Waitwhile 3.0 is the new generation of Waitwhile and we’ve begun the rollout after years in the making. It’s blazingly fast, with a sleek new interface that makes managing your customer flows easier than ever.

Waitwhile 3.0 is completely rebuilt from the ground up with new platforms for Guests, Staff members, and Administrators. It still has all your favorite features and several new ones. Among other things, Waitwhile 3.0 ships with:

• The all-new Visits Management interface, which is a unified mission control for all your customer flows with a new board layout - and more! 
• Our brand-new Appointment Management experience, which sets new standards of usability and speed.
• New guest-facing public pages that unveil web notifications as a new communication channel, and even greater styling and customization capabilities.
• A new Analytics & Reporting engine to help you optimize your business.

Read all about the updates in this blog post, authored by our CEO, Chris Klemming. 

When do I get access to it?
Current users will get the opportunity to access Waitwhile 3.0 starting the week of June 26th. We will then conduct a partial rollout over the coming months and let users know once they can start using it. Please reach out to your CSM or our support team if you'd like early access!

We're thrilled to announce the URL shortener for SMS messages. We understand that the links in your customer communications can be quite lengthy sometimes, making SMS messages longer than necessary. This, however, increases the risk of hitting the character limit, leading to more (unwanted) messages and higher costs.

To tackle this challenge, we’re introducing a URL shortener specifically for SMS. Now, you can share your status page links (or other links!) using shortened URLs, ensuring your messages stay within the character limit and optimizing your SMS communication efficiency. Say goodbye to lengthy texts and hello to streamlined messaging!

When do I get access to it?
We are currently conducting a partial rollout, where the plan is to have all accounts updated by the end of August. Please feel free to consult your CSM if you’d like early access to this feature.

Important note! All URLs with an http(s):// prefix will be shortened. If you prefer to not shorten a specific URL, simply leave the prefix out. For example, write waitwhile.com instead of https://waitwhile.com to prevent URL shortening for a specific URL.

We are thrilled to unveil some highly exciting new features to enhance your communication capabilities. We are introducing an entirely new message channel - “Chat”. This empowers your frontline staff to engage in real-time conversations with customers or guests, fostering seamless and personalized interactions. As a staff member, you’ll see this addition as a “Send as Chat” option when crafting messages to your guests. 

The best part of all this? It’s free! We know SMS can be quite costly, which is why we believe this is going to be a game changer for your business - both from a financial and user perspective!

When do I get access to it?
You can start enjoying this time-saving and cost-effective feature very soon - as soon as you start using Waitwhile 3.0. We are currently conducting a partial rollout, where the plan is to have most accounts updated by the end of August. Please reach out to your CSM or our customer support for early beta access.

We are delighted to introduce an exciting new feature that takes customer flow management to the next level. Say goodbye to silent waitlist updates and generic chimes, and say hello to personalized customer announcements using text-to-speech technology.

With this enhancement, your waitlist will dynamically announce the name of the next customer on the waitlist. Experience a more engaging and immersive environment as your customers' names are vocalized, creating a seamless transition and improving the overall customer experience.

When can I start using it?  
Text-to-speech is available now for all accounts, as long as “Sounds” is toggled on in Settings > Public > Display waitlist. You can then switch from “Chime” to “Speech” by clicking on the cog wheel on the public waitlist page. For those that still prefer the chime, we have updated the sound to be more pronounced. 

In our continuous efforts to improve our product and provide valuable insights to our customers, you will soon start seeing a cookie banner on your customer-facing pages.

The cookie banner allows us to gather essential data about your visitors, enabling us to analyze their interactions and optimize the customer flow management process. By understanding visitor behavior, we can identify areas of improvement and provide you with valuable insights that empower you to make informed decisions.

Rest assured, the implementation of the cookie banner is designed with privacy and compliance in mind. We adhere to industry standards and regulations to ensure the security of your visitors' data. Transparency is our priority, and we are committed to safeguarding their privacy while providing you with meaningful analytics.

When does this go into effect?
The banner will be visible as of June 28th.

We are thrilled to announce a series of updates that will elevate your customer experience on the Waitwhile platform. Get ready to showcase your brand with style and make a lasting impression on your guests with logo optimization, waitlist improvements, and enhanced theming. Here are the details:

Logo optimization

We have optimized the logo display in the customer registration flow to make it more prominent. The header has been removed, allowing your logo and content to take center stage in a sleek white box. Plus, if you have a logo set, the default "Welcome" text will gracefully step aside to give your brand the attention it deserves (you can of course set the welcome text to be whatever you'd like still!). 

Please note that if you have a white logo with a transparent background, take a quick look at your public page to make sure it's what you expect! If you need to update your logo, you can do so here.

Waitlist improvements

Your waitlist now also enjoys a fresh new look! The waitlist will be elegantly displayed inside a dedicated box, allowing your background image to shine through, if you've chosen one. It's a visually stunning way to keep your guests engaged and excited.

Enhanced theming

We believe in providing you with complete control over your customer-facing pages. That's why we're introducing enhanced theming options to take customization to the next level:

• Layout options: Enjoy more layout options for your welcome pages. With greater flexibility, you can design a unique and personalized experience for your customers.
• Button border radius: Select from a range of border radius options for your buttons, including the option for square buttons with a radius of 0. It's all about presenting your brand in a way that resonates with you.
• Font options: We're expanding our font library to offer you more choices. In addition to the existing Helvetica and Poppins options, you'll have access to a wider selection of fonts. From Google Fonts to custom fonts via upload, you'll have the freedom to create the perfect visual identity for your brand.

We can't wait to see how you bring your brand to life with our enhanced public pages!

Stay tuned for more exciting features coming your way soon. Thank you for choosing our platform for your customer flow management needs!

The ability to add a policy when your customers sign up is very important to many users. As part of our vision to create a continuously more seamless and customized experience for your guests, we are now introducing it as an input field type, rather than having it be a separate section.

With this new feature, you can fully customize your policy to fit the needs of your specific business, link to an external policy, or choose which policies should be displayed for which services. You can also create multiple policies if you’d like!

We understand that policies can play a crucial role in setting the tone for the customer experience, and we're excited to offer this new feature to help you create a seamless and consistent experience for your guests.

Input fields are data-capturing fields that you can choose to display to your guests in order to collect the right kind and amount of information from them to help provide a truly personalized experience. In addition to Policy, other types of input field options include Text Field, Text Area, Number, Selection, Date, Checkbox, and URL. You can read more about Input Fields and other customer-facing settings here.

To add a new policy input field, simply go to: 

→ Settings > Customers: Input fields

We are super excited to introduce our new Android app! Now available to download from the Google Play Store, the Waitwhile Android app offers the same great features and functionality as our web and iOS apps, with a user interface optimized for Android devices. 

With this new release, Android users can enjoy Waitwhile's intuitive interface and powerful features, including adding guests to waitlists or creating bookings, changing and updating visits, communicating with guests or checking them in.

Whether you're behind the counter, on the shop floor, or even out and about, our Android app gives you easy access to our services from your Android device. It's never been easier to provide the perfect customer flow!

Download the Waitwhile Android app by going to the Google Play Store.

To improve the experience for your frontline staff and your customers, we have added automated appointment booking messages!

With these new message types, you can now easily and automatically communicate with your customers when they schedule an appointment. The first message type, Booking Request Confirmation, lets your customers know that their appointment has been requested and will be confirmed (or rejected) soon. The second message type, Booking Request Rejected, informs your customers that their request has been declined and suggests alternative options.

These messages are fully customizable in our easy-to-use editor and can be sent automatically, saving you time and improving your customers' experience. Plus, with the ability to send these messages directly from Waitwhile, you can easily manage all your customer communications in one place.

Try out our appointment booking message notifications today and enhance your customer experience even further! Set this up at: 

→ Settings > Messages > Bookings

Please note: You need to have Booking approvals activated to see this feature.

To further improve the user and employee experience regarding booking approvals, we have added a new set of user notifications, that can be triggered when a customer requests a booking or an appointment. 

With these new notification options, you can stay on top of all your appointment requests in real time. Whenever a customer submits a request, you'll receive a notification directly in your Waitwhile account (or via text or email), letting you know that there's a new appointment to manage. You can then quickly and easily respond to the request and approve or reject the booking, all from within Waitwhile.

You can of course choose how and when you receive these notifications. Plus, with our user-friendly interface, you can easily manage all your appointment requests in one place, giving you greater control over your customer flow management.

Enable booking request user notifications by going to: 

→ User settings > Notifications

Please note: You need to have Booking approvals activated to see this feature.