Restaurant Pagers

In any service industry, and the restaurant trade is no exception, our livelihood depends on being able to deliver a quality product in a timely manner.

That’s why I’m so passionate about the use of paging systems in restaurants.

In fact, it’s not just restaurants that can use them. If you’re involved in any sort of food or beverage operation, then I’m sure you can see the benefits that a paging system would bring to your business, and your bottom line.

Anyway, what I’m intending to briefly cover here is what sort of benefits restaurant paging would bring to your business.

To simplify it, increased staff productivity and efficiency leads to happy and content customers.

Wait staff that find their workload easier and more efficient to carry out are happier. And they pass that on to your customers. Again, it’s a win-win.

And as we know happy, content customers return. And they tell their friends. And then we have a restaurant that is humming.

However, upset, discontent and grumpy customers are likely to never return. And they won’t just tell their friends about the bad service they had at your establishment, they’ll tell their hairdresser, doctor and even the mother-in-law they despise so much.

So it’s important we can recognise the things we can put in place as managers/owners to eliminate those bad customer service experiences.

And where do most of those bad experiences come from? Guests waiting too long for meals or too long to be seated.

So the biggest improvement you can make to your restaurant, outside of the kitchen (and I’m assuming you have top-gun chefs – if not, get in that Gordon Ramsey guy!), is getting your wait-staff to work smarter.

So a restaurant paging system could be the right step for you?

But what to look for?

Obviously, budget is a huge consideration, but you also need to consider the scope of your restaurant operation and exactly how you want your staff to utilize a new tool.

I.e. how many staff do you have? If you only run a restaurant with a dozen or so staff, there is no point buying a restaurant pager system that’s designed to handle 32 portable pagers.

How do you want the pager to communicate with staff? Is a simple vibrate enough, or do you want something that delivers a message as well, i.e. Table 12 mains ready.

Do you want managerial supervision of the pagers. For example, some systems have a Manager’s Pager that receives alerts that can be custom-set for all sorts of reasons, i.e. wait-staff pager not answered after a set period.

Just like any business expense, there are many tangibles to consider. First and foremost though, should be the improvement of service to your customers.

So how does a restaurant paging system work?

Well, first of all, there are a number of different pagers that you can implement in your restaurant operation. I’ll cover the two most common I’ve encountered in food and beverage service.

The first and most basic of these that I will mention here is what is typically called a Waiter Page or Waiter Call system. This is the system that you would use for communication between staff in your restaurant or food/beverage service operation.

The main part of this setup is a desktop transmitter that is normally stored at your  kitchen. Most of these are ruggedly built, so they can be stored near high temperature areas and are also water resistant.

The transmitter often incorporates a recharging cradle for the portable pagers as well. The other element to this is the portable pager that the wait staff will discreteley carry during his or her shift.

Basically, once a meal is ready to be served, a page is sent from the transmitter by the kitchen brigade to the wait staff looking after the relevant table. The pager will silently vibrate, alerting the staff member that one of their tables is ready to be served.

Another increasingly common use of paging systems in restaurants is the Restaurant Coaster Pager.

This pager comes into use when all tables are full in your restaurant, so waiting guests are given a pager (many look similar to regular bar coasters, but a bit bulkier, hence the coaster pager name). They take this with them and head to the bar and enjoy a leisurely drink whilst waiting for their table to be ready. When the table is free, frontdesk simply pushes a button on the master transmitter. The “coaster” will beep, vibrate or flash (or all), alerting the customer that their table is ready.

Apart from the coaster design, I’ve seen some  units designed to allow a small printed advert to be inserted in a perspex holder. This is an ideal way to advise specials of the day or promote a new wine!

Many pager systems also allow a “manager’s pager”. This can be configured so that a manager or maitre’d can be informed when meals are being sent out and tables are being seated without needing to be anywhere in the vicinity.

Most restaurant pager systems in todays market work on a UHF or RF frequency, and have an extensive range that will penetrate many walls.

Depending on your budget, they can send anything from a simple alert or a detailed message to the receiver.

Having managed several restaurants of varying seating capacity over time, I’ve come to notice that probably the two biggest complaints you will receive from guests is the length of time it took for your guests to be seated, and for the time it took for meals to be delivered to a table.

Now these delays can come down to any number of factors – many of which are outside your control. But as a manager or maitre de, the last thing you want is complaints. You want an efficient, smooth-running restaurant, and happy customers who return time after time and rave to all their friends and colleagues about how great your restaurant is!

So what I have found really helpful is the introduction of a restaurant paging system that assists in the smooth management of a restaurant of any size.

Now, a good restaurant pager essentially has two functions:

Say for instance that it’s a busy night (and that’s what we want!), and all your tables are full. More guests are still walking in off the street, and as you have nowhere to seat them, the best you can do is pencil in the next available table and invite your guests to sit down in the bar (if you have one), and say we’ll come and get you when your table is ready. One of the problems here is that when a table is ready, it isn’t always easy to find the guests you sent to the bar. It’s even more frustating when they’ve just walked off without a word and you’ve spent the last 20 minutes looking for them.

The easy solution is a restaurant pager. These come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but the most common I’ve seen are designed pretty much like your standard bar coaster. Simply hand your guest one of these pagers, and when the table is ready, you just press a button and they get a discreet buzz to let them know the table is ready. You don’t have to go searching for your guests, and your guests know that they’ll know straight away when their table is ready. It’s a win-win situation.

The 2nd benefit of a restaurant pager is to improve the communication between your kitchen and wait-staff. This is literally worth it’s weight in gold. Basically, all your wait staff will carry around a pager during their shift, and when a meal is ready for one of their tables, the kitchen simply presses the page button.

No more meals going spoilt under hot-lamps,  no more wasted minutes standing idle in the kitchen waiting for mains away and happy customers receiving their meals as soon as they are ready.

So if you are looking at ways to improve staff productivity and communication, and customer satisfaction in your restaurant, you should seriously check out the range of restaurant pager systems available.