Let’s be honest, so far, the weather hasn’t been ideal for alfresco dining this year.
Rainstorms and flooding all but washed the customers away for a while, and just when the sun had started to come out in the UK, sand from the Sahara then chased people back indoors again. What next – April blizzards?
Fortunately the good news is that Easter could be a warm one, and may signify the start of a good, long summer. Which is of course great for the hospitality industry. Warm weather allows many premises with outdoor space to double their capacity, while higher temperatures inevitably make people thirstier.
So how do you capitalise on the sunshine and make sure that you give your alfresco diners first class table service, including responding quickly when they order extra drinks to cool off?
We see this as another clear example of how getWaiter! improves the customer experience. Using the cloud-based hospitality display service means that however big your outside space, you can ensure your waiters always know exactly who needs serving.
It doesn’t even matter if every customer outside is hidden from view, because the tablet your waiting team use to access the cloud-based merchant dashboard will instantly notify them when they are needed.
We are currently running a number of pilots in pubs, restaurants and hotels both in the UK and in Europe, and managers are telling us that they can see particular advantages to using getWaiter! when the sun shines.
The general manager of a UK pub told us they were impressed with how easy getWaiter! was to use, and that guests really liked the idea. He added that he couldn’t wait to test it out when the weather warmed up, saying: “The system worked from all sections of the garden and sent the right information with the correct table numbers. Guests found it quite quirky and simple to set up and use.”
His views were echoed by the director of a holiday resort in Spain. She too liked the idea that wherever their guests were – whether by the pool, on the terrace or elsewhere in the grounds – her staff knew instantly when they needed something. She anticipated that getWaiter! would really come into its own during a warm Easter break.
She told us: “We’re really enjoying using getWaiter! and so are our guests. As soon as we started using the service, we understood the ways it could help us improve our performance, and we think we will see a big impact during Easter. Warm weather of course means busier staff, and getWaiter! will help us make sure we maintain our high standards.”
It’s really easy for restaurants, bars and hotels to set up a free account, so find out more here. Get set up now, and then when the sun hopefully arrives for the Easter holidays, you’ll be ready to reap the benefits.
getWaiter! is just as easy for customers to use too. It’s available as a free download for both iOS and Android here
