Customer flow management should be easy and intuitive. That's why we built the Visits page in Waitwhile 3.0 with the user in mind. There are a number of ways in which you can manage your customer flow with the Visits page.
Try drag and drop to move visit cards from one state to another.
Use action buttons to confirm, alert, or serve customers with ease (and more).
Click on each visit card for extended visit information and details about the guest.
Drag and drop
A major update from Waitwhile 2.0 to 3.0 is the ability to drag and drop visit cards as a way of advancing them in the customer flow or adjusting their position in lines. Drag and drop is currently not available for touchscreens.
Drag and drop between flow states
If you're in the Overview tab, you can use the intuitive drag and drop feature to move a visit from one state to another. For example, you can drag a visit card from the waitlist to serving - or straight to completed, if you prefer to skip a step.
You can even revert visits from the Completed state to the Waitlist or Serving states, for example if you advanced them prematurely in the flow and need a do-over.
Drag and drop works both in the Board and List view, but we suggest the Board view for this kind of visits management. You can read more about these view options in the Visualizing information on the Visits page article.
Tip: If your business doesn't utilize the Serving state, you can simply drag a visit straight from Bookings or Waitlist to Completed, skipping the Serving stage.
Drag and drop within the waitlist
When you're in the Waitlist tab, you can manually change the order of guests by dragging them from their current spot and dropping them where they should be.
Previously, you could only adjust a guest's place in line by going into the visit details, but we think this is a way more intuitive and fun way to do it.
Action buttons
Sometimes, you might prefer the click of a button to perform the actions necessary to manage your customer flow. This is all very straightforward, but let's touch on a few key actions you can take.
The Add (+ icon) button lets you add a new visit.
The green check button helps you advance a customer in the flow, i.e. move it to the next state.
The Alert (bell icon) button alerts a customer, i.e. lets them know that they’re up next.
Extended visit information
For each visit, you can always choose to see more information simply by clicking on the visit card itself. Here, you'll find tabs for Details, Notes, Visits, and Messages.
Let's take a closer look at them:
The Details tab displays default and custom input fields that you have set up for your location. Many of the fields are editable and by clicking on them you enter edit mode, where you can make changes to the visit. At the bottom of the Details tab you'll find another set of action buttons that lets you mark the visit as no show, alert the guest, or serve them.
The Notes tab holds all your notes related to the guest registered on the visit.
The Visits tab contains a list of all previous (and future) visits connected to the guest.
The Messages tab is where you'll find all your communication with your guest (not only for the visit at hand). Here, you can also send new messages manually either by SMS, email, or chat. You can read more about messages here.
Lastly, if you click on the ⋯ symbol next to the visit name, you will find a few more actions.
These include showing the customer facing status page, open the visit in the Calendar, adjust the position in line (or move it to a different line at a different location). You can also cancel the visit (which will move it to the Completed list) or delete it (which will remove it entirely from your account, including analytics).