Waiting is a universal problem.  Wherever you are, it is painful to have to wait for your turn at a restaurant, barber shop, store, or other business.  And businesses suffer from lower customer satisfaction and lost revenues when wait experiences are not managed well.

That is why we are happy to announce that Waitlist Me is now available in over 60 countries!  Check out our international plans page to see if it is live in your country.

One of the challenges in offering the service globally is that prices to send SMS text messages in other countries are generally higher than in the US and Canada.  The prices also vary considerably from country to country, and often even by mobile carrier within a country.  We have addressed this by having a flexible system for charging for text messages separately, with pricing for these texts depending on the country.  There is also more control in the Waitlist Me app over when to send confirmation and notification texts, so businesses don’t waste money sending a text that isn’t needed.  Since texts are not included in monthly subscription prices, we have lowered the price for Premium to $10 and Pro to $20 for international plans, and removed the 100 party limit on the Basic free level of features.

In terms of localization, all the customer facing parts of the Waitlist Me service have been translated into 30 languages, so businesses can send out texts and display their public waitlist pages in local languages with even our basic service.  With Premium and Pro they can customize the messaging even more for these and other features.  The Waitlist Me app that businesses use is still in English, but we’ll be fully localizing this in more languages over time.  The nice thing though about the Waitlist Me service is that the core processes of adding, notifying, and checking people off the list are very simple, and don’t require a lot of reading or knowledge of English.

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.

Due to increased fees by mobile phone carriers for delivering text notifications, we will be raising the subscription price of Waitlist Premium on March 1, 2021 to help offset these additional costs.  The new fees levied by phone companies are industry-wide and affect every service that sends text notifications, not only Waitlist Me. 

Waitlist Premium Monthly will change from $24.99 to $29.99 and Waitlist Me Premium Annual will go from $239.88 to $287.88.  The subscription prices for Waitlist Me Pro and Waitlist Me Platinum will not change.

We are still committed to providing the best value to our customers and even with the price increase will still have considerably lower prices than other comparable offerings. We also add value to the Waitlist Me service on an ongoing basis through new features and improved performance.

If you’ve been out to eat lately at any number of casual dining options, you’ve likely witnessed the growing popularity of pay-at-the-table services now available at restaurants large and small. It doesn’t take long to realize the significant upsides they offer. No more waving down waiters to get your check? No more tapping your toes while you wait for your receipt? This technology is a customer service game-changer.

What does this sort of service look like? Pay-at-the-table point-of-sale tech comes in a few different flavors. Keep reading to find out what they are and how they benefit different types of restaurants.

Tablets maximize ordering convenience

Early adopters, like Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill, introduced a tablet-style device that stays at the table. Diners can often use these devices not only to close out their tab at the end of their meal, but also to order food and beverages throughout their stay at a restaurant.

Many of these devices are also able to educate customers about membership or loyalty programs, daily specials, or featured menu options. And because they’re digital, they can offer glossy, mouth-watering photography that entices diners to order more items, like appetizers or desserts, or guide them towards items that offer a better margin for your bottom line. 

This style of device has also filled a gap in settings like fast casual restaurants and eat-in bars where diners are offered full menus without traditional table service. Now, customers can order at their convenience without needing to wait in line or catch the eye of a busy bartender. In addition, it can help open-all-day restaurants provide prompt service with limited staff.

Hand-helds improve payment speed

More recently, restaurants have been introducing a new type of pay-at-the-table device. It’s a handheld unit used by servers to capture the entire dining experience, from beginning to end.

Traditionally, waiters memorize or scribble down orders on notebook pages. This heightens the risk of error when they need to transcribe their notes for the kitchen or transferring tables between shifts. Using this sort of pay-at-the-table device, though, servers can now input orders directly into a digital order management system. There’s no forgetting who wanted a margarita without the salt, who requested a sandwich with no pickles, and who needs a side of mayo with their fries. Happy customers 100-percent of the time? That’s the name of the game!

In addition to managing orders, servers are also able to use these pay-at-the-table devices as hand-held registers. Swiping credit or debit cards—by far the most popular method of payment option in dining establishments—adding tips, and printing receipts is literally in the palm of their hand. This is a boon for restaurants with tons of traffic. It increases table turnover and decreases the amount of stress on servers because they can now get more accomplished in a single visit to a table. Less-frazzled wait staff means a better work experience for them, a better dining experience for your customers, and a better bottom-line for restaurant owners and managers.

Another customer convenience game-changer? Waitlist Me

Keeping customers waiting can have a devastating impact on a restaurant. They might order less, tip less, leave a bad review, or walk out your door, never to return. Waitlist Me is an app that keeps customers happy while they wait.

How do we do that, exactly? It’s a breeze. Waitlist Me brings your waitlist from the lobby of your restaurant to an easy-to-manage digital interface. Our app makes it easy to see waiting customers at a glance, provide accurate wait estimates that are tracked in real time, and notify customers with a text or automated call message when their table is ready.  It also has a number of other features like reservations, table management, and the ability for customers to add themselves from a kiosk, your website, or even Google.  

Have a smart phone? Then you can use NoshList at your restaurant. We are happy to announce that our popular tablet waitlist app is now available for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android phones. It is free for download at the App Store and on Google Play Store.

The new apps make it even easier for a restaurant to run an organized, efficient and measurable waitlist that also provides valuable guest and operational analytics. The addition of this mobile functionality to the original iPad app gives restaurant operators the flexibility to use other iOS or Android when preparing to seat restaurant diners. The mobile app also removes the barrier of needing an iPad to use the solution by offering the NoshList platform on multiple devices.

A fully featured restaurant waitlist and guest-management solution, NoshList notifies diners via unlimited free text messaging and automated phone call alerts that their tables are ready, replacing paper lists, microphones and alert buzzers.

In addition to the unlimited free version of NoshList, there is NoshList Premium for $49 per month, per restaurant. Premium features include two-way text messaging, table number assignments, in-app statistics, designated local phone numbers, and 30-day analytics. The Premium features are only currently available for the iPad app and on the website, and will soon be added to the new mobile version.

NoshList is now in use in more than 2,250 restaurants nationwide. Clients include Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Buffalo Wild Wings, Miller’s Ale House and many other national and regional brands. To date, more than 8 million diners have been seated with NoshList since the company’s launch in February 2012, making it the fastest growing restaurant waitlist platform in history.