The public waitlist page is a unique URL for a web page that is assigned to your account, and has a number of features and benefits. Whenever a customer is added to the waitlist in the Waitlist Me application, they get a text message confirming that they have been added to the list. There is also a link to the public waitlist so the customer can check their place in line from their phone. They will see a status message at the top of the page and their initials will be highlighted in the list.

The public waitlist makes it easy for people to estimate their remaining wait without having to ask, and saves you time. It also helps them track when their turn is getting closer so they can be nearby when you are ready for them.  If a customer decides they aren’t coming, they can press on the Cancel link to let you know and a message will appear in Waitlist Me so you know to remove them from the list.

We have added some additional features to Waitlist Me Pro for personalizing the public page even more to your brand by editing the status messages and changing the colors of the page.

Color Scheme – Personalize the page look and feel by changing the page and table colors.  With control of the color of every element on the public page, it is easy to create a look and feel that fits your brand.

Here is an example of the public waitlist in default colors and with customized colors

Status Messages – The messages that display at the top of the page make it easy for customers to check their place in line, know when it is their turn, and cancel if they decide to go elsewhere.

Waitlist Message – This shows when a customer is in a waiting state and the default message is “You are number [order] on the waitlist, and have waited [time_waited] minutes” (where [order] is their place in line and [time_waited] shows the minutes waited)

Ready Message – Once you notify a customer, their public page changes to “We are ready for you! Please come by as soon as possible” and gives them options to indicate they are coming or cancelling.

Finish Message – Served – After you have checked a person off the list the message changes to “You are no longer on the waitlist” and the list of customers waiting disappears.  You could customize this message to add something about enjoying their meal or suggest leaving a positive review on Yelp.

Finish Message – Removed – If you remove a customer from the list, meaning they didn’t end up joining you, the default message is also “You are no longer on the waitlist” but you could change it to something related to being sorry they weren’t able to join.

Response Links – If you don’t want people to be able to cancel or indicate they are on their way through the public waitlist, you can remove these links

Soccer? Olé! For restaurants and bars around the globe, it’s a fútbol frenzy as fans around the world grab their jerseys and get their watch game on.  And since Waitlist Me is international and available in over 60 countries, it is a great tool for businesses everywhere to score a victory with their customers.

Whether you’re running a team-specific bar with patrons all cheering for the home team or your business has viewing screens for soccer fans watching every game, Waitlist Me is here to help you keep up with the crowds.

Wondering how a waitlist and reservation app can help you keep customers coming back, game after game? Here’s how food and beverage businesses are using it to do exactly that, right now.

Ensuring diners never lose their spot in line

Vibrating pagers are just one more thing for your guests to keep track of, and yelling names? Well, that’s annoying (and easy to miss when you’re in the middle of a rowdy crowd). Waitlist Me solves the “Wait, did they call our name?” problem with text notifications. Now, nobody misses a beat (or a minute of the action).

Kicking clutter to the curb (and seating guests faster than ever)

Rustling appointment books, piles of sticky notes, and a smudged grease board slow you down. With a slew of things to check and update, your hosts have tons of tasks to take care of that have nothing to do with showing your customers a good time. Waitlist Me eliminates paper clutter and gives hosts the ability to add and seat parties with a glance and a swipe.

Winning over new-to-you diners

A scrum of soccer fans in your waiting area can make new customers turn tail. Don’t let your popularity turn off potential guests! Waitlist Me helps you maximize foot traffic by setting your queuers free. Thanks to text notifications and a public waitlist they can check for ETAs, they don’t have to stand around your hostess stand. That means new walk-ins feel welcome, even when there’s a wait.

Offering up accurate wait estimates without the guesswork

No tapping toes here! Waitlist Me takes guesstimates out of the waiting game. Our app shows accurate wait times right on the home screen, so your hosts can relay wait times to diners with just one glance, saving you time and frustration.

Putting specials on display

From early opening times and viewing party schedules to appetizer and drink specials, you have a lot of news to share with your guests. Waitlist’s Public Waitlist feature is a simple way to ensure they’ll see important things you want to share while they wait.

Keeping track of special requests for every party

Every time you add a party to your waitlist, you can add a note with their needs or special requests. Do they want a corner booth? A TV tuned to the England game? A high chair? Wheelchair access? Add a note and get it right the first time, guaranteed.

Host viewing parties for two games simultaneously

Hosting viewing parties for a couple games that are on at the same time? Waitlist helps you do that in a snap. You can add folks to each game’s list and seat them accordingly—without any fights over which TV is tuned to what game.

Entertaining customers while they wait

Our Public Waitlist feature lets you customize what you show your guests—and this World Cup season, you can go way beyond your logo and brand colors. It’s easy to add GIFs, music, images, and videos. Hook it up to a TV screen in your waiting area, and customers will be glued to the screen, not their watches.

Letting fans jump in the queue from wherever they are

With Waitlist Me’s Add Yourself web widget, your diners can go for that last-minute pick-up game without worrying about grabbing a table later. As soon as they wrap up on the field, they can hop on your waitlist from a smartphone and never miss a game or a meal.

Still using a paper waitlist or reservation book? Clinging to outdated paper-based solutions can be a drag on a restaurant. Here are six reasons to switch to a digital waitlist and reservation app like Waitlist Me. Read more at Restaurant & Cafe

After mere weeks in quarantine, Americans went hog-wild with their new pet adoptions. Instagram feeds are packed with newly adopted furry critters, and there’s no sign of a let-up any time soon. If the coronavirus has a single silver lining, this just might be it.

With the flurry of potential pet parents, now is the perfect time to put your best paw forward. Enter Waitlist Me, a waitlist and reservation app that will help you score a gold star for customer service and keep your customers, volunteers, and pets as healthy as possible during the coronavirus pandemic.

Here are some ways animal shelters can use Waitlist Me right now to facilitate pet adoptions during COVID-19 and beyond.

#1. Corral crowds in their cars

Our collective new normal involves all sorts of protocols to keep us safe and healthy. We have adapted: We’re wearing masks in public, we’re standing 6 feet apart, and we’re shopping from the comfort of our cars to minimize the spread of coronavirus.

Enlisting cars as a crowd control tool is easy to do with Waitlist Me. Use our custom text notification feature to share simple coronavirus instructions with your customers, like to wait in their car until they are notified.  You can include this in the confirmation text that customers receive when you check them in or they schedule themselves.  Then when you are ready for them, just press a button to send them a notification it is their turn. If they reply back to a text you will see their message in the Waitlist Me app, and our Pro service includes an option to send open text responses to these messages for things like answering questions.

#2. Spread out demand with appointments

Another way to avoid a throng of eager adopters busting down your door is to encourage customers to make appointments.  This can help spread out demand to less busier times or can be used to avoid common bottlenecks that might require a specific staffer or area of your business. It can also help ensure you have the right number of staffers and volunteers when and where you may need them. 

Customers can use Waitlist Me’s web widget to quickly schedule an appointment with a few clicks, so they’ll be assured of their cuddle time and you’ll save staff’s time by letting people self-schedule. The Pro version of the service also comes with additional ways to customize the widget and set scheduling limits.

#3. Keep groups separate—and spaces sanitized

Some shelters across the nation are seeing their traffic skyrocket up to 90 percent! Because shelters are designed to make the most out of limited space, you often find yourself in tight quarters—not great when we need to be particularly germ-conscious.

That’s where Waitlist Me’s resource management feature comes into play. It’s completely flexible, making it easy to reconstruct the layout of your workspace within the app. When guests check in, you can assign them to a staff member or to an area, like your kitten play room, an application area, or a visiting room where they can get to know different animals. Once those guests leave, you know exactly where they’ve been—and you can sanitize accordingly.

And because you can use Waitlist Me on multiple devices, all your employees and volunteers can see where everyone is with a single glance. This lets you minimize potential contact as well as the need to have groups of guests pass each other in narrow spaces. Win-win!

Our table management and resource management tools help businesses track availability and the time customers spend at their business.  When assigning customers to a table or resource or moving customers between resources we have had a pop up for choosing from a list of assignments in some of our views.  In some cases this is a quick and effective method, but other times it may be easier to select a table from the floorplan view or a resource from the grid view, so we have added a new tap to add option that switches to these views for selection.  We have also optimized the action bar in the process to make it easier to view information on customers waiting for or occupying a resource and perform key actions like clearing, serving, and moving.

When you select an open table the action bar at the bottom will show the name & size, and the Add button will allow you to choose a party from the waitlist to assign to this resource. 

After a party is assigned to a table, tapping on that table will allow you to mark that customer as served (checking them off the waitlist), and show the table as occupied. 

Once a party is seated, tapping on their table will bring up an action bar to display the party’s name, size, and how long they have been there. Pressing the Current button will give options to move the party to another table, or clear that resource to mark it as available. You can also clear a party from a table by pressing their current ‘Taken’ status on the left of the action bar and selecting ‘Open.’

On the waitlist screen there are new options for assigning a party to a table. If you press in the Assign column for a party, you’ll see a list of tables that you can assign the party to. There will also be a new button at the top right of this menu, for Grid or Floor (depending on what view you’re using). Pressing that button would take you to the grid or floor view, where you could then tap on a table to assign the party. 

Once you choose Grid or Floor, the app will remember your selection and default you to that for future selections. The Floor/Grid button on the upper right will switch between those two views. If you prefer the list of tables, just choose Use Pop-up on the upper left. For the floorplan view, if you have more than one room you will also see your menu on the upper right to switch between rooms. 

When assigning a party to multiple tables, just press and hold the first one and then you will be able to select more. Press Done on the upper right to finish assigning multiple tables.