THE WAIT
IS OVER
... OR AT LEAST MORE
TOLERABLE: hOw nEw viR TuAL-
quEuE AppS ARE chAnging
RESTAuRAn TS, dMvS, And MORE
by SARAH TURCOT TE
What chefs Michael Chernow and Daniel Holzman wanted when they opened their 39-seat New York eatery the Meatball Shop in 2010 was to create a comfortable local joint for Lower East Siders. What hey got? A 150-person line waiting in the February freeze. The Meatball Shop
was a bona fide hit, and that presented an unexpected
dilemma: “Locals weren’t going to tolerate waits like
that,” says Chernow. To keep hungry neighbors happy,
he had hostesses take phone numbers and call folks
when a table was ready. That plan worked but was
inefficient—and didn’t keep patrons from
pestering the hosts or dining elsewhere.
Then, in the fall of 2011, Chernow got
a cold call from Wes Adams, a designer,
and Michael Eng, a developer, about an
app they were launching. Called WaitAway, it allows hostesses to input a customer’s name and number into an iPad
or laptop, which then sends a text when
a table is ready. Upon getting the message, the prospective diner can return to
the restaurant or respond that she
changed her mind. It was just what Chernow needed. He signed up, and within
a month, walkaways were down by 30%.
WaitAway wasn’t the first wait app
to hit the market; it wasn’t even the first
Chernow looked into. More than a dozen
exist, underscoring the extent to which
a solid wait strategy is critical to building repeat business. “Americans equate
waiting to wasting time,” says Richard
Larson, an MIT professor whose study
of waiting earned him the moniker
Dr. Queue. Taking reservations is an
ages-old wait-management strategy,
and vibrating pagers became so popular
after debuting in the 1990s that in 2005,
restaurant point-of-sale system provider
Micros acquired JTech, the largest producer of them, for an undisclosed sum.
But app-based systems are arguably
the best solution yet, because of their
ability to keep businesses informed and
in control while making the people waiting for service not feel like they’re actually waiting.
Having a list is a luxury for any restaurant, but as Chernow will attest, it’s
not always a good thing. Mismanage
waits and the crowd will disperse for
keeps. Reservation policies are on the
wane, because unless a restaurant takes
a credit-card down payment, it can lose
money if patrons flake. Pager systems
help with organization but are pricey—
units cost about $50 each, and people
often leave with them—and have limited
range. “We’re in a lot of malls and want
people to walk around to enjoy their
