Tuesday, February 10th, 2015 .

Where did NoshList go? It is now Waitlist Me. But don’t worry, everything you loved about NoshList is still there, plus a lot more.

As more and more businesses from all types of industries have been signing up to manage their waitlists, reservations, and appointments, we decided having a name that was broader and less tied to food would be better. As Waitlist Me, we are excited about all the opportunities for helping people that are waiting everywhere.

The road to Waitlist Me was paved with a number of features and user experience improvements. It started with enhancements for customized notifications and waitlist views. Table management was made more flexible so customers could also be assigned to people or other resources. Later, more prioritization was put on features such as reservations and appointments that were essential to many businesses. Finally, we invested more resources into making Waitlist Me cross-platform, so it would work on iPads, iPhones, Android tablets and phones, and even computers.

Being truly cross-platform is key to bringing the services to businesses everywhere. Some businesses don’t have Wi-Fi or have concerns using an iPad because of possible damage or theft. Now, even businesses with computers plugged into the Internet can use WaitList Me for their waitlists and reservations. The Android app also runs nicely on Clover, which is revolutionizing the way businesses think about POS systems.

In addition to the name change, we have redesigned and improved our iPhone and Android phone apps, and made a number of usability improvements in our tablet apps and online waitlist. Waitlist Me is also launching with a few powerful new features, such as the post-visit feedback surveys. Premium users can now customize and enable feedback surveys to go out after customer visits. Customers can easily send quick numerical ratings back in text messages or take surveys to rate their experiences in more detail, leave comments, an even request a manager to contact them about their visit.

Waitlist Me is also rolling out its first major API integration with Enplug, a company that helps businesses better engage their customers with smart digital signage devices and software.

More details on these new features will be coming soon.

Wednesday, April 8th, 2015 .

Have a Kindle Fire at home?  Now you can run your waitlist and schedule reservations for your business on your Kindle. Just go to the Kindle app store and search for Waitlist Me to get started.

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Waitlist Me has been on the Android platform for a while, but historically the Kindle has been more of a consumer rather than a business device.  Recently though, we have seen businesses start to use Kindles more in work environments, and decided to make our app available in the Kindle store. Amazon has added a number of security and IT-friendly features to Kindles including Mobile Device Management Compatibility, Device Encryption, VPN, Single Sign-On, and more, making them more enterprise-ready for businesses.

Running Waitlist Me on a Kindle Fire, with its more portable form factor, can be a nice option extra device for managers that might be walking around the restaurant.  By logging into the same account, it will automatically sync with other devices the business may be using.  The 6 inch Kindle Fire is also very cost effective at only $99 dollars.

Waitlist Me makes it simple to know the best place to seat your next customer. Our unique approach to section management blends psychology, data science, and cutting-edge design principles to create an intuitive tool that restaurant staff can pick up in a few minutes and enjoy using.  See how it works in this video:

 

The old way of scribbling on a laminated floor plan with a grease pen is messy and inefficient. It’s hard to estimate wait times and optimize table assignments without seeing key information like how long tables have been occupied.

Most apps that try to use data to improve on the grease pen approach make the mistake of clinging to the old-fashioned floor map diagram, which is deceptively complex. Why? Searching the whole map for the information you need is slow. Comparing different clusters of shapes, colors, and symbols is complicated. And interpreting a bunch of unordered data, like little progress bars, spread across all the tables, is very difficult. To name a few reasons.

All this extra complexity is unnecessary. Wait staff shouldn’t need a map to find tables after a couple days on the job. What they need is a fair, easy, intuitive way to know where to seat the next customer.

Look how much simpler it is when you group tables into a framework where the data can work for you, and you can read key information naturally like a book, in ordered lines, from top to bottom and left to right.

 

Tables are grouped by sections, and sorted by availability to make comparisons and decisions simple. The open tables for each section stand out in green on the left. Tables that have been occupied the longest show first, with the time displayed in the lower left. So it is easy to do a quick scan within a section to see how busy it is, as well as compare across sections.

 

Tapping on a table will bring up an action bar for adding customers to tables, clearing tables when done, changing table statuses, and more. This page has a good overview and video of the other table management features.

If you organize your tables and sections differently by day or time, Waitlist Me also gives you the flexibility to switch between different layouts. For example, you might divide tables into 6 sections for a busy weekend night, but only need 3 for a regular weekday night. By tapping on the Layouts link in the top right, you can choose from among your saved layouts and regroup your tables and sections on the fly.

 

Creating and editing sections layouts can be done in the app settings under Manage Assignments. There you can also choose to have different colors represent different sections or special tables within a section or layout as well.

 

With Waitlist Me’s table management features, your customers will get better service, with less waiting. Your employees will get their fair share of the work, and the tips. And you’ll have a more efficient restaurant, and a more profitable business.

Stop struggling with floor maps. Take control of your tables, and your business, with Waitlist Me.

Tuesday, February 9th, 2021 .

Nowadays, with everything from smart mugs to smart bike helmets managing and monitoring our days and nights, you might be wondering if you really need to add another techie solution to your lifestyle.

While we won’t weigh in on, say, a smart saltshaker, there is a clever must-have that every business owner or manager will fall for fast. Waitlist Me is a waitlist and reservation app that will have you tossing your grease pens and appointment books after just one date—er, dinner service.

Designed with restaurants and a variety of other types of businesses in mind, Waitlist Me is a flexible, plug-and-play app that makes managing waitlists, reservations, and appointments a breeze. Keep reading for 7 reasons to L-O-V-E Waitlist Me.

Lose the crowded lobby

Waitlist Me uses text notifications to alert your customers when they’ve made it to the front of the line. This allows them to maintain their place in line without standing in line. Our app sets them free, letting them wait while they window shop or drop off their dry-cleaning or hang out in the car.

Improvements made easy

Pro and Platinum subscribers are able to access Waitlist Me’s reports on table and assignment usage. You can harness this data to learn more about how your business uses its resources, from physical space to employees. With these numbers in hand, you can start making small changes that lead to cost savings, larger margins, and bigger bottom lines.

DIY updates are a cinch

Waitlist Me is built for businesses, not for techies. And because businesses can change from day to day, we’ve made it a breeze to make changes to your waitlist and the text message notifications you send to your clients—just in case.

A+ experience ratings

A hollering host? Not on our watch. Our waitlist and reservation app notifies guests by text when their table, their doctor, their changing room—whatever it is they’re waiting for—is ready for them. No rude interruptions and no missed summons makes for a five-star rating. Cheers!

User-friendly interface

We’re reinventing waitlists, not apps, which is why we built Waitlist Me to be easy to use the second you log in. Our intuitive interface works the way you expect it to, and we’ve made all the most important information available at a single glance, giving you an ASAP way to see how your business is doing in the moment.

Unlimited device sync

Built for scale, Waitlist Me allows you to use as many devices as you want to manage one queue, all at the same time. Forget paying per user. Now, managers can ensure business runs smoothly while everyone else goes about their daily tasks.

Always upgrading

The development team is constantly looking for ways to improve our service. We are continuously talking to business owners and managers in different industries to see what would make their lives easier. Being better at business? Here are Waitlist Me, that’s our M.O.

Friday, October 30th, 2015 .

Looking for an easier way to take reservations?  Waitlist Me has a new feature for customers to schedule reservations (or appointments) from your website, and it as easy as adding a link or line of code to set up.

You don’t need to set up any complicated rules for how many reservations are available at what times, as reservation requests will come to you for quick approvals within the Waitlist Me app.  You’ll receive a notification alert so you know when to check, and reservation requests will be highlighted at the top of your main waitlist page as well as on the daily reservation views.

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When you approve a request in the app, the customer automatically gets a confirmation text with their time, and the request becomes a confirmed reservation and appears in the reservations area of Waitlist Me.  If you decline it, the customer receives a text notifying them that it could not be scheduled.

The new remote reservation feature builds on the previous remote adding functionality for waitlists, so now businesses can choose between options of allowing customers to add themselves to the waitlist, schedule reservations, or both.

To enable the feature, log into Waitlist Me, go to the Settings area, and then choose to customize the Public Waitlist Page.  From there you can turn on remote reservations and customize things like the information you require from customers, whether you’d like to skip the approval step to have them automatically scheduled, and more.

Here is how the Settings look:

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The Public Waitlist is one are where customers can see the Make Reservation option.

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And when they press on that it will allow them to enter their info and requested reservation time.

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Another option is to use the Widget on your own website.  Here is an example of how that looks and you can customize the look and feel of the web widget in the Waitlist Me settings.

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