Now Your Phone Can Wait in Line for You

Pittsburgh-based NoWait has developed an app that effectively replaces restaurant pagers with smartphones, and adds a whole lot of intelligence on top of it.
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If you've dined out in the last decade (all those hipper-than-thou food trucks don't count) you're familiar with the restaurant pager. Those hockey puck-sized hunks of plastic that light up like you've won the lottery when your table is ready at the local Cheesecake Factory. Kids love them, but they don't do much more than tell you it's time to leave the waiting area (or bar) and shuffle up to the host stand. Seems like your smartphone could do something well, smarter.

Two-year-old NoWait is right there with you. The Pittsburgh-based startup has developed an app that effectively replaces those pagers with smartphones, and adds a whole lot of intelligence on top of it.

Instead of a dedicated system to page people when their table is ready, NoWait has created an iOS app that sends text message and phone call notifications to hungry folks waiting for tables. As long as they see the text message or hear the pre-recorded call, customers can linger at the bar, or leave the restaurant entirely to shop for socks in the mall until it's their turn to sit down.

Here's how it works: You walk into a restaurant and ask for a table. The host gets your name and phone number, enters the information into NoWait's app on an iPad (or any iOS device), and then sends a text message with an approximate wait time. If you have a smartphone, you are also sent a link that shows you how many parties are in front of you. You're then free to go do whatever you want in the time NoWait has granted you. You're confident that a table awaits, and that the pushy family of four hovering nearby won't weasel their way to the front of the queue.

In return, the restaurant now has a directory of phone numbers and names to which they can send special offers, such as "show this message to your server for half off our nachos." Hosts also have the ability to do more than signal someone that their table is ready. The NoWait system allows for a conversation -- it could be about table selection or unforeseen delays. Customers can even send cancellation notices, so the restaurant isn't left hanging when they decide they want Japanese food after all. The system also records average wait times, and the number of customers that come back to eat versus those that walk out. Best of all, the restaurant doesn't have to worry about lost, expensive pagers.

The downside? If there is any for the restaurants, it's that you might not stick around to drink at the bar. Still, the restaurants that have signed up for NoWait, including selected Red Robin and TGI Friday’s and locally owned establishments in 45 states, apparently aren't concerned about that.

To build out its technology and expand its sales reach NoWait just closed a $2 million round with its hometown VC Birchmere Ventures. Competitors to NoWait include NoshList, BuzzTable, and OpenTable, all of which text or call patrons when their table is ready. NoWait plans to compete by offering a completely free service for up to 200 parties per month. If your restaurant does more business than that, and it better, plans start at $59 per month.

While it would be sad to see the expert host and hostess get completely replaced by an app, when everything else in our lives is communicated through our phones, adding notification about when your table is ready seems as inevitable as a saying "yes" to a slice of Oreo Dream Extreme cheesecake.