Recess is an iPhone app that lets businesses manage and track business waiting lists – such as restaurants’ – through an iPhone app.
It’s a very specialist app and the makers suggest it’s a great way for businesses to avoid the costs of special paging systems often seen in popular eateries… if you’re in that business take a look. I’m not sure I see the need for the restaurant to operate from an iPhone or iPod Touch – affordable though the latter is – over whatever system is used to record bookings. However it’s the extra benefits to the customer that make me think this approach has some legs…
Even if I expect to wait (I don’t, I have a table at every good restaurant in town reserved just in-case, but let’s pretend…) the freedom to leave the restaurant and return when my table is ready (they’ll text me) is good, but even better is the marketing tie-in. Now the restaurant can send me some relevant offers – with the option to increase the generosity if my wait is too long – and this is ‘a good thing’ because it’s the kind of SMS marketing that will be relevant (I want to be a customer) and is something I can act on quickly (cocktails at the bar or food from a specials menu).
It’s nice to see that amidst the glitz and excitement of iPhones and apps there’s still great real-world uses for SMS.
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