Think of the waitlist as a list of everyone that is currently waiting for service at your business. These are the people that, before Waitwhile, would have been queuing in a line in front of your store or waiting in your lobby until they were served. It is essentially a virtual version of the physical queue we already know.
This article explains where you and your customers can find it.
The suggested lifecycle of a waitlisted visit consists of the following stages:
The visit is created either by the customer or a staff member of the business
The visit shows up on the waitlist
The visit is served and moved to the serving queue indicating that the customer is being attended.
The visit is completed, time for the next person on the waitlist to be served.
Adding Guests to the Waitlist
When the customer signs up:
You can allow customers to sign up to your waitlist through a link that you can share with them by displaying it either on your website, or on a tablet in your lobby.
You can read more about your links here and you read more about setting up a kiosk here, while this article explains how to share your waitlist with your customers.
When you add the customer:
You can also add customers manually. Just click on the + sign next to the waitlist’s header on the table and board view, or in the bottom-right corner of the waitlist view. Then, fill out the necessary information about your client in the box that shows up on the right side of the screen and click on the Add button at the bottom:
Once added, the customer will show up in the waitlist.
Serving and completing the visits on the waitlist
The details of the customer and their visit can be found in the box that shows up on the right side of the screen when you click on the visit:
In this box you can perform several actions too.
At the top you can find the tabs where you can…
…add internal notes to exchange information about this visit with your colleagues
…check the customer’s past visits
…check the automated SMS and Email notifications sent to the customer and chat with them (through SMS or Email)
At the bottom you can find the buttons to…
…mark the customer as a no show if they did not come back to be served.
…alert the customer letting them know that it is their turn
…serve the customer
Your customers can also manage their visit and let you know if they are delayed, if they have arrived or if they want to leave the queue. You can read more about this here.