I was at a restaurant last night where they gave me one of those awful pagers. Not only did it vibrate though, it also repeatedly shouted at me, "Your table is ready." It was disruptive and surely annoyed the other patrons while we settled up at the restaurant's bar and made our way down to the host stand.
It made me really wish I could just get a discreet SMS telling me to take my table.
I was debating doing this over AR. The value prop to the restaurant is incredible: no $2k upfront investment, no ongoing theft or breakage of expensive pager devices, demonstrable revenue boost, and if you're clever you can get people to sign up for SMS marketing.
It also makes me wonder why OpenTable hasn't tried this already as an upsell to their existing restaurant clients, since I'm sure they still deal with walk-ins and are looking for something classier than a vibrating/talking drink coaster. The advantage to the restaurant there is that then it'd be already integrated into their table inventory tool.
OpenTable has the advantage too of already having lots of their customers' phone numbers on file, which opens the door to some interesting matching/analytics opportunities.
Restaurant A might want to know, for example, that many of the same customers who walk in to their restaurant make reservations at B & C instead -- perhaps A might want to make changes so that people plan ahead to eat there rather than just walk in.
Demonstrable revenue boost? I'm not convinced, although I'm not a restaurateur. My argument: those annoying pagers/buzzers keep the party tethered to the establishment, which means that the guests are likely to
a) Sit at the bar and order a drink
b) Sit in the waiting area and read posters/chalkboards about upcoming events, happy hour specials, gift certificates/loyalty programs, etc.
Either way, the restaurant comes out ahead (especially at the bar, where alcoholic beverage margins make every restaurant owner smile). I wouldn't be surprised if a restaurant saw a decrease in drinks purchased if customers were allowed to freely wander beyond the range of those pager devices.
What I hate is that if you walk too far away, while waiting in a mall or something like that, the little vibrating coasters just don't work. SMS works even if you wander off
I work at Twilio on Twilio Fund, and want to make sure everyone knows we're still accepting submissions through the end of the year at Twiliofund.com. If you were one of the companies that submitted and was not announced today, you are still under consideration.
Thanks all for the comments. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about Textaurant that you might have. Feel free to email me at josh (at) textaurant (dot) com, or drop us a line on our own blog!
I was at a restaurant last night where they gave me one of those awful pagers. Not only did it vibrate though, it also repeatedly shouted at me, "Your table is ready." It was disruptive and surely annoyed the other patrons while we settled up at the restaurant's bar and made our way down to the host stand.
It made me really wish I could just get a discreet SMS telling me to take my table.