When the weather outside is frightful, where do people go? Indoors, of course! And once cabin fever strikes, they’ll be rushing through sleet, snow, and beyond-freezing temperatures to find diversion at your business.

A waitlist and reservation app is the best way for any small business to manage this kind of forecast. Not only will an app like Waitlist Me improve your customer’s waiting experience, but it will also help you manage your resources, boost your efficiency, and increase your margins.

Keep reading to learn how a waitlist app can help you win over new customers and make more money this winter.

Bowling alleys

Thanks to theme nights, top-notch eats, and a brilliant bar scene, bowling alleys are making a comeback. A waitlist app helps you juggle all your draws. Waitlist Me keeps every guest enjoying their outing thanks to text notifications. When their lane, their table, or their game is ready, they’ll get a heads-up automatically—without needing to physically wait in line.

More businesses that can use this feature:

Skating rinks

Arcades

Casinos

Gyms

“New year, new you” is the mantra health and wellness centers across the world live by. Make it come true for your gym business and your clientele with a little help from a waitlist and reservation app. An app can help balance new clients with regular rise-and-grinders. The newbies can explore different stations (and make an appointment with a private trainer) while gym rats can reserve equipment (and jump right into their usual workout).

More businesses that can use this feature:

Spas

Salons

Rec centers

Shopping malls

Brr! Is there a better place to be on a chilly weekend afternoon than an indoor shopping wonderland? We think not. But to keep people coming in the door, retailers in mall environments need to offer one thing online sellers can’t: superior customer service. While some customers are independent browsers, many are thrilled to take advantage of personal shoppers, especially during the holidays. Stores can use waitlists to offer superior service to individuals who crave personalized attention—and with Waitlist Me, shoppers can wander while they wait.

More businesses that can use this feature:

Cosmetics stores

Bookstores

Thrift stores and consignment stores

Play places

A zillion rowdy tots tumbling into one ball pit? That’s an accident waiting to happen. Indoor play spaces can use a waitlist app to ensure that every wee visitor’s experience is as fun and safe as possible. Station an attendant with a waitlist by the door or by a popular piece of equipment with a maximum occupancy. Add newbies to the waitlist (and cycle players in and out regularly) to let everyone have a turn.

More businesses that can use this feature:

Climbing wall centers

Trampoline parks

Escape rooms

Museums

Savvy visitors want to get the most out of their trip, and that means checking out all the tours and interactive experiences your museum has to offer. Whether you offer living history or natural, performance art or visual, a waitlist app lets your museum’s guests queue digitally. This means they won’t waste a single minute of their visit tapping their toes in line. They can wander through exhibits and, when your docent is ready for them, arrive in time for the grand tour.

More businesses that can use this feature:

Aquariums

Wineries

Breweries

The week coronavirus hit the United States, grocery stores around the nation announced a similar plan: They were going to stagger shopping times to minimize the spread of COVID-19 to the sectors of the population thought to be most vulnerable, the elderly and the immune-compromised.

Most stores’ plans restricted an hour or two of morning grocery shopping time to these customers—and in doing so, introduced a new phrase to the lexicon: staggered waiting.

Wait. Isn’t all waiting staggered?

The short answer: nope.

The old-school, American-style queue amounts to a mosh pit of toe-tapping customers. During normal circumstances, that’s not a good thing. It’s frustrating for your guests and it often leads to lost business. During a pandemic, it’s even worse. You don’t want tons of people crowded together, huffing hot air all over each other!

Waitlists and reservation tools, like Waitlist Me, help businesses stagger waiting in a way that’s become quite familiar. For business owners, it helps even out the traffic flow, ensuring excellent customer service and zero employee overwhelm. For customers, it ensures a positive, efficient experience. Win-win!

Grocery stores are using the idea of staggered waiting a bit differently than most of us are used to, but it’s not actually a new idea. In fact, you’ve probably experienced it before.

How billion-dollar businesses use staggered waiting

Disneyland, the pinnacle of efficient queues, uses a staggered waiting system to provide an extra-special experience to its VIP guests, many of whom visit the parks through organizations like Make A Wish. It’s also offered as a premium, upgraded feature for ticketholders.

Another example of staggered waiting happens weekly at many Target stores across the country. The big box retailer has offered sensory-free shopping hours for customers who are sensitive to light, noise, and crowds for years. It’s been a huge success, especially for those on the autism spectrum.

Ways your business can use staggered waiting today

If you’re looking for new ways to control crowds or traffic patterns, staggered waiting is a concept you should explore. Not sure how that might look for your workplace? Creative ideas can come from different places, and you can look around at what others are doing.  Here are a few examples of how businesses can stagger demand to improve workflows and better cope with COVID-19.

Quick tip: Use Waitlist Me’s custom text notifications to share new waiting policies or instructions with your clients and customers.

– Veterinary office using morning hours for feline appointments and afternoon hours for canine appointments to keep small waiting areas calm.

– Restaurants offering special deals or menu items at different times of the day to encourage people to dine at off-peak hours.

– Tutoring center facilitating study material pick-up staggered by the first letter of students’ last names.

– Auto mechanic offering reverse delivery appointment windows to pick-up cars (and meet with customers) at home rather than at the shop.

– Local organic farmer providing fresh produce home delivery staggered by their customers’ area.

– Doctor’s office splitting patient appointments by background. Immune-compromised and elderly patients are diagnosed car-side, while other patients come inside the office.

– Family-owned pharmacy providing special hours for curbside delivery and in-store pick-up.

We all know kids love Halloween.  But many may not realize how hugely popular the holiday is with adults as well.  Over three quarters of adults aged 18 to 44 plan on getting in on the spooky fun and celebrating Halloween, according to the Statistic Brain Research Institute.

With all the people wanting to get their thrills, chills, or perfect scares, businesses that cater to Halloween experiences are in top demand.  The rush of customers during this season, however, often results in long lines.  That’s why many smart businesses are turning to new technologies like Waitlist Me to improve the waiting experience and serve more customers.

Grandpa Grimm’s KneeKnocker Woods is a haunted attraction that is located in rural Nebraska.  This unique animatronic Halloween experience is set along an old wooded river that snakes through a corn-planted agricultural land. On any given night in October, KneeKnocker Woods draws upwards of 1,000 people, and there are usually long waits for the main attraction.

“This year, instead of people waiting in line, they go into Waitlist Me and then get a notification alerting them of how long they have wait. Once they are in the system they can mingle around and play games, shop or use the concession stand,” said Daniele Vohland, one of the owners of KneeKnocker Woods. “We have a lot of outside activities they can enjoy while they wait, and can check their phone to see where they are in line. It eliminates a lot of confusion for people and they can have more fun during their visit.”

Vohland also noted how the app had helped the employees be more efficient, since there were far fewer customers asking how much longer they would have to wait. Plus, when they did ask, it was easier for employees to estimate their wait with Waitlist Me.  Several customers had even commented on how they liked the new system.

“It is great that Waitlist Me can help businesses better handle the Halloween crowds, so customers can get their scare from the attraction rather than the wait times,” said Brian Hutchins, Waitlist Me CEO.  “Businesses of all kinds use Waitlist Me on a regular basis to serve millions of people a month, and the fact that it also works for seasonal businesses with surges in demand is a testament to its simplicity and flexibility.”

According to America Haunts, there are an estimated 1,200 haunted attractions charging admission fees during the Halloween season. This is in addition to the more than 300 amusement facilities featuring haunted attractions or events and another 3,000 charity attractions open on Halloween day or throughout October. The organization estimates that 90% of all U.S. households with children will participate in at least one Halloween attraction this year.

By Valerie Killifer

The Waitlist Me widget allows customers to add themselves to the waitlist and reservations. It is convenient for customers and saves you the time of having to take down information over the phone.

Whether you choose to have customer requests automatically approved or pending an approval step in the Waitlist Me app, we have a new feature that you can use to limit when these requests can be made.  This helps avoid confusion where a customer might try to add themselves to the waitlist when you are closed or not taking waitlist requests.

Now you can decide if you’d like the widget to take requests all the time with the “24/7” option or you can set the days and times that it would do so.  During the times that you choose to take requests the widget would display as it normally does.  During other times it would show a message you can customize on not being available at that time.

The new widget time display settings are part of the Waitlist Me Pro service.