Unemployed as well?Nothing says romantic dinner like having your restaurant host or hostess hand you a large, square hockey puck, tricked out with LED lights and a vibrator. However, that may be changing with a new start-up called ReadyPing.
Instead of relying on a stimulating light show, ReadyPing sends a text to your cell when the table is ready. That's right, RTM (Restaurant Text Messaging) is here.
The restaurant -- presuming they pay ReadyPing's $35/month flat fee -- will enter your number and send a text when they can seat you. You can try out the action on their home page. Apparently, my table at Joey's Steakhouse(?) is ready-- be right over.
This got us thinking about what to do with the old hardware...
Top 7 Ideas For Recycled Restaurant Pagers
- Fruity drink coasters -- that mix as well
- "Peacemakers" for unruly patrons
- Hi-tech tapas plates
- Club kid geek bling
- Throwing stars for less-subtle ninjas
- Affordable babysitters
- Restaurant pagers for chains that don't have $35/month to spare
If you have any other suggestions, we'll forward them on...
Source: TrendCentral
Posted March 23rd, 2009 at 7:19pm Permanent Link
All Comments (6)
readyping uses SMTP gateways to send text messages for free. This means that when you enter a customer's phone number, you also have to enter his cell phone carrier. The service is not interactive. There's no way for a customer to reply to the SMS. There's no support for voice calls. Freshtxt doesn't do voice calls. It's not interactive. It doesn't offer analytics. It doesn't support multiple queues. It only works for restaurants. Check out QLess (http://qless.com) for a much more mature product offering. QLess is interactive, support both voice calls and SMS, provides customers with forecast wait times, and provides detailed analytics.
Posted: 12 Apr 2009 18:39:32 GMT ReplyFlag
The Freshtxt system works much better and includes more features. Freshtxt ( http://freshtxt.com )will manage your wait list, reservations and seating chart for you. Freshtxt also allows you to capture numbers to send out sms marketing to customers using their intuitive interface as well. Add the ability to take reservations through the web with their new web reservation widget, and you've got an efficient system that outpaces the competition in every way.
Posted: 6 Apr 2009 06:09:07 GMT ReplyFlag
What if the patrons don't have cell phones?
Posted: 26 Mar 2009 03:00:34 GMT ReplyFlag
Maybe I expect too high a level of service, but is it too much to ask for the host/ hostess to come over and tell me my table is ready?
Posted: 24 Mar 2009 17:21:19 GMT ReplyFlag
I think this is a very cool idea, but worry that some patrons may be tentative to give our their cell number in fear of text spam.
Posted: 24 Mar 2009 14:21:29 GMT ReplyFlag
um, these things vibrate. there's only one thing that the ladies will be using these for.
Posted: 23 Mar 2009 23:29:57 GMT ReplyFlag