JTECH Blog

Do People Still Use Pagers?

Written by Paige | May 26, 2021 2:32:11 PM

Pagers have been around for years and they are making a come back - BIG TIME!    

Do people still use pagers?  Heck yeah, people who like to maximize revenue do!  

The world has changed since the pandemic including how businesses serve guests with limited dine-in occupancy and staff shortages.  First, lets talk about managing waiting guests.  Many businesses have turned to text messaging to notify waiting guests their table is ready.  But, is texting everything it is all cracked up to be?   Well....yes and no. 

Texting guests when their table is ready is great for guests because they can engage with multiple businesses and no longer need to stay close to your restaurant while they wait. 

But, what is the cost of offering your guests this convenience?

  • Guests add themselves to multiple restaurants waitlists and go with first availability.
  • Guests travel further from your restaurant taking them longer to return to be seated.
  • Lower average ticket values since waiting guests are not buying beverages or appetizers.
  • Wait time estimates are inflated due to no-shows requiring the host to wait before moving to next guest on list. 
  • No-show and abandon rates are higher with text since guests dont have to notify or return a pager to the host.


Adding just 10 minutes to each table-turn
can cost your business
BIG TIME!

Add the challenge of limited dine-in occupancy and managing table turns becomes even more important.


Let's do the numbers: 

Your business goes on a wait 21 hours per week.  You have 20 tables and a $40 average check value:

With Guest Paging and seating guests immediately:
  • 53 Minutes Per Table / 1248 Annual Turns Per Table
  • $998,400.00 Total Annual Revenue
With text, add 10 minutes to guest seating time due to slow to return and no-show guests:
  • 63 Minutes Per Table / 1048 Annual Turns Per Table
  • $838,656.00 Total Annual Revenue

-$159,744.00
A Whooping 16% Loss In Annual Revenue 


Pagers can also help optimize your back-of-house too.  Server Paging can not only provide labor cost savings but also speed service and keep those table-turns humming along.

Text is Good For Guests But Pagers Are Good For Your Business.