We announced an exciting new integration in January with Clover that puts our NoshList waitlist app directly in front of restaurant operators across the country. NoshList was one of the first apps to appear in Clover’s newly developed app marketplace. This is new and exciting for us because technology such as the Clover POS is leading the way for restaurant operators to efficiently update and integrate their front-of-house and back-of-house operations. Never before have waitlist apps been able to sync up with a restaurant POS, providing sales analytics based on waitlist names and phone numbers. Now, they can.

Clover, owned by First Data, is going after restaurant operators with modest businesses in an effort to treat them like large brands by giving them what they’re asking for: something more from a technology provider without the high price tag to match.

Clover is answering this call is by offering a merchant-driven technology tool based on the Android operating system. It’s smarter, more flexible and secure than what many of these operators have been using, and the fact that NoshList is featured as a tool within this technology makes what Clover is doing that much better.

For Clover users, the toolkit is future proof and includes a printer, cash drawer and credit card terminal. Additionally, it includes preloaded apps such as ours intended to give restaurant operators the ability to control and customize the tools best suited to their needs.

Additionally, we have recently made several new enhancements to our NoshList waitlist app. These updates let restaurant owners and management define pre-set notes, such as dates of birthdays and anniversaries, in the Quick Notes feature. The notes can be viewed in the wait list for easy reference and can be synced across each device used in the restaurant. The new app features a seating history display below the current list and people that add themselves to the list show up at the top with special highlighting to alert the hostess.

In addition to the new app features, the NoshList website now has several powerful analytical reports for paid premium users. The reports include an activity overview that highlights diner trends seated by the day, week or month, a visitor breakdown by age and gender, activity logs for custom analysis and loyalty metrics comprised of guests who visit your place when, how often, and their average length of wait.

The NoshList and Clover technology is based on flexibility and is a valuable tool restaurant operators can leverage to make their operations more efficient. And integration is easy!

When someone installs NoshList from Clover, it immediately pulls their merchant account information and links table orders directly to the table numbers entered into the POS. Restaurant staff can then view the customer’s name, order and visit history, giving them an opportunity to elevate the guest experience through rewards and direct marketing campaigns.

Here is a summary of the latest features that will be on display:

New Free features available to all:

• Quick Notes – Easily create a list of common notes to use when adding and seating parties.
• ETA – Choose an estimated arrival time for same-day reservations and larger parties.
• Seated View – View notes and parties seated in the main waitlist view.

New Premium features:

• Rich Analytics – Download activity, demographics, party size, and loyalty reports.
• Table Management – Customize and assign table numbers when adding and seating parties.
• Customizable Public Waitlist – Add information on daily specials, loyalty programs, coupons, and more to the public waitlist that guests can check from their phones while waiting.

With partners such as Clover, we will continue to push the boundaries of waitlist technology because we believe in doing things differently. We are a team of professionals focused to innovate an antiquated aspect of the industry,one we understand, appreciate and are passionate about.

The NoshList wait list app closed out 2013 with more than 22 million diners seated across 5,000 restaurants!

This past year was one of tremendous accomplishment for NoshList. From our integration with Clover to the addition of several new features to our app, our focus in 2013 was to provide the best wait list experience for our restaurant clients and their guests. We have exciting plans for 2014 and will continue to raise the bar on wait list functionality.

New features added in 2013 included a multi-restaurant management tool, the first of its kind for the restaurant industry, and a public wait list that lets restaurants display their current waitlists to guests.

Moving forward in 2014, we see huge opportunity for wait list apps to increase operational efficiencies and extend beyond just restaurants. These functionalities could take the wait list feature to any establishment where people have to put their name on a list. This includes waiting rooms at doctors’ offices and other similar places

Another technology trend restaurant operators will see this year: using one tablet to run several different restaurant applications.

In the long run, operators will stop using multiple devices, such as a POS in the dining room and a tablet wait list by the front door. Instead, everything will be conducted from one general-purpose, POS-based tablet, which will lead to several different apps all accessible from the same place.

It has been a great year, and we are shooting to seat nearly 100 million diners in 2014!

Ah, the sounds of the season are upon us! Tinkling bells, rustling wrapping paper, and the voices of children and adults alike, eager to jump into winter with both snow-booted feet.

Here at Waitlist Me, we’re all about traditions—well, some traditions. The seasonal kind that come with snow, Santa hats, and sweet treats? Bring it on! The long lines of, well, last year? No thanks. Our app puts more ease into the winter season, which helps everyone get the most out of it. For businesses, it means more loyal customers walking in the door and opening their wallets. For consumers, it means a better time no matter what they’re up to.

Wondering how a waitlist app can make a difference when it comes to winter traditions? Here’s the proof in the figgy pudding:

Ice skating

Wobbling your way around a rink is a wintry rite of passage. A digital waitlist clears your lobby, allowing wannabe Olympians to grab a bite to eat or watch the crush while they wait to lace up a pair of skates. It’ll cut down the line intimidation factor, which can send fresh faces running back out into the parking lot for fear of a long wait. Plus, it’ll help your skate attendants focus on the customer at hand rather than the pile-up behind them.

Holiday shopping

Playing elf for your nearest and dearest isn’t nearly as simple as it sounds. That’s where your sales associates come in. Put their product knowledge and creativity to work—and get the most out of your personnel scheduling—by creating an in-store personal shopping service. Waitlist Me makes it easy to manage. With its notes feature, you can leverage your employees’ strong suits. To utilize it, ask customers what they’re looking for when you add them to the list. Then, assign sales associates accordingly depending on their specialties.

Pictures with Santa

Corralling kids is a headache on the best of days. With candy canes and chocolate bars adding to the frenzy? Well, you’re looking at a true Nightmare Before Christmas situation. If you’re running a mall Santa-style operation, a waitlist app can make an incredible difference for the parents trying to keep their littles ones in line. With Waitlist Me, parents can join a waitlist and take their tots off to toddle around (and work off some of that energy). When the big guy in the suit is ready, the app sends them a text. Easy.

Christmas tree hunting

Come Thanksgiving, there are scads of parking lots stacked with blue spruce and Frasier fir trees. For tree farmers and sellers looking to head home before Santa packs his sleigh, customer service is essential in order to stand out from the crowd. Get in the game by helping your customers one-on-one. Add each tree-peeper to your waitlist when they walk onto your lot and dispatch an assistant to help them pick the tree that’s perfect for their holiday celebrations.

Community events

Whether you’re managing a Church holiday party, arranging auditions for a winter play, or manning a gift-wrapping booth to fundraise for a local charity, there are tons of seasonal reasons a waitlist might come into play. Use it to maintain order, prevent petty squabbles, and let everyone enjoy their time with family and friends. A waitlist app disperses long lines, letting folks mingle instead of tethering them to a queue.

We are happy to announce some exciting new ways waitlist technology is being used to help restaurant operators better serve their customers.  Through the use of the Waitlist Me API, these new solutions will be on display for the first time during the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show. The app will be showcased during the show, May 16-19 in Chicago, through partnerships with BrightSign and Clover.

With BrightSign, the global market leader in digital signage players, restaurants can now display a public view of their waitlist on their digital signage so it is easy for customers to check their place in line without needing to bother the hostess. The flexibility of the BrightSign integration lets restaurants fully customize the look and feel of their waitlist so it looks like a natural extension of their menu board or other digital signage.

Restaurants operators can also tailor their customer-facing experience to their brand while using the Waitlist Me apps and service to easily manage their waitlist and page customers with text and call notifications.

It is exciting how well the BrightSign integration empowers restaurants to create displays with designs limited only by their imagination. We are very happy to be working with a company like BrightSign that shares our values of building scalable and reliable solutions that are easy to use and maintain.

Clover is another Waitlist Me partner that will have new things to show off at this year’s NRA Show.  The new Clover Mobile device, announced in April, lets businesses add customers to the waitlist right at the door as well as allowing status updates to be made from other parts of the store or restaurant.

Clover is at the forefront of creating better and more elegant POS hardware and solutions for businesses, and has a robust App Market for third-party developers. 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.

Waitlist Me just recently announced its API earlier this year with Enplug as the first partner, and has several more projects in progress.

We want to help improve wait experiences everywhere, and integrations with companies like BrightSign and Clover highlight the power of the Waitlist Me platform.  By extending our waitlist management features and best-in-class text and phone notification infrastructure to work in other products, we can solve a wider set of needs together than with our service alone.

For more information on partnership opportunities, contact [email protected]

It is probably not a surprise that Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for restaurants. According to the Statistic Brain Research Institute, Valentine’s spending tops 13 billion dollars, and of the people that celebrate the holiday, more than a third of them head out to restaurants. When you’re making the special preparations to set the right ambiance for your restaurant, don’t forget about the experience your customers will have before they make it to their tables. For those guests who didn’t call ahead to make a reservation, take the pain out of waiting with Waitlist Me.

Customers are happier when they can check their place in line and have the freedom to leave the hostess area, which translates into less walkaways and higher customer satisfaction. Waitlist Me can also speed up table turns so you can seat more people each day. So you win on both sides, being better able to manage the surge in visitors on Valentine’s Day and offering superior customer service in the process.

In search of something romantic, many guests will try someplace new on Valentine’s Day instead of their regular hangouts. Make a great first impression that will keep these first timers coming back. Let Waitlist Me help you today.