Tired of writing down reservations on paper? Now you can keep track of reservations in the same place as you manage your wait list. In May, we announced our new reservations feature for iOS at the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show. Now we have added reservations to our Android and Clover apps. You can now use our online NoshList waitlist from any browser.

Taking reservations through NoshList is great for any customer reservation call in because it works just like our same-day estimated time of arrivals (ETAs) feature that restaurant staff enter when adding parties. The only difference is that you can choose a future date in addition to a time.

Reservations are also grouped in their own section that you can view by pressing on the calendar icon so you can get an overview of the number of reservations and people by day as well as the details of the individual parties for each day.

Then any reservations for the current day will automatically show up in the ETA section of the waitlist. So, it is easy to get an integrated view of the walk ins waiting and expected people coming in with reservations.

“The new Reservations feature opens up the use of our NoshList app to restaurants and retailers who take advance bookings, and is the first app that offers this type of functionality for multiple industries across iOS, Android, and the web,” said Craig Walker, NoshList founder and CEO. “By continuously updating our wait list app, we are answering the call to create the only wait list platform restaurants and retailers should consider.”

Running a busy restaurant is a balancing act. You want to fill every seat, but you also need to keep your best tables open for VIPs or ensure your staff isn’t overwhelmed by a sudden rush in one single section. Our new Availability and Priority feature gives you the tools to automate your seating strategy exactly how you want it.

Control Your Online Bookings

Not every table needs to be available for online booking. With the Availability setting, you decide which tables the system can auto-assign to self-service customers and which ones you want to hold back for walk-ins or special manual assignments. It’s the easiest way to protect your “power tables” or manage capacity during peak shifts.

Smart Auto-Assignment

When a reservation comes in, who gets the best seat? With Priority, you set the rules.

• Priority 1 tables are filled first.
• Higher numbers act as a fallback.
• Priority 0 keeps tables hidden until every other option is exhausted.

Strategies That Work

Whether you want to fill your most popular window seats first, keep a section clear for a private event, or spread guests evenly across the room to balance the workload for your servers, this feature handles the logic for you.

Getting Started

Ready to optimize your seating? Just head to Account → Settings → Availability and Scheduling → Advanced Scheduling Rules to start setting your priorities.

We are happy to announce that we have lowered our NoshList Premium price with unlimited texts and calls by 59% from $49/mo to $19.99/mo. For existing NoshList Premium users, no action is required, and the new lower rate will automatically be applied with the next billing cycle.

As part of the pricing update we will be changing our free service, which will be limited to 100 parties a month starting July 1, 2014. The hundred party limit will be based on each calendar month, and when the limit is reached, further parties will not be able to be added until the beginning of the next month.

NoshList Premium gives every restaurant unlimited usage of all these features:

– Unlimited text messages and phone call notifications to diners
– Add, remove and seat any number of parties quickly and easily
– Integrated table assignment and management
– Customizable notifications and public waitlist page
– Powerful analytics and downloadable reports
– Customizable quick notes and statuses
– Multi-device syncing
– Guest loyalty tracking
– Multi-place and multi-user management

If you haven’t already, sign in and get the upgrade here for $19.99/mo. to start getting all these features.

The restaurant world is getting a tech upgrade, and it’s powered by AI. OpenTable’s new AI Concierge feature is a big step forward in exposure of the new type of capabilities that are now possible with vertically integrated AI, and it follows the type of features we proved were possible when we launched Perklist’s AI Assistant earlier this year in March.

OpenTable’s Concierge: Summarizing User Reviews

OpenTable, the go-to for reservations, has introduced its AI-powered Concierge. This assistant is integrated directly into the OpenTable app and website and is designed to answer a diner’s questions about a restaurant, like “What are popular dishes?” or “Can I get a vegetarian meal here?” It’s a handy tool that saves diners from having to call the restaurant or dig through different websites.

However, a key point here is where the Concierge currently gets much if not all of its information from customer reviews. The big advantage of this approach is it works with data that OpenTable already has for the restaurants using its platform, but it can be a bit of a double-edged sword for a restaurant. The AI might provide details based on a past review that may not be entirely accurate or up-to-date. A restaurant has less direct control over how this information is presented, and the AI’s response might not always perfectly align with what the business wants to communicate. Still the simplicity of just turning on this feature for existing customers with many reviews is key, and OpenTable can allow restaurants to refine or better control the feature over time.

Perklist’s AI Assistant: Utilizing Restaurant Menus and Other Information

On the other side, Perklist offers an AI Assistant that’s all about empowering the restaurant. This tool is a chatbot that a business can add to its own website and gives more control to the restaurant in the menu and other information it uses for its interactions with customers.

To set it up, you simply upload your own official menu, product list, or other business information. The AI assistant then uses this exact information—and only this information—to answer customer questions. A restaurant can also add custom details about their policies, FAQs, and hours. This means that a customer’s question about a specific menu item will be answered with the restaurant’s own description, not with an interpretation from an online review. Perklist puts the business directly in the driver’s seat, ensuring the message is always accurate and on-brand, and makes it easy to update and keep the information accurate and aligned with the business goals.

The Public Waitlist page, which allows customers to see where they are in line while they wait, is also a great branding touchpoint.  When you add a customer to the list a link to the public waitlist is included in the confirmation text they receive and allows them to easily see where they are in line from their phone browser.  Waiting is less painful when customers have visibility into the wait process and the flexibility to leave the waiting area without worrying about losing their place in line. For your business, it helps cut down on walkaways

as well as repeated questions regarding how long until it’s their turn.

An important set of benefits that is often overlooked, however, includes the opportunities to provide more customized messaging on the public waitlist page at different stages in the wait: while they are waiting, when it is their turn, and after they are served.  Pro users can further customize these touchpoints.

Waiting – While customers are waiting and checking their place in line from the public waitlist, customizing the bottom part of the page is a great way to give them something to do while they wait. You can highlight specials, encourage people to join a loyalty program, and more.

Ready – When you notify customers that you are ready for them, the screen changes to highlight it is their turn with a new message and image along with options for them to communicate whether they are on their way or need to cancel. If you have any special instructions for when they arrive, this is a good place to include those as a reminder to customers.

Served – After a customer has been served, they don’t need to check their wait any longer, but the public page provides a final opportunity to say thank you.

There is a simple message and image by default, and with a Pro subscription, you can make it more personal and customized to your brand.  You can add a picture of your team, show a thank you message from your owner, invite people to join your loyalty program, suggest leaving a review, or other things you might want to add as part of your thank you.