Guest pagers.
This bit of 80’s technology just doesn’t want to go away. They’re still in use in plenty of restaurants across the country, and it’s easy to see why. They make your waitlist a lot easier to manage. But are they really the best option?
If you’re in the restaurant business, you probably have heard from lots of folks that you must have guest pagers if you’re going to be taken seriously. While they’re certainly better than calling out names over an intercom, there are other options available today.
Many restaurateurs are choosing a more up-to-date form of technology to manage their waiting guests. Waitlist apps have taken the industry by storm and with their low buy-in and easy-to-train systems, it’s no wonder. But are they just a passing fad?
Kuma’s Corner, a beloved Chicago-area eatery with a few locations around the Windy City and its suburbs, was having trouble with scalability. They wanted to offer the same fabulous service and delicious food that delighted guests at their original location, but needed a new way of managing guests since their waitlist could be up to 2 hours long on a busy night.
But where does a gourmet burger joint known for macaroni and cheese, heavy metal, and whiskey on tap turn? They ditched the old-school pagers and implemented the NextME waitlist app instead.
In addition to saving $4,000 off the top by not having to buy a paging system each time they open a new location, they’ve seen a hefty improvement. This included a 25% increase in customer retention. And they were able to extend their peak hours by 30-60 minutes too!