Archive for August, 2010
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
Your Catering Sales Manager takes a new job and leaves the company with little notice. As her assistant, your feelings toward her departure are bittersweet. She’s happy about her new position, so you are happy for her, but you will miss her. Above all else, you realize that until a replacement is hired, you are left to do her work as well as your own. After a brief meeting prior to her exit and a lone assessment of the entire situation, which scenario most likely represents your situation?
- Her desk is loaded with file folders, stacks of paper and an avalanche of yellow and pink sticky notes. You know she manages a few things in a computerized spreadsheet, but you can’t seem to find it on her desktop. Her Rolodex, now ages old, is no longer in alphabetical order. This month’s events, a few names and the occasional phone number are scratched onto a dry erase calendar board next to her desk. You know what you need to do on your end because you’ve kept your own stack of file folders and a legal pad with a long to-do list, but now you need to consolidate her information with yours to make sure all the upcoming events are covered and nothing slips through the cracks. You’re overwhelmed and nervous – how will you organize everything and still keep things moving forward?
Or…
- You sit down at her computer and click on the ReServe Anywhere icon. After you log in - Ta-Da! Everything you need to know about this month’s events (as well as any events in the future) is right at your finger tips. You dive in and review the centralized event calendar complete with times and dates, all of your set up, service and labor requirements, menu and pricing information, and a detailed customer database complete with comprehensive contact information for all of your guests. You check the task list, review any follow up reminders and get started. Everything is in order. Every detail has been captured. Nothing is missed. ReServe prompts your next steps so you easily and efficiently keep things moving forward. Everything goes off without a hitch. Job well done!
Our hope is that the first scenario is more of an exaggeration rather than actual truth. However, we know that many catering professionals are dealing with the frustration of paper-based event management. The second scenario represents where we would like everyone to be – calm, cool and in control.
So, what’s your situation? Are you surviving or thriving?
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
After a technical support call is received and resolved by our Product and Technical Support Services Team, we send a survey to the customers requesting they rate the quality of the service they received on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being Excellent. This is done with every support call logged so that we can continually enhance our internal processes and offer the highest levels of customer service.
We’re happy to share that this past July, 98 percent of customers surveyed gave our support technicians a ranking of 5 when asked about their technical knowledge and helpfulness.
You see, here’s where we do things differently. Our Product and Technical Support Services Team is comprised of technical staff, trainers and data customization specialists. That means many of our customers have the added value of working with the same ReServe team members from the time of initial installation. Certain staff members specialize in specific software modules, and the entire Product and Technical Support Services Team has a keen understanding of the hospitality industry. In addition, through close interaction and ongoing partnership, team members become knowledgeable of the specific operational requirements of each individual customer. What results is a level of service that exceeds industry standards and provides our customers with a unique support experience that keeps them productive, efficient and profitable.
And our customers agree. Here are a couple of quotes from those surveyed in July.
“Always a pleasure working with representatives from Reserve. EXTREMELY helpful and kind (patient!). Thank you for the on-the -spot assistance to my impromptu phone call. You made my day easier.”
“ReServe Representatives have consistently been helpful EVERY time that I have called. I have always received an immediate response as well as a solution.”
Thank you to everyone who participates in our support surveys! As always, it’s a pleasure serving you!
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
We wouldn’t be able to offer our customers a superior product without the dedication and expertise of our Product Development Team. They are a specialized group of individuals with an unrivaled scope of knowledge in all areas of software development.
Jackie Zachman, our very first employee, has been with ReServe Interactive since 1996. Her commitment, passion and dedication to ReServe are as bright today as they were on her very first day. She is a brilliant software engineer that regularly designs creative and unique solutions that exceed the expectations of our diverse customer base.
As our Senior Systems Architect, Jackie has a strong commitment to quality and works diligently to make sure that the software she writes is reliable, but she also drives internal processes and procedures that all of our employees follow. These processes work together to continually raise the bar on our quality, reliability and uptime metrics.
Before she joined the ReServe family, Jackie received her Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science in 1986 from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. After graduating, she worked for GE Medical Systems for 10 years as a Software Engineer and Software Project Leader. After joining ReServe, she continued to do consulting for GE and several other companies for a couple of years prior to becoming a full-time ReServe employee in 1998.
Jackie’s sense of humor and friendly demeanor enhance the culture of our company. She is a wonderful example for other employees to follow, demonstrating integrity and an entrepreneurial work ethic that has helped to make ReServe the success it is today.
When she’s not busy at work, Jackie enjoys quilting, reading, volunteering for Little League, and watching her kids play in their various sporting activities.
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Easy. When it’s smarter.
Boasting technology that is easy to use can put certain suppliers in a vicarious position. Simplified software can be so diluted or ‘dumbed-down’, that it doesn’t meet the basic needs of the user. Besides touting simplicity, the software may have nothing of real value to offer. Just because it looks like other, more universally known, software products, or has an attractive screen display, or is a plug and play platform, doesn’t mean it’s a fully evolved product. While it may seem appealing to a user at first, they soon realize that with all of the ‘simple’ bells and whistles, functionality has been compromised and a comprehensive tool is nowhere to be found. On the flip side, what if simplicity is positioned as a dominant feature, but the software is so complicated to navigate that the user throws up their hands in frustration and heads back to their pile of file folders or a tattered reservation book?
In our case, the software we design is complex on the development side and user-friendly on the front end. Our development processes are lengthy and detailed. We critically study the work environment of users so that we completely understand the process flow of information and the unique demands of their environment. We gather user input at various stages in the development process to make sure that we’re addressing the subtle details that make all the difference between a usable finished product versus one that becomes simply another obstacle in the way of completing required tasks. This iterative, user-centered design approach results in a product that is truly assistive – easy to navigate, rich with valuable functionality, easily integrated into the normal process flow of the work environment – and simply smarter than the rest.
Our software simplifies user practices without watering down functionality. Our platform is intuitive so that the software does what users need it to do and want it to do, all while prompting them through their own internal, operationally specific processes. The software speaks the user’s language, utilizes their unique business parameters, as well as incorporates industry knowledge and assumptions to help anticipate next steps.
We’ve been known to say that our software is simple to use. We’re not going to deny that. The difference is that we’ve taken simple to the next level and made is smart. We would never assume that the industry is only drawn to pretty screen displays or try to fool them by saying we’re as easy to use as other software products just because we have similar layout. The industry’s needs are diverse and layered with complexity and our job is to make the user’s job easier. Because our software is smart, we become that extra pair of hands, that second set of eyes, that extra reservationist or that catering sales assistant. There’s real value there. We know that. Our customers know that.
That’s how simple really becomes better.
