Rates of stress, depression, and anxiety have only increased across the globe thanks to a variety of factors, from work to politics to personal matters. And guess what? Most people aren’t actively working to alleviate the causes of their symptoms. That means that on a good day, one out of every two people walking through your door is one big stress mess. Yikes.

What does all that mean for you and your business? Nothing good. Stress, anxiety, and depression…

• Encourage customers to stay home
• Turn people into penny-pinchers
• Make them put off maintenance-type appointments, like healthcare and car servicing appointments
• Prevent guests from enjoying themselves when they do go out

Sure, you can’t eliminate the sources of their stress. However, you can make your place of business into more of a refuge from the stress of their everyday life. Keep reading for tips on how you, as a business owner or manager, can help your customers stress less.

Rearrange your space

No one wants to be in the way. Unfortunately, if you haven’t thoughtfully designed your waiting area layout with your waiting customers in mind, chances are someone will be.

To solve this problem, spend some time watching the way your guests use the space you’ve given them. Where do they tend to stand? Where do they most frequently sit? What space isn’t being utilized? When do people look awkward or uncomfortable? Then, change up your waiting room’s layout based on those observations.

Offer up directions

The momentary panic of walking into a new destination and having no clue where you should go or who you need to check in with or what the heck is going on is real. That same panic sends adrenaline coursing through your veins, which elevates your stress levels and dings the effectiveness of your immune system—all because there was no clear signage!

Forget that. Ensure your guests know what to expect and where to go when they arrive if there isn’t someone to greet them. A sign on the door or on a placard placed in the entranceway or by a check-in desk or kiosk is an excellent improvement.

Turn down the volume.

You don’t have to run a spa to provide your guests with a calmer experience when they walk inside. If your business is in a busy area, consider window coverings that will dampen the sound of outside traffic. If you receive a lot of phone calls, try switching your desk attendant to a headset or using flashing lights rather than a loud ringer.

Also: ditch clocks that audibly tick, oil squeaky door hinges, and put felt pads on the feet of screeching metal chairs.

Change the channel

If your waiting area includes televisions, select programming that’s more likely to take your customers’ attention off whatever is worrying them. Instead of news, finance, or health-related shows, go with lighter fare. Think: home design, cooking shows, or sitcom reruns.

Radio more your style? The faster the music is, the more stress it will cause your guests. Instead of more jarring pop hits or dance beats, go with oldies, singer-songwriters, or classical music.

Rework your waiting system

Want your guests to enjoy every minute in your place of business? Looking to prioritize their needs and prove that you’re really listening to them? Seeking to cut walk-outs and improve the overall efficiency of your enterprise?

We developed Waitlist Me to help you hit all these goals. Waitlist Me is a free app that lets you manage your waitlist and reservations better. It lets you notify guests by text when they’ve reached the front of the line, eliminating the fear that they’ve missed their moment. It also lets you take notes on their special requirements or concerns, so you can make sure they aren’t forgotten.

And that’s just the beginning! Our full set of Premium and Pro features are crafted to give your customers the best experience possible, all while helping you run a better, faster, more cost-effective business. Decrease customer stress, make more money—how does that sound? Answer: Awesome!

Toe-tapping, lobby-sitting, hostess-stalking? With Waitlist Me, these tired time-passing tactics are in the rearview mirror.

Waitlist Me is a waitlist and reservation app that sets you free. Thanks to our text messaging technology, queuers can ramble and roam while they wait without worrying about losing their place in line.

The only question remaining is this: What should you do with all this newfound freedom? Read on for 19 things to do while you wait.

1. Can’t remember who bought the last round? Race around the block to see who will pick up the bill this time around.

2. Declare a thumb war. It’s on!

3. Host an impromptu walk-off, America’s Next Top Model-style.

4. Predict the future with a middle school throwback: M*A*S*H.

5. Settle a disagreement by surveying passersby. Ketchup vs. mustard? Fries vs. onion rings? Coke vs. Pepsi? Anything goes.

6. Pop open a package of breath mints and see who can catch the most in their mouth. First one to land three-in-a-row gets to choose dessert!

7. Up the ante on people-watching by counting the number of buzz cuts or leopard print or mom jeans you spot.

8. Tap into your inner elementary student with a few rounds of hopscotch.

9. Freeze! Suggest a game of statues to see who’s the best strong-and-silent type.

10. Yuk it up with an impressions competition. For a stiffer contest, provide charades-like categories.

11. You know what they say: The best way to learn a new language is to practice! Have a conversation completely in French. (Or Klingon. You do you, friend.)

12. Have a way with words? Put it to the test with an on-the-spot limerick or haiku competition. Level up by requiring poets to include a particular word or phrase.

13. Co-opt a bright outdoor (spot) light for a speedy (fingers crossed!) open mic night.

14. Circle for hair braiding or shoulder massages.

15. Ready? OK! Pick a clean patch of grass and build a human pyramid.

16. No card deck? No problem. Grab a napkin and a spare pen or rogue crayon. Then, sketch out a brand-new game.

17. Lend a hand to your favorite local hotspots by using your waiting time to leave five-star reviews on Google and Yelp. Trust us, every rating counts!

18. Give your tablemates a challenge by throwing a speedy scavenger hunt. Use your phones to record finds and don’t forget to set a timer!

19. Face-off with a mirror mime contest. May we recommend mixing old-school techniques with 21^st-century actions, like VR gaming or snowboarding?

Sometimes if you press the notification button to send a text message to a customer and don’t see them right away, you may press the notification button again to trigger an automated call notification.  Premium subscribers have a list of several pre-recorded messages to choose from. Pro subscribers have all these options, and now have an additional option to type in their own message and have it played using text-to-speech. This provides more flexibility for what you may want to tell your customers when you notify them.

Changing these settings can be done on the Waitlist Me website, under Account > Settings > Notifications. Here you can select one of the pre-recorded messages, or create your own by flipping the switch to On under Custom Phone Notification. Use up to 160 characters to craft a message that fits your business, pick a voice option, and save! Now your customers will hear this message when they receive a notification call.

Waitlist Me assigns a unique phone number to your account for sending text and call notifications.  If customers try to call back, they will hear a message instructing them to call the business directly. This message can also be tailored to reflect your needs. Simply type in the message you would like clients to hear, decide on a voice, and save your work.

We are happy to announce that our popular table and resource management features are now available for the online version of Waitlist Me that can be accessed on computer and tablet browsers.  Previously the resource management features were only available in our iPad and Android apps.

Whether you assign customers to tables, staff, or other resources, Waitlist Me resource management features help you make smart decisions faster and leads to better overall customer service.  Here is an example of how a salon might track which of their employees are available and who would be coming available soon.

It is simple to see availability with the color of the status, and there is a count of minutes for how long they have been with a customer.  Notes and customer names give more context to how customers are being served at any given time.  Estimate times of customers waiting or with upcoming appointments with specific people or resources will also display to help know when to be ready for the next customer.

Customers can be moved between resources if needed, and when a customer is done they can be easily cleared.   Assignments are integrated with the waitlist so that when a customer that has been assigned a resource is checked off the waitlist, that resource will automatically switch to taken in the assignment view. If a customer was using that resource it will switch them with the new customer without any additional steps.

Customers can be assigned to one or more resources upon arrival or while waiting. When choosing assignments, available resources will show with a green status. Resources that are already assigned will have a red status and show the number of minutes they have been occupied with the current customer.

If a customer is already assigned to a resource from the waitlist or as a reservation, the estimated serving time for that customer will show along with any notes that were added. Businesses that serve groups of customers can also define resource sizes and view those sizes in the status areas. For example a restaurant hostess seating a party could scan for open table sizes that would seat six or for smaller tables that could be combined.

The more you use Waitlist Me to manage assignments, the more data you will have on how well you are managing your resources, and there are a number of new downloadable reports that can be run in the Analytics section of the Waitlist Me site. Look for trends over time with the Assignment Overview, do deeper analysis with the more detailed data in the Assignment Logs, and see results split out by assignments and sizes in other reports.

When your time is money, how you manage that time makes a difference. For many CEOs and executives, an ace admin team or executive assistant manages the schedule with aplomb. But regardless of how good your support staff is, there are always ways to make your office run more efficiently. Waitlist Me is one of those ways.

Waitlist Me is a waitlist management app that ensures everyone who needs face-time with the boss gets it, whether they need a 30-minute meeting or 60 seconds for a signature. Here are five ways Waitlist Me can transform your office.

Squeeze in meetings between appointments

Traditional calendars can make it difficult to spot and best utilize smaller blocks of open time. Waitlist Me makes it easy—and we let you color code everything according to, well, whatever you want. Supply each department with a color, or each type of appointment, and create the schedule that makes sense for you.

Set up office hours for drop-ins with staff

An open-door policy—or an occasional open-door policy—can do wonders for company culture, but it can also turn your hallways into long lines of employees who want CEO input. Waitlist Me helps create order by letting employees stay at their desks until go-time. Our text alert feature lets them know exactly when to knock on your door.

Give CEOs more control over who to see when

First come, first serve? That’s up to you. Waitlist Me lets you see key information at a glance on all the people needing your attention.  If you spot something urgent further down the list, it is a cinch to take that one first by sending a quick text to that person.  Or you may select items to clear off your list based on how much time you have available, whether you can cover an item in another meeting, how often you already see a particular person, or whatever you like.

Let employees book themselves into free time

Most assistants have far more on their docket than fielding requests for 5 minutes of your time. Take those calls off their plates by letting employees request quick appointments themselves. Waitlist Me’s Add Yourself feature lets them do just that—and you (or your admin) can quickly add them to your waitlist without turning the request into a full-blown conversation.

Keep employees from losing work-time waiting around

Nobody wants to see a parade of toe-tapping employees outside their office door. Nix it starting now thanks to our public waitlist feature. Staffers can check their place in line right from their work stations, which means they can increase their productivity without sacrificing the opportunity to get the input they need from you.