Kyle
I like casual dining and I like chain restaurants. As you guys know we travel all the time, especially during our sneaker strapped nationwide startup road trip. Casual dining and chain restaurants save us time, and aggregation because I know what’s on the menu and what to expect.
One of the problems though is wait times. They vary from state to state and city to city. The way wait times are handled also varies from state to state, city to city and restaurant to restaurant. You may wait until your name is called over a PA system. You may have to wait until the host or hostess screams your name out loud. Or you may have to wait until the beeper/vibrator goes off in your pocket.
Here’s a scenario for you. You arrive at a nice casual dining restaurant or a chain, that’s in a nice big outdoor mall type shopping center. The Apple store is just across the parking lot, and too far for the restaurant pager to work. You want to go to the Apple store but you arrive at the restaurant at 7:25 and the Apple store closes at 9, oh well you’ll have to wait until another day.
Now imagine if the restaurant could automagically text you when your table is ready. Now you can go just about anywhere within reason, and wait for your table. Imagine if you could text the restaurant back and tell them you really need 20 more minutes.
All of this has become a reality thanks to Pittsburgh startup NoWait.
NoWait uses a system fueled by iPads and other iOS devices that keeps the host/hostess, managers, servers and customers in-sync thanks to the cloud. The host/hostess app has a very familiar feel to it, reminiscent of the paper, or white board systems that many restaurants have employed until now. But thanks to the power of Apple, the cloud and no wait, there’s a lot of back end functionality that maximizes convenience and time for the customer. Of course time is our most precious commodity.
This is the idea behind NoWait, founded by Robb Meyer, Luke Panza, Richard Colvin and James Belt.
Really it was all a matter of time before someone somewhere developed a system like this and, it happened to be these four guys, and according to their testimonial video it’s working out great. Their video includes feedback from managers of chains like the Spaghetti Warehouse and local favorites like Burgatory Bar in Pittsburgh.
Now of course we know that no startup is going to put bad testimonials into their video but the testimonials seemed authentic and there’s a lot of footage provided that shows active, busy restaurants utilizing the technology.
NoWait’s quick pitch is that they are the “Open Table” of casual dining. This seems like a good analogy but it may not necessarily do NoWait justice. Where OpenTable requires the adoption of the user themselves, NoWait brings to their technology to anyone who gets in line at the restaurant.
Now if you’re one of those people that doesn’t do texting, doesn’t have a text messaging plan or god forbid you don’t have a phone (chances are you aren’t reading this website), you can still have your name called and wait around the host stand. There won’t be a huge crowd waiting, everyone else will be out enjoying their evening until they get their text message.
One of our favorite sites, DailyDealMedia doesn’t quite understand how NoWait reduces wait time, so let’s explain it real quick.
Now using NoWait instead of pen and paper, you eliminate the messy writing that can mean you call Dan 100 times over the loudspeaker instead of Don. Dan and Don look a lot alike but tables are lost in this confusion. Now your hostess is explaining to Don why he lost his table, he’s upset, and the host staff is dealing with a situation, not calling tables.
Open tables (no pun intended) are stacking up in the back and now that there are 6 open tables in the restaurant it will actually take longer doing it the old fashion way because you can’t just walk a single file line through a restaurant and drop people off.
That’s just one example of how this decreases wait time.
Another way that it saves wait time is the ability to text back. Say I just got in a heated discussion at the Apple store and I tell the Spaghetti Warehouse I need 20 more minutes. They can now call the next person and bump me down.
Yes, NoWait is a great name for this innovative startup. I just hope they build scale quickly because waiting sucks.
Linkage
Find out more about NoWait here.
Check out DailyDealMedia’s article here
Here’s NoWait’s video here
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