Question

While attending a conference in Philadelphia, a colleague and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. The annual Philadelphia Flower Show was also in town, so the restaurant was packed. When I walked in and asked for a table, the person in the front asked me for my cell phone number. I received two text messages. The first message stated that I checked in at 6:59 p.m. and my seating time would be at 7:09 p.m. It also told me I would receive another message when my table was ready. Within ten minutes, I received another text message telling me my table was ready. This was my first experience getting a text telling me my table was ready.

I didn't have to carry the typical 'table ready' pager while I waited. I did, however, find myself holding my iPhone and constantly looking to see if I received a text from them. Since it was the Hard Rock, it was loud and couldn't hear my text message alert. They still used the pagers for those that did not have a cell phone or felt uncomfortable giving their cell phone number to a restaurant.

A few years ago my husband attended a conference at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. He was waiting in line (a very long line) for their fabulous brunch. Since he had to get to the next session at the conference, he went to the Bellagio's Facebook page and posted a question about the wait time for one person for brunch. They replied within a few minutes on Facebook and told him to get out of line and walk up to the front of the line and show the person the Facebook message. He got seated immediately. He saved himself at least 40 minutes waiting on line! In this case, Facebook was used effectively at the Bellagio!

A couple of years ago during Memorial Day Weekend, my husband and I went to Manhattan for a few hours. We were in the World Financial Center area. There were outdoor restaurant vendors. While there was nothing unusual about that (especially in Manhattan), the one thing that was interesting was there were no cash registers as one usually sees when they go to pay. They all used iPADs as their registers and had a drawer for the cash.

Have you had a similar experience? If so, share your experience. Do you think we will see more uses of texting in business, restaurants, etc.? Have you ever used an app that helps you find a parking spot in a big city, use the correct subway, etc.?

Answer 1

We will see more use of apps in business, restaurants,travel ,banking etc. These apps are convenient to use and these saves a lot of time and energy.Apps as Google mapsnot only gived the direction while driving but also navigates to roads with less rush.The navigator apps are useful in finding out a parking spot . The apps as PAY TM makes the money transfer at ease,even the banks have their own apps that provide number of services that required the customers to go to the bank before,but now these services are available at their fingers point.