Yelp vs. Wisely: Everything you need to know

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Running a successful restaurant requires much more than making great food. When you consider everything involved, it might seem overwhelming. Thankfully, technology allows restaurants to automate many time-consuming tasks. In this article, we take a look at Yelp vs. Wisely. Yelp Guest Manager is Yelp’s front-of-house system, and Wisely is a new technology platform for restaurant management. Each provides various solutions for restaurant owners and operators.

Creating a great restaurant guest experience involves a complex ecosystem with many moving parts. Managing reservations, waitlists, table assignments, and takeout orders is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to restaurant operations. Leading an effective marketing strategy to bring in new customers and drive loyalty is another important factor to consider.

To help you decide on Yelp vs. Wisely, we’ve compared the two platforms side by side. Seeing their similarities, differences, and functionality should help you determine which system is a fit for your restaurant.

Yelp for Restaurants

While Yelp is largely known as the popular online review site, it also provides an all-in-one front-of-house system for restaurant owners. Yelp for Restaurants offers a variety of services that operators can control from one iPad, including Reservations, Waitlist, Kiosk, Ads, and Connect. They recently released a new offering as well, Yelp Guest Manager, that bundles these services into not just one device, but also one cohesive system for seamless restaurant management.

Yelp for Restaurants benefits

Yelp for Restaurants provides a suite of services for restaurant owners and operators to manage their front-of-house operations. Here’s what you can expect with Yelp for Restaurants:

Front-of-house management

• Reservation management maximizes occupancy by assigning the right groups to the right tables.
• Waitlist management uses proprietary algorithms to predict wait times nearly twice as accurately as most hosts.
• Table management allows you to create custom floor plans.
• Takeout management creates a separate tab for takeout and pickup orders alongside waitlists and reservations, making it easier to keep track of on-premise vs. off-premise sales.

Guest management

• Guest data collection allows you to easily keep track of important information like favorite orders, visit frequency, dining preferences, and special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries.
• Integration with most major point-of-sale (POS) systems gives you a comprehensive view of customer behavior and orders.
• Email collection allows you to follow up with email marketing for guests after their visit.
• Two-way SMS messaging lets you text guests on the waitlist to notify them about their table status.
• Loyalty programs convert first-time and infrequent visitors into regulars.

Guest experience

• Online waitlists allow diners to add themselves to waitlists from the comfort of their own home, view live wait times, and receive notifications on both iOS and Android when their table is ready.
• Online restaurant reservations provide customers with table-booking on your website as well as through Yelp’s website or a mobile app.
• Scannable QR codes let guests join a waitlist or view digital menus.
• Online ordering and delivery drive off-premise sales.
• Photos and reviews leverage Yelp’s leading local business directory and customer base.

Marketing automation and branding

• Yelp Connect is a special service that allows restaurants to promote special events, featured menu items, and positive reviews to an audience already primed to dine with them.
• Yelp Ads help you stand out among the crowd in the eyes of potential customers.

Yelp Guest Manager benefits

Yelp Guest Manager is the newest addition to Yelp for Restaurants. It provides restaurant owners with a one-stop shop to handle reservations, table management, waitlists, takeout, and marketing. While Yelp for Restaurants creates a full front-of-house system, Yelp Guest Manager makes managing each of these features even easier.

Here’s what you can expect from Yelp Guest Manager:

• Reservations and waitlists let you accept reservations and waitlist entries right from your Yelp page.
• Table management provides custom floor maps and sections to properly organize hosts and servers.
• Takeout management allows you to monitor pickup orders and text guests in real time.
• Kiosk lets guests check into waitlists on-site, freeing up time for hosts to focus on seating guests.
• Online ordering is available through Olo, one of the restaurant industry’s leading ordering services.
• Loyalty programs can be accessed through Punchh, a leading restaurant loyalty platform.

Yelp Connect benefits

Yelp Connect is a game changer for restaurant marketing, empowering business owners to reach prospective visitors with tailored content that meets their needs and dining desires. When deciding on Yelp vs. Wisely, it’s especially important to think about the marketing value your front-of-house system will deliver, and Yelp Connect’s functionality serves as a valuable resource.

Whether you’re looking to boost your social media game, reach more customers via email through Yelp’s extensive network, or better engage your audience when they visit your Yelp page, Yelp Connect allows restaurateurs to connect with potential customers on a new level.

Here are a few highlights from Yelp Connect:

• Tailored calls to action, also known as CTAs, allow prospective customers to book a table, join a waitlist, or order online directly from a social media post.
• Smart messaging can be geared toward people who dine near you most frequently as well as to people who have visited your Yelp page already.
• With its broad reach, Yelp pushes your content to a large customer base.

Yelp for Restaurants drawbacks

Yelp for Restaurants works best for restaurants that have a strong customer base. Where Yelp’s network of diners is an important tool for introducing new or less busy restaurants to high-intent consumers, there is no guarantee that their front-of-house software will make you busier overnight. It takes time to build a recognizable brand and offering. Many new restaurants start early on Yelp, but shouldn’t expect to be swamped with Yelp diners immediately.

Yelp for Restaurants pricing

Yelp for Restaurants starts at $249 per month. And while other platforms charge cover fees and setup fees, Yelp for Restaurants sticks to a flat rate to keep things simple.

Wisely

Relatively new to the restaurant business, Wisely is a technology platform that “revolves around the belief that personal interactions make people feel valued.” Their platform strives to help restaurateurs collect data around their customers to ultimately improve the guest experience.

Wisely benefits

Wisely offers a robust suite of services for restaurant owners and operators, with much of the same functionality as Yelp for Restaurants. Here are some of the features you’ll find with Wisely that don’t yet exist on Yelp:

Front-of-house management

• Ticketed events support restaurants that frequently host private experiences.
• Credit card holds and prepayments allow restaurants to minimize no-shows by accepting payments ahead of time.

Guest management

• With customer relationship management (CRM), Wisely has built a customer data platform specifically for restaurants to better understand their customers and maintain contact moving forward.
• Guest surveys allow restaurateurs to contact customers for feedback after their visit.

Wisely drawbacks

Wisely offers a rich feature set that’s sure to please most restaurant owners from an operational perspective. Their ability to promote your restaurant, however, fails to compete with Yelp Connect and Yelp’s broad customer network. While Wisely primarily works with restaurants directly, Yelp reaches both restaurants and their customers simultaneously, creating a win-win for business owners and diners alike.

Wisely pricing

Wisely ranges from $250–560 per location per month for full-service restaurants, with discounts available for concepts with at least five locations. Prices vary based on the features and integrations your restaurant requires.

Yelp vs. Wisely: Who wins?

Yelp for Restaurants and Wisely each present a wealth of benefits for restaurant owners and operators to manage their front-of-house operations. However, choosing a front-of-house system also requires taking a look at the bigger picture. Saving time and reducing stress for your front-of-house staff will help reduce labor costs and turnover while enhancing the guest experience, but converting customers in the first place is equally, if not more, important.

Yelp for Restaurants offers both a full front-of-house system as well as powerful marketing tools for restaurateurs to both manage operations smoothly and boost their sales with new and repeat customers. With such a comprehensive offering for restaurant owners, operators, and customers, Yelp for Restaurants emerges as the winner in the Yelp vs. Wisely contest.

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