Posts Tagged ‘software’
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
We’re very fortunate to have amazing and loyal customers. They work hard every day to successfully manage their businesses and service their guests. They’ve come to us looking for a hospitality management software solution that not only meets their needs, but exceeds their expectations. We work hard to comply.
We like talking about our software with our customers, prospective users and the industry in general. We could go on and on about all of the wonderful things our software does, and all of the amazing features that make managing operation easier than ever, but we’d rather let our customers do it for us. They willingly share their ideas and their suggestions for product enhancements, and they even share their approval. Below is a short list of some of the nice things our customers have to say to us and about us.
After researching several software products, we chose ReServe Interactive because of the focus and attention to detail the software places on booking Events. It will allow us to streamline our processes and serve our customers more efficiently.- James LaMontagne, Johnny’s Halfshell
ReServe Interactive software has been an integral part of our success. In just six months we were able to nearly double our sales, and have decided to implement ReServe at all of our locations. – Audrey Joyner, BB King’s Blues Club
I just love ReServe. It is so user friendly and I have worked on many different systems and this is the best by far.- Brenda Brandt, Bellamere Winery
ReServe is by far the BEST reservation/TM software I have ever used. I’ve used many different programs and nothing compares! ReServe can basically run the restaurant for me. I would gladly recommend ReServe to others. - Rick Roberts, The Melting Pot – Tucson
The software is great! We love it!- Cathy Jacobson, Bice Ristorante – Orlando
ReServe is still a very slick, easy system. I can get 15 proposals done in ReServe in the same amount of time it used to take me to do one or two.- Lisa Reliford, U.S. Senate and Capital Visitor’s Center
As a former Delphi user, I find ReServe to be much easier to use, and I especially like the way the customer contact system works.- Sulema Kiekintveld, Wild Fire Grille
I LOVE the software! I’m not very savvy when it comes to computers, but ReServeis so easy to use! It keeps me very organized, and the time I save allows me to focus on bringing in new business and making sure that our events happen flawlessly.- Maritza Stabile, Mistral Restaurant & Bar
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
There are a lot of event management and dining reservation products on the market today, all claiming to do pretty much the same thing. You’ll see words like ‘efficiency’, ‘productivity’, and ‘money saving’ thrown around like birdseed in Central Park. But how many of those companies can back up those words with real action?
At ReServe, we know that there is no other product on the market that does exactly what our product does. Our technology platform is proprietary and entirely unique with intuitive features like our Event Lifecycle Technology and Smart Reservation Technology. We offer both dynamic catering & event management and dining reservation & table management software modules that were designed to easily integrate with one another to provide a comprehensive tool for users to manage all functions with one product. Not to mention more than 20 add-ons or interfaces that range from room diagramming to no-fee online dining reservation capability.
Most of all, our people help us stand out above the crowd of software providers. We still believe in a good old fashioned handshake, a voice on the other end of the line and customer service that goes above and beyond at a time when it seems to have fallen by the wayside.
We know who we are, what we do and why we do it best. Do you know your unique selling proposition? What makes you rise above the rest?
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Category Catering & Event Management, customer service, Dining Reservations & Table Management, General, Industry Issues | Tags: Tags: catering, Catering & Event Management, Dining Reservation, efficiency, Event Lifecycle Technology, event management, interface, productivity, ReServe, room diagramming, Smart Reservation Technology, software, technology,
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Have you ever been in a situation where things are moving along, the information or experience is just what you expected and then, out of the blue, you hear or see something that makes you stop in your tracks? Have you ever had an Aha! moment? A moment of clarity that changed your perspective, your attitude or the way you do something moving forward?
At ReServe, we want all of our customers to experience that Aha! moment when they are using our software. We want them to be continually blown away with every single click of a button.
We do hundreds of live demos every year with prospective customers and there is always a moment during the demo when we hear someone say “Really? I can do that?” or “Wow! That was so easy.” Today, we know that more than two-thirds of prospective customers who participate in a live demo will purchase our software within 60 days and stick with it for the long haul. Why? Because they’ve seen that our software provides Aha! moments on a regular basis and it has changed the way they do business.
When the CEO of a restaurant company can log in from his hotel room at 1:30 in the morning and see a revenue summary across all 80 of his restaurant sites, as well as comprehensive booking information for the upcoming holiday weekend and details on the restaurant’s latest marketing initiative, the power of the Aha! moment abounds.
Have you experienced your Aha! moment?
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
When it comes to details, there are two trains of thought. The first is that they are a nuisance, an annoyance – extra work that gets in the way of the bigger picture. The second is that details are the foundation of an unforgettable experience or an extraordinary event.
When the details are tended to, the bigger picture goes from ordinary to exceptional. Details can make or break an evening out for dining patrons. Are they seated, fed, and hustled out so the next guest can come in, or are they greeted by name, offered their favorite table or bottle of wine, and treated to personalized, superior service throughout their visit? Was their experience common, like so many others? Or was it memorable enough to bring them back over and over again?
That’s why we designed a product that helps our customers focus on the details. Our software allows them to capture important bits of information. And when our customers are too busy to ask for the details, we remind them. We want them to be able to treat all of their guests like VIPs from the get go because when our customers are successful, we’re successful.
The list of details captured by our Dining Reservation & Table Management software alone goes on and on, but here’s a short list to get you thinking.
- Captures guest preferences, like food and beverage purchase histories, table and server requests
- Gathers historical data such as guest contact information, number of prior and future dining reservations booked, number of no shows and cancelled dining reservations
- Automatically calculates available reservation times based on dining room specific criteria including table inventory, turn rates, maximum seating capacities and other information
- Hostesses stay in the know and in control with accurate wait times for walk-in and advanced reservation guests with automated wait time calculations
Not to mention, automated task lists that keep everybody productive, ensuring no details are missed. All of our software modules automatically prompt users throughout the dining reservation or event booking process to guarantee that absolutely nothing is overlooked and all the information gathered in accurate.
I could go on and on about our software, but you can check out the rest of our website for more…you guessed it…details.
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
A new year is upon us. Time to put the past behind us and look toward the future and all of the opportunity 2010 will bring.
2009 held many challenges that at times seemed overwhelming. In fact, there were times when it felt the year would go on forever in a constant state of instability and frustration. But the power of new beginnings is the opportunity to take the lessons you’ve learned from the past and apply them to the future. Each new year leaves us all a little wiser and more hopeful that things will be different from the get go.
2010 is only a week old and we are already hearing from prospective and existing customers telling us that they need to make changes this year. They’ve taken a look at the way they did business in 2009 and have found that they need new ways to become more efficient and productive. They’ve realized that automation can make all the difference this year. They need to work smarter and they want the tools to do so. And we’re more than happy to help!
We’ve developed a better process for catering, event management, dining reservations and table management. Our software is built on best-practice processes so it’s easy to improve efficiencies across entire organizations from the moment of implementation. Best of all, we’ve stood in their shoes and understand the challenges they face on a daily basis.
We believe in the power of new beginnings and want to help hospitality professionals start the New Year off right. Our customers work hard and they deserve for 2010 to be the best that it can be.
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Since 1996, our customer service strategy has involved listening to our customers’ needs and desires to develop a software product that meets their short and long-term business goals.
As software developers, we could lock ourselves into our offices and focus on developing technologies with all of the ‘techie’ bells and whistles that we deem to be important or seem just plain fun to include. However, that would be a disservice to our customers. They have technology requirements that are specific to their roles, venues, markets and business processes. If we fail to acknowledge those needs and only build the software we want to build, then we fail our customers on many levels.
To ensure we are developing a useful software product, we combine our expertise with the customer input we continuously gather regarding all areas of our customers’ business. Through user groups, ongoing surveys, one-on-one conferences, training sessions and online contributions, we evaluate our customers’ needs and requests to enhance the software, and then incorporate that input to create new releases throughout year.
After listening to our customers for 13 years, we found early on that they needed a tool that was easy to implement and integrate into their existing processes and systems, easy for all levels of staff to train on, and easy to use. They wanted to be up and running as quickly as possible with little time taken away from their core business activities. In addition, they didn’t want to have to navigate through multiple screens and databases for the information they needed at a moment’s notice. They wanted to focus on their customers, not be focused on a computer screen trying to figure out how to locate customer data. They also wanted comprehensive reporting tools that gave them information with the click of a button rather than spending hours trying to figure out how to gather that data and pull it together into a digestible format.
Finally, users have told us over and over again that they want tools that improve, rather than detract from, their bottom line. They don’t want to invest in additional hardware, special services or pay expensive transaction fees. They want something they can easily access via the web or have installed directly onto hardware they already own.
Their detailed input has allowed us to create the software platform we have available today. But reaching that goal hasn’t stopped us from continuing to listen to our customers’ needs and develop our product accordingly. We understand that in a competitive marketplace our customers’ business needs are constantly changing. We’re committed to providing a tool that is constantly evolving to meet those ever-changing market demands to help ensure their business success.
Winston Churchill said “If we are together nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail.” Yes, we are a software provider, but more importantly, we are a partner and our customers’ success is paramount to our own.
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Every day I take calls from prospective customers asking me questions about our software and the other services we offer. Lately, a lot of people want to know about ReServe Anywhere® and what makes a hosted solution different from a client server application like ReServe Desktop. Basically, it comes down to this – ReServe Desktop is installed via CD-Rom directly onto your existing PCs or network. ReServe Anywhere® is web-based and remotely accessed through a password-protected Internet connection. We host it on secure, centralized servers. ReServe Anywhere users can manage their business and access real-time company information from anywhere at any time. Having a high speed internet connection is the only requirement. We take care of upgrades, support, backups and a highly redundant environment.
People also want to know what makes us different from other hospitality management software systems out there. Well, from a software standpoint, our products let users manage their operations on an enterprise level. We have customers with two units and customers with 200 units. No matter what their size, our software lets them centrally manage and report on activity across all of their locations. We’re also built on an intuitive platform, which means that the software is designed to do the thinking for our customers. It’s designed to follow the logic they would use to book an event or capture a reservation. It was developed from the users’ perspective rather than from a software company’s perspective. We also use customer input to help us enhance our products’ functionality and benefits.
From a company standpoint, I’d like to think that our customer service stands above the rest. We still believe in a handshake and a voice at the other end of the line. Our goal has always been to make our customers’ lives easier, so providing them with hands-on training and live support is just as important as the features our software offers.
When people ask us what makes us different, we like to let our customers do the talking for us.
“Our experience thus far with ReServe, as far as timely support and response, has been nothing short of exemplary, right from sales through to planning and IT. Thank you from our team for making this implementation so painless!” Christie Penner from The Charcoal Group of Restaurants.
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.
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
When the idea for our software first came about, I was working for Wente Vineyards in Livermore, California, managing retail operations, which included restaurant sales and marketing, catering services, as well as visitor center and golf course events, and the vineyard’s concert series. My desk was overflowing with file folders and sticky notes, pads of paper and pink phone message slips. It was overwhelming, to say the least.
When I couldn’t take it anymore, I began researching different software products to help us automate our processes. At the time, most of the products available were expensive and geared toward the hotel market, so it was hard finding the right fit. When I finally selected a product that I thought was one of the better solutions available at the time, I found it difficult to use and time consuming. After endless hours of struggling to make the software work for us, I ended up picking up the phone and calling my sister in Wisconsin who was running her own consulting business specializing in the design and development of effective user interfaces for high-tech products. I explained my frustration and ended with “There’s got to be a better way.”
So, Lynn flew out to California and together we analyzed the different facets of my job and the roles of the various departments responsible for managing on-site dining and events. I explained how I would prefer for things to work, what would make the most sense for the staff, and what elements of our day-to-day operations needed to be made more efficient. We put our heads together, and with my hospitality experience and her technology experience, we began developing the earliest versions of ReServe Interactive software.
In 1996, we formally launched Efficient Frontiers, Inc. and began selling ReServe Interactive Catering, Event Management, Dining Reservations and Table Management software. Our first customer was Wente Vineyards.
I can’t believe it’s been more than 13 years since that fated phone call, and so much has happened since. Our product offering has grown to include a web-based solution; we interface with more than 10 industry-leading applications; and we service more than 1,000 customers. And it all started with a single phone call. We couldn’t be happier with the way our idea has grown. Most of all, it feels really good to know that every day, we are making someone’s life just a little bit easier.
Beth Goodell
