What makes our software intuitive?

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

It seems like the word ‘intuitive’ is getting thrown around more and more often. I’ve seen it used relative to medical devices, racing equipment and appliances. And while most of these products are truly intuitive or have intuitive features, there are some companies that make the claim, but fall very short.

Take, for example, some of the other catering and event management software products on the market today. They offer a lot of fancy features, have interfaces that look like other well-known software products, and claim to be easy to use. Many of our customers have tried these products and shared their experiences. Based on their input, intuition may not necessarily be the word they would use to describe the products. Functional? Yes. Easy-to-use? Sometimes. But just because a product is easy to use, doesn’t make it intuitive. What makes software intuitive? I guess that depends on your definition of intuitive.

Let me share what we think intuitive means. Intuitive, to us, means that we understand our customers’ businesses inside and out, top to bottom, and with that knowledge we’ve created a smart software system that is designed to become an integral part of a company’s day-to-day processes. It means we’ve built our software on a proprietary platform that was developed by professionals with years of experience in the design and development of effective user interfaces for high-tech products in a variety of industries. These individuals have an instinctive knowledge of user-centered design processes and, partnered with people that have extensive catering sales and hospitality experience, were able to design a product that incorporates human interface technologies with the specific, real world needs of the hospitality industry. Our software was created by people who have stood in the customer’s shoes. We know what our customers need because we know what we needed when we were standing at the hostess desk or taking calls in the sales office. Our software speaks their language, understands what they need moment by moment, and anticipates what they will need down the road.

Developed using our proprietary platform, our Event Lifecycle Technology™ (ELT) and Smart Reservation Technology™ (SRT) features can do what no other products on the market can do.  The unique, process-driven architecture enables ReServe to anticipate a customer’s next steps and prompts them for the necessary information. The software knows what the customer needs every step of the way and puts the information right at the user’s fingertips where and when they need it. It remembers the details and enforces business practices automatically, so the customer doesn’t have to. That’s what makes our software so powerful – so easy to learn, so effortless to use – so intuitive.

We’d like to think that when we say intuitive, not only do we mean it, but we can prove it. Just ask any of our customers.

Our Goal…

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Our goal has always been to make our customer’s lives easier. They work hard. They are the masters of multi-tasking. What would we bring to the table if our software contributed to that long list of things to do? They don’t need to spend endless hours troubleshooting software, or even minutes searching for information that should be available at the click of a button. It’s our job to help manage that list of things to so, not add to it.

We love it when our customers tell us that their jobs are easier with our software in place; when they say that it’s so simple that anyone on their staff can use it. We love hearing about tremendous increases in productivity, jumps in revenue because of the new efficiencies they’ve been able to achieve. It’s affirmation that we’ve achieved our goal of making our customer’s lives easier.

Our Catering & Event Management software has a special feature called Event Lifecycle Technology™.  It does some pretty amazing things. Besides automating processes and managing events from first customer contact through event execution and follow up, it helps build consistent business practices and ensure accuracy by breaking down operations into digestible steps. It’s virtually eliminates human error and gaps in processes.

This feature was inspired by our desire to truly meet the needs of our customers. We don’t ever want to assume they need a specific feature. We want to know for sure that everything we create will make their lives easier. Event Lifecycle Technology takes what they do every minute of every day and automates it, making their processes smoother, quicker and more consistent. The result is an easier, more efficient work day and a shorter ‘to-do’ list.

Rita Norman, the Director of Sales at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Odessa, said, “I absolutely love ReServe. It’s like my right hand. I can’t imagine doing business without it.”

We’d like to think that she pretty much says it all.