“The Coaster Call paging system helps us locate guests inside or outside quickly, while the hostess continues to take names and hand out pagers.”
Based in Loveland, Colorado, the Loveland Breakfast Club is popular for its well-prepared, nutritional meals, using only quality ingredients. The restaurant has a seating capacity of 102, with on average 310 to 385 guests served per day. At Loveland Breakfast Club, the dining room staff strives to ensure that each guest receives prompt, professional, friendly, and courteous service.
As guests arrived to the Loveland Breakfast Club, their names were entered on a waiting list, and they waited for their name to be called; sometimes as long as 45 minutes. As the waiting area filled up, customers would often wander outside to wait. Loveland Breakfast Club did not have a loudspeaker system that they could use to call out waiting customers’ names. Instead, the host or hostess yelled out the customer’s name, hoping that the customer would hear their name called out. If guests did not hear their name called, staff would have to leave the host or hostess stand, in search for the guest.
Loveland Breakfast Club wanted a way to notify waiting guests that their table was ready to be seated without having to yell out their name. According to Angela Hakes, Owner of Loveland Breakfast Club, getting a loud speaker was not an option, as that would only create the illusion that they were running a car dealership, instead of a restaurant.
Loveland Breakfast Club chose to use LRS’ Coaster Call guest paging system. “Expectations for the new system were self-evident”, comments Hakes. The new paging system would eliminate the use of voice notification (yelling out names), and instead, use silent paging to notify guests that their table was ready.
The LRS paging transmitter was installed at the hostess stand, along with the coaster pagers that would be handed out to customers.
As customers arrive, the hostess notes on paper: the number in the party, the name of party, the pager number, and the time the guest arrived. Once the guest’s table is ready, the hostess enters their pager number in the transmitter, then presses the ENTER key, and a page is sent to the guest’s pager. The pager vibrates and flashes. As Loveland Breakfast Club staff make note of the guest’s time arrival, they also note when the customer is seated at their table. According to Hakes, tracking arrival time and seating time allows Loveland Breakfast Club to also track wait times.
The guest paging systems allows guests to be notified instantly, no matter where they are – inside or outside the restaurant. As the guests are notified, they return the pager to the hostess stand and can be seated immediately.
Sometimes, waiting guests go outside the restaurant while waiting for their table. With the old system of calling out guests’ names, staff would have to leave the hostess stand to locate those waiting outside. Using Coaster Call pagers, “Staff can stay at the hostess stand and continue to take names, and hand out pagers as needed,” says Hakes.
The system silently pages customers, eliminating the need for overhead paging or yelling out customers’ names when their table is ready. The result is a quieter, and more relaxed atmosphere.
A benefit that was not anticipated from using the new paging system is the professional image that it created at Loveland Breakfast Club “We have a more professional image. Our customers are impressed by the fact that we have the system, and that the pagers look and work so well. Having our logo on the pager is a big plus,” comments Hakes.
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