We are in a college town and have 3 extremely busy hours from midnight to about 3am. Most of the people coming in are coming from the bars across the street. We have a small lobby and squeeze about 20-30 people in there waiting on their order or trying to order. The problem we have is right now we use peoples names for pickup, because most can not remember their phone numbers, and when we call out the name everyone in the lobby becomes that person. Does anyone have a great way to identify people that order at the counter with 20 other screaming drunk people waiting for their food also?
I am assuming you have a POS system. I go by the order number for walk-in customers. They are given the receipt and told the number.
You could use a pager system. When they place the order give them a pager and Buzz them when their order is ready.
That sounds good in theory. But I believe that you are giving drunk college kids too much credit.
We have a first & last name, and an order number, we do not have drunken idiots, and we still have people trying to grab somebody else’s food.
Then of course we had counter people who wouldn’t even verify a name or order number, just hand food to people without even seeing if they paid, and I’d see 30-50 tickets each name all with the same name of 'Wireless Caller"
Oh, those people are no longer here because one night I turned into johhny missilehead when a server gave a customer $87.00 worth of food when he only ordered a $7.50 sandwich, then I find out she didn’t even collect that $7.50.
But of course this was the same person who busted open all my rolled coin to count the coins in the roll!! Those paint chips must taste really good or something.
One place we ate recently ( The Copper River Grill) used a system that sent a text message to your phone when you table was ready rather than the pagers. No lost or stolen pagers, no dead batteries. I was concerned because I did not want to get hounded with txt marketing, but since I picked the place I could not balk in front of the family.(Once in while you have to get a Bigfoots Mother-in-law burger) After we left they sent me a text message thanking me for my visit, asking if we had any comments and providing a link to opt into their marketing. I did not opt in and never heard from them again.
The situation you describe sounds ideal for this system since all the customers have their face buried in their phones anyway texting and updating social media.
Wait they have to stop? catching pokemon to see the text message…
I am opening a location with a drive thru and opting to not install drive thru speaker system , hoping that customers will order online instead !! I like the pager idea and searching saw several options (see below), Anyone have and experience or a similar service they recommend, would be awesome to integrate with POS (Point of Success may be an angle for you over the big boys)
[SIZE=4]Table’s Ready - Restaurant Text Message Notifications[/SIZE]
tablesready.com/
Table’s Ready is a paging system that uses your guests’ cell phones instead of expensive … Texting customers frees them from waiting on top of the host stand.
[SIZE=4]Freshtxt | Wait management made simple.[/SIZE]
https://www.freshtxt.com/
Freshtxt is a restaurant messaging system utilizing text message technology. Your guest simply provides his or her name and mobile phone number, chooses …
[SIZE=4]WaitAway | Text Message Paging for your Restaurant or Business[/SIZE]
https://www.waitawayapp.com/
WaitAway eases the pain of wait times. Text Message alerts for your customers, analytics for yourbusiness and simple wait list management to keep guests …
[SIZE=4]6 Waitlist Management Tools for Restaurants | Street Fight[/SIZE]
streetfightmag.com/2014/06/17/6-waitlist-management-tools-for-restaurants/
Jun 17, 2014 - When a table is ready, a text or call is placed to the guest. … Manage your wait list remotely, sync devices in real time, receive daily reports,
I saw this also : http://www.pickupready.com/ anyone have experience with or recommend another option,