer satisfaction.

Good for you: The app’s interface is easy to navigate and intuitive to use. Waitlist Me makes checking to see which chairs or seating areas are open and which will be coming available soon a breeze, letting your attendants focus on service rather than floor plans.

Great for your customers: While nobody wants to wait for their fun in the sun, our app lets you make the wait bearable. Waitlist Me offers accurate wait time quotes, easy-as-pie reservations, and a public waitlist your guests can check from the comfort of their hotel room or the bar.

When the weather outside is frightful, where do people go? Indoors, of course! And once cabin fever strikes, they’ll be rushing through sleet, snow, and beyond-freezing temperatures to find diversion at your business.

A waitlist and reservation app is the best way for any small business to manage this kind of forecast. Not only will an app like Waitlist Me improve your customer’s waiting experience, but it will also help you manage your resources, boost your efficiency, and increase your margins.

Keep reading to learn how a waitlist app can help you win over new customers and make more money this winter.

Bowling alleys

Thanks to theme nights, top-notch eats, and a brilliant bar scene, bowling alleys are making a comeback. A waitlist app helps you juggle all your draws. Waitlist Me keeps every guest enjoying their outing thanks to text notifications. When their lane, their table, or their game is ready, they’ll get a heads-up automatically—without needing to physically wait in line.

More businesses that can use this feature:

Skating rinks

Arcades

Casinos

Gyms

“New year, new you” is the mantra health and wellness centers across the world live by. Make it come true for your gym business and your clientele with a little help from a waitlist and reservation app. An app can help balance new clients with regular rise-and-grinders. The newbies can explore different stations (and make an appointment with a private trainer) while gym rats can reserve equipment (and jump right into their usual workout).

More businesses that can use this feature:

Spas

Salons

Rec centers

Shopping malls

Brr! Is there a better place to be on a chilly weekend afternoon than an indoor shopping wonderland? We think not. But to keep people coming in the door, retailers in mall environments need to offer one thing online sellers can’t: superior customer service. While some customers are independent browsers, many are thrilled to take advantage of personal shoppers, especially during the holidays. Stores can use waitlists to offer superior service to individuals who crave personalized attention—and with Waitlist Me, shoppers can wander while they wait.

More businesses that can use this feature:

Cosmetics stores

Bookstores

Thrift stores and consignment stores

Play places

A zillion rowdy tots tumbling into one ball pit? That’s an accident waiting to happen. Indoor play spaces can use a waitlist app to ensure that every wee visitor’s experience is as fun and safe as possible. Station an attendant with a waitlist by the door or by a popular piece of equipment with a maximum occupancy. Add newbies to the waitlist (and cycle players in and out regularly) to let everyone have a turn.

More businesses that can use this feature:

Climbing wall centers

Trampoline parks

Escape rooms

Museums

Savvy visitors want to get the most out of their trip, and that means checking out all the tours and interactive experiences your museum has to offer. Whether you offer living history or natural, performance art or visual, a waitlist app lets your museum’s guests queue digitally. This means they won’t waste a single minute of their visit tapping their toes in line. They can wander through exhibits and, when your docent is ready for them, arrive in time for the grand tour.

More businesses that can use this feature:

Aquariums

Wineries

Breweries

When we launched NoshList in 2012, we began with a very targeted focus on the restaurant industry and a mission to solve the challenges many restaurants face in managing long wait lines. And it worked. Customizable, easy-to-use and affordable, our wait list app enhanced the customer experience and quickly replaced the antiquated pen and paper lists for our customers.

Over the past two years, NoshList has been used to seat more than 45 million diners, and the new reservations feature helps with a whole new set of scheduling challenges that restaurants face.

Along the way though, we realized that NoshList can be used in a host of other industries. Other types of businesses started using NoshList in ways we hadn’t originally expected, and as they did they asked us for ways to better customize the product for their situations. So little by little we started adding more customization features, and now all kinds of businesses are using NoshList to improve their customers’ wait experience.

Since NoshList can be used on iPads, iPhones, Android tablets, other mobile devices, and even computers, the app can be used just about anywhere. All that’s needed is an Internet connection and a desire to make waits more bearable for customers.

Afterall, when a customer is waiting on anything — from a lane at the bowling alley to a rented boat — the wait can be like an extreme lesson in patience. NoshList works as a way to communicate with waiting parties that their lane, boat or other item is ready.

How about waiting in line for a dressing room? With NoshList, shoppers can simply add their name to the list and then continue to shop while they wait for their dressing room. Once it’s ready, they will receive a text notifying them they’re next in line. It’s the ultimate win-win.

The same ideas apply to anywhere there might be a wait — at the pharmacy, the automotive repair center, the doctor’s office or hair salon and spa.

There are few simple things businesses in other industries can do to best use NoshList. The main thing is to customize the texts that go out when a person is added to any type of wait list and when they are notified. NoshList users can also choose from a number of automated call options. Then for more personalization a business can pre-define the list of the most common notes to appear in the app with the QuickNotes feature. Finally, table numbers can be modified to represent what makes sense for a business. These numbers could represent a salesperson, chair number, rental ID or whatever resource is assigned to your customers.

To learn more, check out our new page on how NoshList is being for different business waitlists across the country.