Yelp Reservations has upgraded the Waitlist Management features with a new look and feel. Why? Efficiency is the name of the game when running a smooth operation. By speeding up common iPad actions and making it easier for your staff to see important information at quick glance, you’re able to get more parties through the host stand and ultimately seat more diners. Check out what’s new below!
Improved waitlist management
On a busy night when you’re booked solid with existing reservations while simultaneously seating walk-ins and managing an active waitlist you need a system that can keep up! We’ve made it easier to quote a wait time, enter a guest phone number, and seat a walk-in party. A simplified waitlist management flow frees up your host to focus on providing excellent hospitality.
Quote time buttons help you quickly quote wait ranges and we learn from your restaurant’s data to surface the top 6 most-commonly used area codes provided by your guests for fast phone number entry.
Diana just walked in with her husband and toddler hoping to get a table without a reservation. Her husband decided last minute he did want to celebrate his birthday. No worries, we have you covered! The updated version provides quick tags under Visit Details to add to your waitlist parties the same way you do with a guest who has a reservation. You can make sure Diana’s family has a special evening.
Quickly notify a party
Notifying a party is now a 1-tap action from the “Walk-in Details” section. Simply tap Notify and if there is a phone number saved the diner will receive an SMS that reads, “Please make your way back to the host stand. Your table will be ready soon.”
The party will then show in the Yelp Reservations system as Notified with a blue bell icon.
Marking a party as arrived and seating parties
When managing a night full of reservations, knowing when a party has arrived is important to maintain the seating flow. Staff can now mark a reservation party as “All Arrived” with one tap.
The time has come to seat your guests, you find their table on the iPad and attempt to drag and drop the party to their assigned table and it’s not working. Your fingers are wet from stealing a sip of water in between seating guests and the iPad isn’t responding to your touch. We have you covered with two-tap seating! Host are now able to select the party, click on their table, and click ‘Seat’ to move guests to the correct spot.
For all you fans of the drag-and-drop seating, have no fear we did not take that ability away. Staff can choose to drag-and-drop to seat a guest or use the two-tap method.
Changes to the party cell
Managing wait times for guests is both expected and notoriously difficult to estimate accurately. With this in mind, Yelp Reservations offers several party cell indicators to help take some of the strain off of your staff’s already overworked brain. We added a couple of new features to the Party Cell, see what’s new:
Time since notified
Hosts can now see when a party was last notified to help decide if the party should be notified again or removed from the waitlist.
No phone icon
We already covered how to quickly notify a party with one tap, but what if the guest didn’t provide their phone number? The No Phone Icon lets the host know if they need to call out the party’s name or if they are okay to send a notification SMS.
New Party Cell:
Have questions? We’re here for you! Please feel free to email our Restaurant Support Team at support@yelpreservations.com.
Happy reservations!
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