[August 13, 2007]

Mobile Handheld Wait List Manager Helps Restaurant Increase Profitability

Background
Queuent�s Wait List Manager is a web-based application that enables popular restaurants to easily and efficiently call waiting guests on their mobile phones to let them know seating is available. Guests can then confirm, delay, or cancel seating. Guests have the freedom to go where they like and the restaurant knows if and when a guest will be returning. Wait List Manager replaces legacy paging and intercom systems and eliminates the frustration of limited beeper radius and disruptive intercom announcements.

To operate Wait List Manager, the hosts use a touch screen computer to capture the guest�s party information, seating preference, and mobile phone number. When a table becomes available, the host or manager selects the next party to be called, and the system calls the guest�s mobile phone. Guests respond by pushing buttons to confirm, delay by 15 minutes, or cancel their seating to inform the restaurant of their status.

Challenge
For Six Feet Under, a popular Atlanta seafood restaurant, guests must often wait for more than an hour in the upstairs patio, entry lobby, or bar area during peak weekend dining hours. Managing waiting customers became critical because the crowding caused many guests to become irritated with the hostess, caused confusion with the restaurant staff, and resulted in guests leaving or not even entering the restaurant. Six Feet Under had tried a loudspeaker system, but management felt that it was disruptive and ineffective. Nor were they interested in incorporating an unwieldy and costly pager system.

When Six Feet Under installed Wait List Manager in April of 2007 on a traditional point of sale computer located by the restaurant entrance, the results were extremely positive. However, due to the fact that the restaurant is spread out over 2 levels, the popularity of the restaurant, and the volume of waiting parties being managed, it was nearly impossible for restaurant staff to add incoming parties to the wait list and call parties that were ready to be seated simultaneously from a single system. A bottle neck situation often ensued at the hostess desk.

Solution
The challenge of easily moving guests, from various areas of the restaurant, to their seats was solved by providing upstairs staff with mobile TabletKiosk� eo� UMPC to access the Wait List Manager from anywhere in the restaurant. Armed with an eo� UMPC, Six Feet Under managers are now stationed throughout the restaurant to call guests and direct them to their tables, without returning to the hostess desk to remove them fro the wait list. During the busiest dining hours, Six Feet Under manages the crowds using the hostess computer and four eo UMPCs.

Results
Using a TabletKiosk� eo� running Wait List Manager, the front hostess and upstairs staff are now able to manage waiting customers in real-time, coordinate guest seating, and move guests through the lobby and waiting area to their tables more quickly and efficiently.

Restaurant management has noticed that guests are more willing to wait for a table when they are not confined to one area of the restaurant or can leave the property without worrying about losing their place on the list.

�On busy weekends, we often pull four eo� UMPCs upstairs so that the upstairs staff can communicate with the front hostess desk,� commented Leah Grossman, General Manager of Six Feet Under. Guests often comment on how we have embraced this new technology, and we appreciate their positive feedback.�

Together, Queuent�s Wait List Manager and TabletKiosk eo� greatly improved restaurant flow, increased table turn, and reduced congestion � Dramatically improving customer satisfaction and boosting the restaurant�s bottom line revenue.

Contact Information

TabletKiosk
386 Beech Ave. Suite 6
Torrance, CA (News - Alert) 90501
www.tabletkiosk.com

Gail Levy
310-782-1201

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