Why Aldelo Express? Reservations and Wait List Module

By: Jerry Wilson
Vice President of Merchant Services, Aldelo LP

The Scenario

It’s Friday night and your restaurant is full.  It is time that you start turning your tables.  This is where your reservations and wait list come into play.  The problem is, your reservations are in a spiral notebook and your wait list is on a piece of paper.  Your hostess is absolutely guessing as to the wait time and quoting 30 minutes to everyone who walks in.  Your next turn of your restaurant is in severe danger of going out the door.

The potential diners put their name on the wait list, turn around and immediately activate their phone’s search engine and ask for “restaurants near me”.  What they are looking for is a restaurant that is within 5-10 minutes with open seating and no wait.

Today’s restaurant guest is not as patient as diners in year’s past.  They are too tech savvy and understand that there may be a restaurant with an open table just a few minutes down the road.  If your restaurant does not properly manage reservations and a wait list you could easily miss out on diners who simply go down the street.  Your next turn of your restaurant is walking out the door simply because your customers are more tech savvy than you are.

The Solution

Aldelo Express iPad POS software includes a feature rich Reservations, Wait List and Table Management Module at no extra charge.

Take Advance Reservations – With this module your staff may take reservations days in advance.  Options for this module include the ability to attach a customer profile to the reservation.  This will allow you to save important details such as number of people in the party, number of children, do they need a high chair and any special occasions or notes.  You may even attach a specific table to the reservation.
If you attach a customer profile to the reservation the system will track their purchases and report on their activity.  Future reservations can be made by recalling their profile with only the last 4 digits of their phone number or their last name.

The module tracks when the reservation has arrived and seated.  You may also print the guest check and/or seating ticket when they are seated.
 
Wait List – For those guests that do not make a reservation you can use the wait list feature to track them in the system.  The guests on the wait list are kept in the order of their arrival and the number of minutes that they have been waiting appears below their name.

When they are seated you have the option to printer a seating ticket or the guest check.

Table Management System – Aldelo Express has a very nice table management feature that allows you to set up multiple dining rooms with table icons for each table.  These icons show the number of seats at each table so your hostess does not improperly seat a party.  The table icons may be moved to accurately portray the layout of the restaurant.  The status of each table is shown with different color icons for open, seated, check printed, paid and reserved.

Rearrange the restaurant?  No problem for Aldelo Express.  Just drag and drop the table icons in the new configuration.

The Conclusion

The Reservations and Wait List Module in Aldelo Express brings your operation forward with current technology to keep track of your customers, keep pace with your guests and help insure that through a smooth operation at the hostess station that you are getting the maximum turn of your restaurant.  With the ability to take advanced reservations your POS system will help streamline your operation.  Through the wait list function you will better manage the walk-in traffic.  With the table management feature you will be better able to seat open tables, know when the next table is about to be open and take full advantage of every available table.

Aldelo Express is much more than simple iPad POS.  It will be a valuable part of the profitable management of your entire operation.

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