7 things you need in a waitlist management system
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Hungry diners in busy areas are becoming accustomed to a revolution in waitlist management. Wait times are shorter thanks to SMS notifications that help to eliminate no-shows. Walk-ins have a more accurate look into their wait time odds, and check-ins can happen at the touch of a button, supporting a maître d’ with the convenience of a tablet kiosk.
Like it or not, the world is getting faster by the day. Gen Z and millennials are used to on-demand social media and expect the real world to keep up the pace. From mom-and-pop diners to national chains, waitlist management that provides real-time updates has become an expected component of the guest experience.
In this article, we’ll break down how to choose a good waitlist management system so you can have happier customers and less stressed staff members.
What is waitlist management and why does it matter?
Once someone makes a reservation, there are days or hours away from sitting down to enjoy a meal in your restaurant. Waitlist management is how you optimize that time from booking to eating. It’s an essential part of restaurant management that’s all about offering the best experience you can to stop people from canceling their table or, even worse, not showing up at all.
There’s only so much you can do to improve the customer experience of being stuck in a queue. You can offer umbrellas to patient diners stuck in the rain. If you have the space, you can add a waiting room to entertain families. You can build a bar so diners can spend money and enjoy themselves while waiting for their table.
You can even tell diners how long the wait is, take their name and tell them when to return. But the risks of no-shows, lateness, and organizational chaos are high in this scenario.
This is where the saving grace of waitlist management technology comes in. Solve no-show issues, keep diners happy, and even free up staff by employing the services of an online waitlist management tool that helps to seamlessly automate the entire experience for you, your staff, and, most importantly, the diners.
7 features to look for in a waitlist management system
So, what should restaurateurs look for when choosing a digital waitlist system? Some of the most important functionalities include:
- POS integration: Waitlist management software should sync effortlessly with your POS system to save time, streamline workflows for your staff, and retain guest data for future CRM use.
- Text features: Text notifications update customers on the status of their wait and two-way messaging allows for smooth communication.
- Online status updates: You’ll want automatic table status updates sent by your restaurant waitlist software.
- Table management integrations: Allow guests to modify party sizes and choose specific seating with features like Guaranteed Seating, now available via Yelp Guest Manager.
- Part of a broader reservation management system: The system should work as part of your online booking tool to effortlessly blend your waitlist with reservations.
- Accurate wait times: This automatically provides estimated wait times to keep customers up to date. Guest Manager quotes wait times with up to 96% accuracy.*
- Walk-in self-check in options: This can either be with online check-in features or an automated host stand like Yelp Kiosk.
These features all make for a fully modern queue management system that’s a long way from the handwritten lists and buzzers of the past. Customers get an improved dining experience from knowing what to expect, and businesses can improve profitability by taking a load off the FOH team, meaning you can potentially schedule less people per shift.
How to implement a new waitlist management system
Naturally, staff will need training using the new restaurant waitlist system. Consider the following steps when implementing your new system:
- Conduct a group training session demonstrating the new system, fielding questions and allowing staff to browse all the features
- Train FOH managers and lead servers thoroughly in one-on-one sessions so they can further train other staff as necessary
- Conduct dry runs before any service time, demonstrating to staff how the tech works in real-time and letting them browse features on a laptop or iPad
- Restaurant owners collect questions for the software provider they’re unable to answer themselves
Customer support varies widely across the best restaurant waitlist apps. While some services send you to online training videos, Yelp Guest Manager customers are paired with a real human onboarding manager who answers the phone and can help with questions in real-time. The same onboarding manager will remain with the customer for the duration of the onboarding process.
Yelp’s unique waitlist management system
What does almost every potential customer interested in your restaurant currently own?
A smartphone.
And they’re usually checking them every 10 minutes. With access to waitlist management providers like Yelp Guest Manager, you have a direct line to your hungry customers. You’ll know instantly about cancellations. Your guests will receive text messages keeping them updated about their place in line. This will improve the overall customer flow to your restaurant by making the experience of waiting more personal for them and giving you more comprehensive insight into waiting trends.
Let’s take a look at the individual components of Yelp Guest Manager.
Reservations and waitlist
Yelp boasts 80 million unique users per month. People who are searching on Yelp are a captured audience on the hunt for food. So firstly, make sure that your restaurant is claimed on Yelp so that your place will appear in searches that appeal to your demographic.
The app allows users to make a reservation and provides real-time waiting time for people who join the wait list remotely. People can use the Yelp app from anywhere, so they can wait wherever they want, meaning no extra cost to you to build a waiting area or bar.
Virtual waitlists allow you to monitor analytics to understand your no-show rate better and make adjustments to reduce it in the future. What’s not to love?
Two-way texting
Once smartphone users join the online waitlist, they input their phone numbers. This enables two-way communication between you and your diners. They’ll receive text messages about their place in the line and updates on their check-in time.
People stay engaged, which can cut down line abandonment and even cull the dreaded no-show. Restaurateurs dealing with high amounts of cancellations may want to look into the adjustable credit card holding service Yelp offers.
Kiosk
When the wait is over, your customers get to sit down and enjoy that exciting first glance at your menu. But, before a customer can do that, they usually have to announce their presence to a host.
Yelp Kiosk covers this final stage of waitlist management. Using an iOS or Android tablet with the Kiosk software installed, diners can check themselves in. This technology frees up your host to focus on serving people on a more personal level and takes some more pressure off your front-of-house manager.
Every time a person checks in, people using the Yelp app will be notified of their new position in the queue. This is what seamless waitlist management looks like.
Combining Yelp Guest Manager with a point of sale system means diners can pay at their tables rather than at a single payment location. This further speeds up customer flow by putting the power of taking payment into the hands of all your servers.
Don’t get left behind with waitlist management
Waiting is often an inevitable part of eating out, but utilizing waitlist management technology can make the experience less stressful and even enjoyable.
There’s more to Yelp Guest Manager than a reservation system and waitlist app. Seamless integrations with all your favorite tech tools like POS systems and software, a fully customizable floor plan and FOH management, and powerful analytics all combine to give you flexibility and performance. Coming in hot at a flat monthly rate also makes Guest Manager the best bang-for-the-buck in the FOH software game.
Get a demo of Yelp Guest Manager to see how it improves your restaurant’s waitlist management and operations. After all, restaurants that start using Guest Manager experience up to 2X the traffic on their Yelp Business Page.**