This guide provides a step-by-step overview of using the NextMe Waitlist App, making it easy for businesses to manage guest queues effectively. By following the instructions, you can streamline the check-in process, enhance communication with guests, and improve overall customer satisfaction.
NextMe is web-based and ideal for collaboration — multiple users on your account can access remotely or on-site, syncing across multiple devices (desktop, laptop, tablets, and mobile Android/iOS).
1. Getting Started
Navigate and Login to https://web.nextmeapp.com/waitlist — if you don't have a Team user login yet for the business account, please speak with a manager to get one created for you.
If you've confirmed that your business has not created an account yet, do so by clicking Sign Up.
2. Add a Guest
In order to begin adding and managing your guests in the waitlist, click this green circle "plus" icon.
3. In the add guest window, start by clicking the Phone field.
Enter your guest's mobile number. Recognized phone numbers will auto-populate so you can identify repeat guests and their history.
Tip! Adding a guest’s phone number is optional. If a guest wishes not to leave a phone number, businesses can still add the guest’s other info into the digital waitlist. The guest would then wait at the front of your business as they traditionally would until the business calls out their name letting them know that their service is ready.
4. Click the Queue dropdown to add the guest to a specific queue.
Learn more about customizing your Queue Settings here
5. Click the Estimated Wait Time dropdown to manage your guest's expectations.
Learn more about the different methods you can use to automatically calculate Smart Wait Times here
6. Your business may require additional Custom Fields to gather about your guests.
7. Click Create once the required details have been entered in order to add the guest to the waitlist.
Note: If your guests are using QR codes to Self Check-in, you can mostly disregard the above steps 2 through 7.
8. Confirmation
Your guest will automatically receive an initial SMS text Notification confirming they've been added, with an ability to track their estimated wait time and place in line while staying engaged viewing your custom Virtual Waiting Room
9. Virtual Waiting Room
The Virtual Waiting Room is a powerful mobile customer engagement page that retains your guests while they wait.
Whether it's a menu of your goods and services, real-time promos you're offering, or required forms that need to be filled out – your attendees will stay engaged while they're tracking their place in line on this page, in turn increasing your business' retention by upwards of 35%.
10. Waitlist Management
Back on the waitlist, you can see here the time you added your guest (if the guest joined via Self Check-in, instead of "Added" it will show as "Joined" in order to distinguish).
You can also view the guest's actual wait time vs. their quoted wait time (the actual wait time will turn red if it exceeds the quoted time).
After you notify a guest, the "actual vs. quoted wait time" will change to show you how many minutes are left in their Grace Period (ex. "3m / 5m" means 3 minutes out of the 5 minute grace period has passed since you notified them).
11. Click the below icon when ready to notify the guest.
12. Click Notify.
13. When guests are notified and reply "1", you will see a "Returning" confirmation that they are on their way back to you (if they text "9" you will see "Cancelled").
Tip! Click the below icon to refresh the waitlist to see the guest's response status after they've been notified (this automatically refreshes but depending on your Wi-Fi speed, clicking refresh will help to update in real-time!)
*The "1" to the right of Notified below is the number of times you've notified that guest.
14. Click the below blue circle "check" icon when the guest returns and you service them.
Clicking the below red circle "x" icon will cancel and remove the guest from the waitlist.
15. Click "Service" and the guest will be removed from the main waitlist.
16. Click the below icon to see the "History" page, where you can see past guests who have already been serviced or cleared from the waitlist. By default, the History page and any attendee on the waitlist will auto-clear after 1 day, unless your business has configured a different Expiration Threshold.
17. From the History page, you have the ability to click on the blue circle "check" icon which completes the guest's servicing period in the system (this allows your business to analyze how long it took to fully service each guest).
*Click the History icon again to go back to the main waitlist.
Tip! If you inadvertently cancel or service a guest into the History, you can click on the below icon to from the History page to restore the guest back to the waitlist.
Tip! If your business has multiple locations, make sure you have the correct location selected from the dropdown below.
And that's it — adding a guest is as simple as that!
18. Bookings
A Booking is a guest who is scheduled in advance. Bookings are inputted by the business only. NextMe does NOT currently provide guests a website or app to self-service their own booking.
Begin by clicking this green circle "plus" icon on your waitlist.
19. When adding a guest as a booking, make sure to toggle on Booking as seen below.
20. Enter all the fields as you normally would, but for bookings you have additional Booking Date and Booking Time fields to schedule them in advance of their booking day. More details on Bookings here.
21. Analytics
Click the below icon on the left sidebar to access your Analytics.
22. You can filter the analytics by multiple preset time periods or click "Custom" for a specific date range.
23. At the bottom of the Analytics page you can export reports in either "CSV" or "Excel" format.
Tip: Settings
Learn more about managing and configuring your feature Settings here, and how you want your waitlist to work.
Learn more about managing and configuring your account and Business Details here.
For more details view our complete collection of Help Center articles, and for any questions please use the chat messenger to message NextMe support directly.
Alert: Troubleshooting
Oh no! Is the app being a slowpoke, or getting moody on you? We recommend the following:
Check that your internet connection is at "full bars" — we suggest a speed test site such as Ookla Speedtest
If you notice your carrier's network is stronger than your WiFi, we recommend switching to it
If the issue persists, screenshot any errors and email us at support@nextmeapp.com for the quickest response.
Happy waiting,
-NextMe Team