Restaurant Pagers – Types And Brands To Look For
Having decided (or still deliberating) to invest in a paging system for your restaurant, bar or general service operation, you’ll no doubt want to delve a little deeper into what’s on the market and investigate what type or brand of pager will suit your specific operation.
As I’ve covered in a previous post, there are a multitude of pager systems on the market, designed to cover all types of operations, from small bistro/pubs, to large-scale multi-floor restaurants.
Just like any investment, it’s important that you don’t rush in and buy the first pager system that you come across. The most expensive unit isn’t necessarily the best, and could be overkill.
Likewise, cheaper restaurant pagers may seem to have all the bells and whistles of their pricier counterparts, but do they live up to expectations in the long run?
Some of the more common brands in restaurant paging:
CommTech Wireless has been around since the early 1990′s, and have been supplying wireless paging solutions to a wide range of industries, not just hospitality.
POSNation supply a wide range of point of sale (POS) hardware, including Server and Customer pagers.
LRS (Long Range Systems), another manufacturer that doesn’t just specialise in restaurant and food service pagers.
PCS (or Pager Call Systems), a UK-based company that distributes the HME Wireless products.
HME Wireless, one of the largest in the industry.
JTECH, acknowledged as the first company to develop specialized wireless solutions designed for restaurants.
Wait List Manager, developed and sold by Atlanta company Queuent.
Microframe, who make a variety of units, including the MultiPage.
So those are some of the most common brands in the restaurant communications marketplace. There are many more on the market, but I would consider the above most of the big players.
Restaurant Pager Features
Not all restaurant paging systems are equal. What is important is to determine what is the requuirements for your business, and then make your selection from there. With this is mind, there are some important aspects to consider when choosing a restaurant page.
Without going into specifics at this stage, these are some considerations I would recommend.
Range: This will be dependent of the scale of your operation, and will need to take into account infrastructure that may be an obstacle to transmission.
Technical Support: What sort of ongoing technical support will be provided? Any initial training? 24/7 helpdesk?
Warranty/Guarantee: What is and isn’t covered if something breaks down or malfunctions?
Pager Battery Life: How long does it take to charge a pager? How long does the pager battery last between charges? Is there a back-up system for the main unit?
Anti-Theft: Are there any mechanisms built in that thwart theft of the pagers?
So, with these considerations in mind, you should feel more confident in making an educated purchase decision.
Shortly we’ll look more closely at the specifics of restaurant pager systems.
Take a look at QLess for a system that obsoletes restaurant pagers. It uses customers’ cell phones instead, sending text messages or voice calls. It’s also interactive, so customers can request more time if they get busy, leave the line, and request on-demand status updates.
Comment by Tim — @ 9:39 am
Just stumbled across your blog, interesting read, you have obviously spent some time studying the equipment before blogging on it. Well done. Nice to see you listed us as a supplier in the UK as well, free PR is always nice.
Comment by Pager Call Systems — @ 2:14 pm
Nice site.
If you need any technical information on our waiter pagers and customer pager systems, please let us know we would be happy to provide anything that will help.
Regards
Smart Paging Systems
Comment by Waiter Paging Systems — @ 2:40 pm
Cell phone paging does no do away with the need for pagers as some folks just don’t want to be bothered by yet another phone call when they are waiting for dinner. We at HME Wireless see it as a nice addition to systems like GuestCall IQ our latest technology.
Comment by Russ Ford — @ 7:38 am
Also I see you mention Pager our great dealer in the UK but don’t even mention HME Wireless as one of the 3 largest on site paging companies in the industry plus you don’t mention the boys from Boca anywhere and they are by far the largest. You might want to take a tour of http://www.hmewireless.com as we have all kinds of great new stuff for guest and server paging.
Comment by Russ Ford — @ 7:42 am
Interesting site…Kudos for the creativity. It would be important for all readers to have all of the completely accurate facts. Restaurant paging has been around for over 20 years now, having spring-boarded from the days of Motorola (and other) wide-area pagers, as well as the Motorola PeopleFinder on-site paging system. While the world of wireless has come along way since then, during that era (1988), JTECH was the first company to develop specialized wireless solutions designed for restaurants by restaurateurs. Restaurant operators quickly adopted the idea of silent Server Paging and JTECH Communications (originally founded as Jeron Technologies), flourished. Subsequent JTECH developments included the first guest paging applications (circa 1992), which furthered the establishment of a new industry, which JTECH continues to lead and drive today. The ServAlert and GuestAlert brand systems, Glowster Plus and the CommPass family of pagers, StaffComm and the SmartAlert suite of products, all continue to create new efficiencies in businesses from Restaurants to Hotels, Casinos and Cruise Ships, Country Clubs, Hospitals, Retail, Church Nurseries, Manufacturing and other industries where immediate, discreet and timely communications improve service, efficiency and profitability.
Comment by Doug Crisafulli — @ 7:04 am
Thanks for your feedback Doug. Always appreciate input from the experts.
Comment by mike — @ 8:39 pm
Sorry for the oversite there Russ. I hope to cover the companies you mentioned in a further post soon.
Comment by mike — @ 8:45 pm
Nice work with the site, it would be interesting to review the latest developments in restaurant paging. HME Wireless (we distribute their products in the UK) have developed a complete range of new technology customer paging systems, including the new GuestCall IQ and “All In One” range.
It would be interesting to see which companies have been investing in R&D to bring the latest innovations to the hospitality industry.
Comment by Chris Hawkins — @ 12:15 am
Great blog!! Great work!
The future of restaurant pagers is using cell phones as a cost effective and more sanitary alternative (pagers are shared by to many people = H1N1). Working with a leading restaurant group in Connecticut to find an alternative to coaster pagers we discovered the value and power of cell phone based pagers. An excellent restaurant pager system that does this extremely well is Mobile Matradee, a cost effective alternative to restaurant pager system. It’s not only easy and affordable alternative to clunky pagers but it also provides a wait list or reservation management program that can be managed from a POS, Apple iPhone or iTouch or mini labtop. This eliminates the need for a service contract, replacing pagers, etc. Mobile Matradee also provides the restaurant with a powerful mobile marketing platform http://www.mobilevip.biz. Guests can opt-in to your Mobile VIP program to receive text coupons, and mobile menu thus driving business back to your establishments.
Comment by Brandon — @ 8:11 am
Brandon, thanks for your comments. I welcome these, but don’t appreciate your excessive URL spamming. I have had to delete some of your posts because of this.
Comment by mike — @ 9:50 pm
This is a really thorough post and I think it provides anyone shopping for restaurant pagers with a great resource to start their search. It will go a long way in relieving their anxiety as well.
Comment by Guest Paging — @ 12:51 pm