Want to do more with Noshlist? Now you can. More features are now available with NoshList Premium, the expanded version of our restaurant waitlist management app for iPad.

NoshList Premium features the same capabilities as NoshList, including unlimited SMS text and automated phone call notifications to diners, while new services have been added to increase functionality and provide diners with the ability to interact directly with the restaurant via text. NoshList remains free, while NoshList Premium is priced at $49 per month per restaurant.

NoshList Premium features include:

• Unlimited Two-Way Texting
• Table Number Assignment
• Large Party Functionality
• NoshGuest Auto?ll
• In-App Statistics
• Designated Local Phone Number
• 30-Day Exportable Analytics
• Weekly Email Summaries

“With NoshList Premium, we get an expanded set of features that help us deliver an even better guest experience including unlimited two-way texting that our customers really like, as well as a designated local phone number,” said Garrett Schmidt of Buffalo Wild Wings. “We benefit greatly from analytics and in-app statistics, which allow us to measure our waitlist performance in real time relative to past shifts. NoshList has made managing our waitlist much more efficient and given us valuable insight into an aspect of operations we never had before.”

NoshList notifies diners via text messaging that their tables are ready and improves their dining experience by replacing paper lists, microphones and alert buzzers with text messages sent directly to their cell phone. Since the February launch of the free service, nearly 4.5 million diners have been seated with NoshList.

The new web widget makes it easy for customers to add themselves to your waitlist from your website and have their waitlist requests appear in the Waitlist Me app.  The widget has two main views and is simple to customize and add to your site in a few quick steps.

Customers can view estimated wait times or people waiting:

Customers can then submit their info for adding themselves to the list:

Creating the widget is as easy as switching the toggle to “ON” from your widget settings page on the Waitlist Me website. A unique widget will be created and all you need to do is copy the line of code onto your website where you’d like the widget to display.

The widget can be customized at any time, and you will see how it looks in the preview section at the top of the page. Press “Save” to keep changes and automatically update the widget on your site. Here are some of the options:

Titles – Change the text that appears on the two different screens of the widget. The first screen shows the estimated wait and the second screen appears after customers click to add themselves and enter their information

Colors – Match the widget to your website the way you like with the flexibility to change the colors of the text, background, borders, and links.

Display types – There are a couple options on what you may want to display to give people a feel of how long the wait might be, or if you choose “None” it will not show the view of the wait estimate at all and just have the fields for people to add their information.

Also, if you want to go back to the default settings after you can always click the Reset link at the bottom.

The web widget is a Waitlist Me Premium feature and adds another option beyond using the public waitlist page for customers to add themselves to the waitlist.

Memories of sitting on Santa’s lap can evoke strong feelings of nostalgia for many of us, and continuing the tradition of capturing these magical moments can be a must-do for parents and grandparents of younger children.  The problem is that the holiday season is already a very busy time of year, and getting a turn on Santa’s lap usually requires some waiting. In worst case scenarios, it can even take several hours. Santa’s Playground and Santa’s Castle in Calgary have found a way to give back some of this precious time to families this holiday season by using NoshList for their waitlist.

Believe Imaging, an event photography company founded by Shelagh Anderson, photographs children with Santa at two of the busiest malls in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. At each location, employees are tasked with the responsibility of making sure every child who visits gets a turn to tell Santa what they would like for Christmas.

On average, the two centers combined receive upwards of 7,000 visits per week during the holiday season from November 23 through December 24.  To better handle the large number of visitors, Anderson was able to streamline the registration process and improve the customer experience by rolling out NoshList at both locations.

Prior to the launch of NoshList, employees were using pen and paper to take down names and numbers.

“The problem with pen and paper was the constant barrage of customers coming to ask if it was their turn because there was no visual display letting the customers know where they were in line,” Anderson said.

At first Anderson researched paging system, but the high initial and ongoing costs led her to seek an alternative solution.

“Originally in 2013 I sought out pagers, but after speaking to someone who had a system in excess of $3,000 I thought to myself that it didn’t make sense to invest in that archaic technology and there had to be a better way,” she said. “So I started looking on the Internet and came across NoshList in March 2014. This type of concept has been in my head for a number of years, so finding NoshList has definitely helped us realize some of the vision that I’ve had over the years.”

With the busiest days bringing over 700 kids to see Santa, children and their families can wait up to an hour for their turn.  While there is a play room in each location to ease the boredom, having a waitlist system like NoshList gives parents and families the ability to do other things while waiting for their turn.

“In terms of improving communications with our customers and allowing them the opportunity to roam the shopping center rather than stand in line, NoshList has been extremely well received by both mall administration and customers,” Anderson said. “Mothers are thrilled because they can register and know their kids are going to see Santa, while they have the freedom to go get a drink, use the restroom, continue shopping, or do other things.”

Registration is handled by three employees who are each armed with an iPad to start the waitlist process.Customers can see their places in line by clicking on a link to the public waitlist view and get a better estimate of how much longer it will be before their turn. The company also encourages their customer service desks to also log on to www.waitlist.me/n/believe_mm to accurately convey to customers who phone in asking about the wait times.

But the best part is that employees can also take down the children’s names and ages so Santa is prepared even before the child makes it to his lap.

“The elf standing next to Santa can relay the names of the next kids to him, and it adds that extra level of magic to the experience,” Anderson said. “If you’re a child and you round the corner and Santa calls you by name, that’s pretty awesome.”

We are here at the National Restaurant Association Show, and what better timing than to hit our one millionth diner seated using the NoshList free waitlist app for iPad that notifies diners via text messaging that their tables are ready. NoshList helps restaurants easily and efficiently manage their waitlist and improves the dining experience by replacing paper lists, microphones and alert buzzers with text messages sent directly to the diner’s cell phone.

“We are thrilled to celebrate our millionth diner seated using NoshList. We are extremely happy with the high rate of adoption by restaurants since our launch a little over two months ago and seating over one million diners in that short time has exceeded our wildest expectations,” said Craig Walker, CEO and founder of Firespotter Labs. “Diners want an easy, convenient way to know when their table is ready and restaurants need an efficient solution that improves the experience for their customer. That is what NoshList delivers.”

NoshList launched in February 2012 to restaurants in San Francisco and has since gone nationwide to independent, multi-unit and casual dining restaurants alike.

“NoshList has provided Umami Burger an efficient and streamlined way of managing our waitlist,” said Jason Berkowitz, Vice President of Hospitality at Umami Burger. “Our patrons appreciate the ease of NoshList’s text messaging when their tables are ready and we appreciate the unlimited free texting and phone calls to patrons.”

For restaurants that are looking for an attractive, secure display for their devices, we have teamed with ArmorActive to provide a hardware solution. ArmorActive’s iPad kiosks are designed to secure and protect the devices, while complimenting both the sleek look of the iPad and NoshList’s stunning user-interface.

ArmorActive, located in Utah’s “Silicon Slopes”, offers a number of attractive hardware interfaces for running applications such as NoshList, and is the fastest growing iPad kiosk design, engineering & manufacturing company in the world.

With iPad security provided by ArmorActive and the NoshList waitlist app, restaurants now have everything they need to make managing their wait lists easier and more secure than ever before.