Online Employee Scheduling for Restaurants at Schedulefly

How Do You Share Good News with Your Team Right Away?

2009-07-02T13:52:00.004-04:00

Our customers use their Schedulefly online Message Wall to share good news and comments from customers with the entire team - creating excitement, motivation, camaraderie, and connectedness. Employees can comment on the messages, and share thoughts and ideas. A fun, high impact aspect is the ability to broadcast messages to employees’ email in-boxes. For instance, the owner of a restaurant recently posted the below message on her wall – all employees also received it in their email inboxes! Of course they can also read and post to their wall from mobile devices like iPhones and Blackberries.

Staff...I wanted to pass on this email I received. Congratulations! You did a GREAT job!!!

"I wanted to take a moment to simply say ‘Thank You’ to the Staff at Liberty Market for their wonderful service and hospitality. My husband, son, and I visited the restaurant last night for the very first time for dinner and we could not have desired a better experience. From the moment we walked in the front door we could feel that Liberty Market was a special place. The food, service, and atmosphere were all exceptional. We were especially impressed with the young gentleman who walked us out to our car and conversed with our family as we left the restaurant. Our dining experience held true to Liberty Market’s stated principles exemplifying craftsmanship, professionalism, hospitality, and that of being servants. While last night was our first visit to Liberty Market it will certainly not be our last. Thank you again.

Sincerely,

Jennifer and Family"

Screen grab of their wall...

Start your Free Schedulefly Trial today to get your team connected...

The Schedulefly Team

Already logged into Facebook? Come on in...we already know who your are.

2009-06-18T10:58:00.005-04:00

We've added the über convenient Facebook Connect button to Schedulefly's login page. If your already logged into Facebook when you hit schedulefly.com - click it and we will usher you right on in...

If for some weird reason you've arrived at Schedulefly's login page and are not logged into Facebook yet (these days, who does that?), clicking the connect button will allow you to login to Facebook and Schedulefly at the same time - with your Facebook userid and password.

The Schedulefly Team

Restaurant Employee Scheduling is an Art, Not a Science...

2009-06-15T16:38:00.005-04:00

We had planned a blog about the subtleties and intricacies involved with restaurant employee scheduling. Then we noticed this neat post on one of our customer's Schedulefly Message Wall. There are many ways to skin a cat, here's one...although this is probably pretty common in the restaurant industry.

-----------------------------------

"I want to thank all of you for coming to work to serve our customers with dedicated focus. That is why we are all here. I also want to explain how scheduling works a little more. If you are new remember - remember that we do have more alot of employees and everyone wants the perfect job in a perfect world. Unfortunately this is not reality. While we are very flexible in working with people's schedules - this doesn't mean that you will get exactly what you want.

There are several things that go into putting a schedule together. Seniority is something that is considered. As you become the not so new kid on the block you will appreciate that we do this. Also the more things you can do in the store the more options I have in plugging you into the schedule. We will only let you move on to other positions as we see that you are ready for them and you are good at the position you currently work.

Another thing that is factored in...is how you work. The best people will get more hours. This means how you work or don't work factors in to how many hours you will be scheduled. ATTITUDE and how hard you work all is considered. If I have the options of 10 Builders for a shift...I will put in the one who is the better worker with the best attitude. Availability is also a factor. Another thought...fewer people work in the day and those people usually are the ones who can do multiple positions. This is why employee's who have been at Sheridan's longer usually gets more day shifts.

The more available you are the more chances you have of being scheduled. Also if you have requested a certain number of hours and I put you on shifts only to see that you are giving them up often then I wonder how committed you are to the job. This feature is nice to have but should not be abused."

---------------------------------------

Clearly a lot of thought and strategy goes into creating a schedule every
week. At Schedulefly, we're just trying to make the execution of creating the schedule - and managing all of the inevitable changes that come along after a schedule has been posted - a little easier, a little faster, and a little bit more fun for all involved.

The Schedulefly Team

We're Letting Our Customers Speak for Us...

2009-06-12T16:59:00.004-04:00

We are lucky to have so many awesome customers at Schedulefly. They all
appreciate the value of easy, web-based restaurant employee scheduling &
communication. They like simplicity, ease of use, intuitiveness, and fun.
They don't leave us unless they close their doors - we renew 99% of our
customers every month.

We realized that we can tell people how much value Schedulefly can add to
their business 'till we are blue in the face, but, we admit - we're biased.
So we decided to let our customers speak for us. We bought this neat little
Flip video camera, and we started sending it to customers. We give them no
scripts, no lines, no quotes - nothing. We simply ask them to tell the
camera why they like Schedulefly, and say whatever is on their mind.

So far, the camera has been to two customers. It is in the hands of another
now, and two more are waiting. Here are some of the clips we've received
already. We can't thank our customers enough for taking time out of their
busy days to do this for us!

And one more...Dave Downs - a super cool guy (GM at a restaurant in Denver) who spent an entire day with us at the Chicago NRA show - because he wanted to! He spoke to people with us - told them how much he is enjoying being a Schedulefly customer and why. It was cool to watch - dang good salesman that Dave. Thanks Dave!

The Schedulefly Team

Yep, We Are Making It This Easy to See Coverage...

2009-06-11T12:51:00.004-04:00

All of us at Schedulefly are obsessed with making restaurant employee
scheduling & communication easy, simple, intuitive, and even FUN! That
obsession leads us to launch enhancements like our new bar graph schedule
snapshot. Want to know how many people are on at 10pm? And who they are? One click - done.

You'll see in these screen shots that Kandy Fletcher, our awesome customer from Sheridan's Lattes & Frozen Custard in Lubbock TX, can quickly see that she has 7 people on at 10pm. If she wants to know who they are, she just clicks the total and - voila - her list appears!

Not only is this fun, simple graph a great time saver and an easy way to quickly see coverage at any time of day, it can also be used to help Schedulefly's customers cut labor costs. As an example, we got this neat note from Kiersten Traina of Liberty Market in Gilbert, AZ today. She wasn't at work - but she could still check Schedulefly with her laptop and internet access:

"I'm actually sitting at a coffee shop trying to figure out how to cut labor, and the graph is helping me in relation to my sales data, so I can make sure I don't have people on at dead times!!!"

So now that the graph is launched, we are off to work on more fun, cool,
highly valuable stuff that will make our customers' lives easier.

The Schedulefly Team

QSR Has Some Thoughts on Web-based Restaurant Employee Scheduling...

2009-06-02T07:24:00.005-04:00

QSR published a nice article today titled,
Streamlined Schedules: New technologies can take the pain out of scheduling your employees' shifts.

The article mentions many of the benefits to owners, managers, and employees - and also provides a nice list of some of the leading providers. If you are an independent or small chain, we believe passionately that Schedulefly is the easiest, simplest, most intuitive, and FUNNEST solution available. And our customers that have kicked the tires of several providers all agree!

The cool thing is, you can try most of the apps for free, and determine which works best for you and your team. The online employee scheduling trend is picking up steam – quickly!

The Schedulefly Team
Tyler, Wil and Wes

Schedulefly and Local Customer Elijah's on WWAY News Channel 3 - Wilmington NC

2009-05-23T19:18:00.005-04:00

We spent some time this week down on the Cape Fear River with WWAY News Channel 3 and the staff at Elijahs - a popular Seafood Restaurant and Schedulefly customer. WWAY filmed a great story on how Elijahs is using online scheduling at Schedulefly to save time and money - while transforming the way they communicate with their staff!

Here is the video clip...

And some photos we took while hanging around...

Old Schedule...

New Schedule!

Indie Restaurant Operators at NRA Show Digging Schedulefly's Easy to Use Tools

2009-05-20T11:50:00.014-04:00

We just got back from Chicago - our first time exhibiting at the National Restaurant Show. We met a bunch of really fun people - independent and small group restaurant operators who are excited about simple affordable tools to help their business.

Our number one goal for this show was to continue to create awareness about our technology in the restaurant industry. There are a handful of companies providing online scheduling and labor management tools - it was good to see them there as well - helping us create this awareness.

Some folks that stopped by had heard of the concept - some had not. For those that had not - we explained the high level summary and showed them how they can easily create employee work schedules and deliver them online, via email and text message, to PDAs and even via Facebook.

After 10 seconds of the basics - we had fun showing them some of the things that Schedulefly does that they had not already seen:

Easily Monitor Labor Costs vs Sales Forecasts
Scheduling managers can keep close watch on labor costs as they schedule - and can see the labor cost as a percentage of their daily and weekly sales forecast.

Upload/Share Documents Online
Restaurants can upload and share documents like employee manuals, menus, photos and training videos. They can see who is viewing them as well!

Multi-Unit Operator Dashboard
See all your locations with one login. Quickly see actionable events at all units and easily move between them to review schedules, labor costs and employee details.

Facebook Integration
While logged into their Facebook account - staff are one click away from their upcoming work schedule, important company alerts and more.

Twitter Integration
Restaurants are using Twitter to communicate with their customers. Our customers are posting things to their staff - like menu changes and nightly specials - that they are also blasting out to their Twitter followers. We make it easy to do it from one place.

Schedulefly Site Activity
Even with improved communication, sometimes things happen. That's why we have an activity report that allows managers to review events happening inside schedulefly - useful when needing to unwind a communication problem.

Staff Photos
It sure makes it easier to put a face with a name - and its fun! New employees can quickly get familiar with their colleagues and management enjoys seeing a smiling face next to messages, time-off requests, shift trades, site activity and more.

Fly Notes for Managers
Managers can share events happening at the restaurant. Notes can be set to occur one-time or daily, weekly or monthly. Managers can attached photos and documents to notes and have notes emailed to managers when needed.

Schedulefly Community
Connect with other Schedulefly users from around the world - as well as everyone on our team. Share tips and tricks and contribute ideas/comments on new features we are working on!

Try online scheduling at Schedulefly today - for free - fully featured - no obligation. We would love to earn your business.

The Schedulefly Team
Tyler, Wil and Wes (North Carolina Boys!)

Schedulefly Wins Emerging Company Category in the 2009 Coastal Entrepreneur Awards

2009-05-14T11:51:00.005-04:00

Schedulefly, a provider of simple, easy-to-use web-based employee scheduling for restaurants was recognized today in front of 300 people from the Southeastern North Carolina business community on UNCW's campus. Schedulefly won the 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Emerging Company. The overall winner was Tera Disc - an amazing company on their way to solving a much bigger problem than us.

The events leading up to the award and the people we've met have made this an awesome experience. We are excited and honored to listed along side the rest of these exciting and innovative companies.

Schedulefly is Saving Restaurants Money & Keeping Teams Focused on Guests

2009-05-12T16:17:00.007-04:00

Wil Brawley of Schedulefly is going to be interviewed for an article in a major restaurant publication about tools that save restaurants money. The editor told Wil she wants to know how much money the average customer saves by using Schedulefly. We emailed BJ Frentzel, Director of Ops at Focus Tank, and asked him how much he saves, and whether he'd be open to being interviewed as well.

Here's his response:

This is great Wil, congrats...it seems like Schedulefly is picking up more steam everyday...

In some ways the cost savings for Schedulefly are incalculable in the sense that we seldom have issues with call offs or people being unable to cover their shifts. This creates a more consistent experience for our customers and maintains the sense of "team" at the shops.

However in solid numbers we easily have increased our labor efficiency (lowered our labor costs) by atleast 3 - 5% at each of our locations. Our managers have significantly more time to run the restaurants and train our staff versus spending hours on scheduling.

Before Schedulefly the average length of time one of our managers spent writing a schedule was about 4-5 hours, now the manager typically spends less than 1 hour to create our schedule. Our managers spend less time managing staffing crises and working to gather staff for mundane communications, Schedulefly facilitates all of this for us.

I always have great things to say about you guys so feel free pass along my information if they need to talk to me.

Take care,
BJF

Thanks BJ! We look forward to this article coming out soon...

The Schedulefly Team

Schedulefly Recognized in the Cape Fear Coastal Entrepreneur Awards as Emerging Company Winner

2009-05-11T11:33:00.006-04:00

UNCW's Cameron School of Business and the Greater Wilmington Business Journal joined together to shine a spotlight on up-and-coming entrepreneurs in North Carolina's Cape Fear region. 10 category winners were selected from more than 120 companies.

Schedulefly was selected as a winner in the Emerging Company category! It is a really an honor to be recognized along side these innovative companies in our area.

Schedulefly's Wil Brawley and Wes Aiken presented Schedulefly's growth strategy to a panel of 7 judges that included Yahoo Hot Jobs' founder, the CEO of PPD and the Dean of the UNCW Business School. The judges heard presentations from all 10 winners - followed by Q&A. On May 14th the entrepreneurial community in Southeastern North Carolina will pause and come together at UNCW to hear more about the 10 winning companies and to find out who will be crowned the 2009 Coastal Entrepreneur of the Year!

Being a graduate from the UNCW Cameron School of Business - this letter below from Larry Clark - the Dean of the Business School is really cool.

Thanks Larry!

Here is the latest Wilmington Business Journal - with great articles on all 10 winners. http://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/entrepreneurs.php

Here is more info on the judges and the May 14 event.
http://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/events/cea_web.html

Schedulefly Team

Schedulefly keeps it silly easy for your staff

2009-04-26T11:34:00.009-04:00

This is a quick look at how simple, yet powerful, online scheduling and communication at Schedulefly is for your staff. This short tour, created for your staff and posted in our help section inside Schedulefly, points out the few things they will use week in and week out. This includes checking their schedule, the ease of trading shifts with manager approval, requesting time off and communicating with you and the rest of your team using Schedulefly, their mobile devices and popular social networking platforms.

Start your free trial today and get your team involved from the get-go...so they can help you determine if this is indeed a tool to make all of your lives easier!

The Schedulefly Team

Quick Schedulefly Tour

2009-04-20T14:42:00.009-04:00

Here is a video tour of online restaurant scheduling and communication at Schedulefly - giving you a chance to see the look and feel of our application. We point out a few of the simple features that are making our customers' lives a whole lot easier. We make it a habit of asking our new customers why they choose Schedulefly and how we can continue to make it better - and a big reason many of them decide to join our family is because our product is very easy to use - their staff loves it - and our company is fun and easy to do business with.

Enjoy the 3-minute tour...after your done - sign up for a free, no obligation, fully featured 30-day trial. Get your staff involved quickly - and you'll be hooked in just a few days. You will never look back.

Schedulefly & Dolce Group Featured in Restaurants & Institutions Magazine

2009-04-14T17:10:00.008-04:00

R&I (Restaurants & Institutions) recently wrote a great article about the
emerging trend of online restaurant employee scheduling and communication. Featured in the article is a screen shot of The Dolce Group's Schedulefly page, and a summary of how Dolce is using Schedulefly across their locations to gain peace of mind - as well as save time and money!

Sam Rubin, the GM of both Dolce Enoteca and Ketchup in Huntsville, AL is
quoted as saying, "I think we're paying right around $35 a month. And if it
was $100 I would still pay for it." Like all of Schedulefly's customers, Sam knows he is receiving an enormous return on investment (ROI), by saving time, eliminating scheduling miscommunication, and delighting his web-savvy, mobile workforce.

While the article doesn't mention Schedulefly by name - we assure you Sam is
talking about us! He and the folks at Dolce have been great customers for a
long time. They are out in front of a quickly growing trend of restaurants
moving their schedules from pencil and paper to the Internet.

Here is a link to the R&I magazine article...

Introducing Fly Notes - A New School Notebook for Restaurant Managers

2009-04-09T09:34:00.003-04:00

We've just launched a simple, yet powerful, new feature to Schedulefly - called Fly Notes. Restaurant managers are using this new tool to post and share notes, events, action items etc. with their management team. The Fly Notes page also displays the day's weather forecast, the daily sales forecast and the scheduled labor cost as a percentage of that sales forecast. As with all new features we launch - this is included and available to every one of our trial and paying customers.

Managers can post one-time, daily, weekly or monthly reoccurring notes - and attach documents and photos as needed. Fly Notes can be assigned to individual managers or the entire team.

Email alerts can be sent when notes are added - and an email alert reminder system for reoccurring notes is underway. Each Fly Note can be added to a custom category and also commented on - fostering a web 2.0 style dialog on items and events related to the restaurant.

Here are few examples of Fly Notes categories being created so far:

-Daily To Do List
-Maintenance
-Service Issues
-Customer Feedback
-Upcoming Events
-Caterings
-Shift Notes
-Food Cost
-Employee Issues

After some great initial feedback - we are already working on a few cool enhancements including the the ability to send emails to your Fly Notes page. Snap a quick photo of that dirty walk-in freezer from last night and forward it over to your Fly Notes for your management team to see in the morning!

The Schedulefly Team

Old School Restaurateur Hangs Up Phone and Embraces Online Scheduling at Schedulefly

2009-03-15T08:23:00.008-04:00

We mentioned in a previous post that we had begun asking our customers a few simple questions about why they are embracing an obvious trend in the restaurant industry. This trend is a move from traditional paper based scheduling and old school communication techniques to online scheduling and modern day technology on the web. Considering the amount of free time that restaurant professionals don't have - we've been overwhelmed at how quickly they are responding! Must be the time savings we've created?

One of these customers is Stephen Kanetake - manager at the high-energy Mikuni Sushi at the Northstar Resort in Lake Tahoe. We asked him a few questions to see how he felt about our online employee scheduling product, our service and our company. Here are his answers and comments straight from his email...

Why do you use Schedulefly?

We are in a volatile, seasonal, ski resort area with four distinct seasons. I generally have my managers schedule on the heavy side and I'll make adjustments to numbers and in-times as I see the week unfold. We always get last minute large groups so I can post needed shifts, blast them out to staff, and they are picked up instantly.

How much time does Schedulefly save you per week – vs. your previous scheduling process – in creating and managing schedules?

My department managers love it. Saves them about an hour each, every week. I can review and approve or send back for adjustments in about 10 minutes.

How much are you saving in weekly labor costs by using Schedulefly?

1.5 TO 2%

What is it like to do business with Schedulefly?

EASY!!

Any other thoughts or ideas you would like to share?

Keep doin' what you're doin'! I am an old fashioned restaurateur who started out taking orders on tickets, using abbreviations and using the phone. I have given in to the fact that texting and emailing are the new communication avenues. Much more efficient way to put the word out. Staff loves it.

The greatest benefit we have experienced is the ease with which the staff can giveup and pickup shifts. I can also look ahead and see potential issues with who is giving up shifts for what reasons and start planning an alternate shift attack. Being in a ski resort, if someone is trying to unload a shift because they broke their pelvis in two places or blew out an MCL, I can start lobbying for people to pickup the shifts or start making alternate plans.

Last week we had a sudden drop off in sales due to the weather changing from snow to rain. I was able to broadcast a message to all staff that I was looking for volunteers to give up their shifts so I could cut labor costs. BLAM!!!!!!!!! I got slammed with 10 requests. I was also able to stagger the in-times as well, which alerts the staff members to the change - instantly - via text message. AMAZING!!

Easy ROI with Schedulefly!

2009-03-01T10:45:00.013-05:00

What if you could eliminate missed shifts, cut scheduling time by 75% (and eliminate scheduling headaches), reduce labor costs, reduce manager turnover, cut paper and ink costs, and attract and retain top talent to deliver excellent guest experiences and help you succeed. Our customers will tell you: YOU CAN!

Eliminate Missed Shifts due to Scheduling “Miscommunication”
This factor alone can pay for Schedulefly by itself – How much does a single missed shift cost you in lost business, bad service, frustrated employees having to pick up slack, etc.? Schedulefly is your “no excuses” tool.

John, Managing Partner at Zaxby's, said: "Before Schedulefly, every week - half our of staff said they did not know their schedule. Now, everyone knows! Everyone can get their schedule by text, email or posted in the store. No excuses!"

Cut Scheduling Time by 75%
How much is your manager’s time worth? Would you like to free them up for several additional hours per week to focus on guest experiences and top line growth?

Brian, Manager at Fleet Reserve Club, said: "My assistant manager used to dread this and it would take hours to make a perfect schedule, now it takes about 15 minutes"

Reduce Labor Costs by 1% or More
Our labor cost report allows you to easily identify and cut extra labor costs.

Dan, Manager at Stonehouse Grille, said: "It has helped us cut 3% from BOH and 1% from FOH."

Reduce Manager Turnover
Convenience of creating schedules from home, and drastically cutting scheduling time, creates manager delight and makes their lives easier.

Karen, Manager at Clyde's, said: "Schedulefly makes my job as scheduling manager much easier. I like it because it is easy to use and it is easily accessible for both management and servers. It has also cut down on the confusion and inaccuracies with time off requests. I have gone down from 8 plus hours to about an hour or sometimes even less a week."

Attract & Retain Top Talent
Give yourself a competitive advantage. Top talent will be more likely to join you – and stay – if you make their lives easier and give them a tool that aligns with how they manage the rest of their lives – on cell phones and the web!

Kiersten, Manger at Liberty Market, said: "Most of our employees are under the age of 25 and grew up with every conceivable form of technology. To not have to rely on paper for them and to use the means of communication that they themselves use is invaluable!"

Reduce paper and Ink Costs (and Improve Sustainability)
Eliminate paper schedules, as well as store new hire documents, training manuals, employee files, and other documents online.

Toby, GM at Max Restaurant, said: "Schedulefly reduces waste and helps our restaurant save. Moving the process online saves roughly 20,000 commuting miles a year and nearly cuts all paper usage. Schedulefly pays for itself over and over and over again."

How is Online Scheduling and the Team at Schedulefly Helping Your Business?

2009-02-28T13:43:00.021-05:00

We recently asked our customers a few questions to see how they felt about our product, our service and our company. We've been thrilled to see so many of them responding with wonderful feedback and suggestions for future enhancements. We plan on sharing many of these Q&A's here on our blog over the coming months - hopefully to paint a picture of the real impact online employee scheduling is having on our industry.

We asked BJ Frentzel, a customer with multiple restaurant concepts in Winston Salem NC, a few questions. Here are his answers straight from his email response...

Why do you use Schedulefly?

"I am the Director of Operations for a multi-concept, multi-unit restaurant group. I was looking for a tool that was easy for managers to use, easy for our employees to use, and gave me the ability to track and offer suggestions to improving the scheduling and labor costs. Schedulefly has meet and exceeded our expectations."

How much time does Schedulefly save you per week – vs. your previous scheduling process – in creating and managing schedules?

"It easily saves each manager at each restaurant 3-5 hours per week."

How much are you saving in weekly labor costs by using Schedulefly?

"Easily a few hundred dollars just in the manager’s time alone."

What is it like to do business with Schedulefly?

"You guys are super-responsive and have a clear dedication to service and improvement. In the restaurant industry it's been my experience when looking for tech bases solutions (whether for inventory, POS systems, scheduling, etc), once a company gets your money they really don’t care anymore. You guys flip that practice on its head. Its great working with you and you’re one of the very small expenses that I don’t mind parting with each month because you definitely earn every bit of your fee."

Any other thoughts or ideas you would like to share?

"I really can’t say enough positive things about your product...I've been writing schedules at restaurants for years now. I'm jealous of the manager's that I hire now since they'll never know the pain of the old way we used to schedule. I think you’re honestly revolutionizing the way restaurants schedule and communicate with their employees. It's great."

Restaurant Staff Communication and the Schedulefly Message Wall

2009-02-24T11:58:00.029-05:00

Schedulefly is revolutionizing the way restaurants communicate and connect with their staff!
Posted via iPhone by Wes @ SF 12 minutes ago Reply

I just broadcasted this message to staff's inboxes, cell phones, Facebook pages and our company Twitter!
Posted by Wil @ SF Today at 8:15am 3 Replies

Hi Team - Please review the new Employee Handbook I just uploaded to our Documents page. Thanks!
Posted by Tyler @ SF 3 days ago 10 Replies

Each Schedulefly account has a "Message Wall" that enables managers and staff to communicate important messages to each other, online, from anywhere at anytime. Messages and their replies, like the ones above, are displayed on every staff member's Schedulefly home page.

Posting a new message to all staff or select groups of staff is easy. You can post it from your Schedulefly page - or you can post it from a mobile device, your cell phone and even Facebook. Managers with important or time sensitive messages can broadcast the message out to inboxes and cell phones as a text message.

If you use Twitter for your business and have a following of eagerly listening customers - we've also added a cool feature that lets you choose to have your message "auto-tweeted" to your Twitter page. Maybe your alerting your staff to a weekly drink special they should mention or to some great new menu changes - why not go ahead and alert your Twitter followers too?!

When you combine this powerful messaging tool with the ability to upload and share documents, photos and videos - communication with your staff has never been easier and is now actually pretty fun!

Try Online Scheduling at Schedulefly for FREE today!

Schedulefly Innovation & The Power of Multi-Tenancy

2009-02-03T15:25:00.006-05:00

Schedulefly is a multi-tenant software application - which means we have one web application that serves all of our customers. Think of it like living in a high rise condo vs a single family home neighborhood. You can move in a make your private living space your own - but the yard, the building and all the cool amenities are provided by and updated by Schedulefly!

One of the benefits of a multi-tenant application, for our customers, is the ability to collaborate and learn from each other - inside our application. They can share best practices and "crowd source" answers by asking questions that are seen by thousands of restaurant professionals also using Schedulefly.

Here is a shot of the "Schedulefly Network" tab - showing a discussion between Wil Brawley and a dozen or so customers. Each customer has access to the "Network" tab - where they can get involved in these discussions. We love it when they take time to get involved.

This inter-tenant collaboration is very powerful not only for our customers - but also for our development team here at Schedulefly. It enables us to easily communicate with our customers on anything and everything related to our product. We have some innovative ideas (some maybe crazy!) that we are able to pitch to everyone - to see their response - and to start a discussion.

It's a win-win because we are ensuring that our product continues to add value for everyone - while allowing customers to be intimately involved in the evolution of our product.

The Schedulefly Team

Dolce and Ketchup Loving Schedulefly

2009-01-25T20:05:00.006-05:00

The Dolce Group and Schedulefly have teamed up to bring Online Employee Scheduling to one of the leading and trendiest hospitality groups in the country. They have certainly set the bar for trendy restaurants across the country with concepts such as Dolce and Les Deux in West Hollywood - and now that they have moved their schedules and employee data to the web - they have raised the bar even higher!

Sam Rubin - Dolce's Director of Marketing had this to say about the impact Schedulefly has had on The Dolce Group's concepts so far...

"Schedulefly is hands-down the best resource we have implemented at our restaurants. The staff absolutely love that they get their schedules sent via text and on Facebook and those that have an iPhone - love the mobile application.

With Schedulefly we have eliminated any errors in scheduling due to availability and the shift change process is fool proof. I would put Schedulefly as a must have application for any restaurant (even before a POS system or reservation system). Best of all...the staff LOVE Schedulefly."

Sam is one of the hardest working managers we've run across and has provided really great feedback over the last year that has turned directly into new features. I will always remember that evening when Sam called, clearly on a busy Friday night, while away from the computer, and said - "Hey - it's great and all that I get these shift trade alerts on my blackberry - but it's a huge pain to have to go find a computer to approve them! Can I get an approve link and a box to add comments?"

This was such a great call - because we knew Sam was on his way to changing the way he dealt with schedule changes - forever. That night - we added that link to the blackberry alert for Sam and every other scheduling manager using Schedulefly.

We look forward to working with Sam and his team as we introduce Schedulefly to more of Dolce Group's concepts.

The Schedulefly Team

Cheeburger Cheeburger Selects Schedulefly as Preferred Online Scheduling Tool

2009-01-20T22:15:00.008-05:00

We are proud to have been selected as the preferred online employee scheduling vendor for the Cheeburger Cheeburger family! After successfully piloting and rolling out Schedulefly to its Lonetree CO, Manalapan NJ and Sanibel Island locations - with an average of over 40 staff at each - the corporate team felt confident in recommending Schedulefly to its franchises.

The following is quote from Jeffrey Jablow - Director of Training and Menu Development at Cheeburger Cheeburger.

"We are excited to have selected Schedulefly as our preferred online employee scheduling vendor. Schedulefly's application is extremely easy to use and roll out - easier than we could have imagined - and the most intuitive of any of the tools we considered. We didn't need training - it is truly as easy as 1-2-3!

On top of that, the Schedulefly team is very flexible and nimble, and demonstrates a strong customer-centric approach that we believe differentiates them as a true business partner."

Have you ever had one of their burgers? I had my first while on vacation in Naples Florida with my family about 5 years ago. We rode our bikes down to Cheeburger on the first day of our week vacation - and then rode almost every day after. We could not get enough...you should go get one soon.

The Schedulefly Team
Wes, Wil and Tyler

Twitter - A Simple Tool for Connecting Restaurants with their Customers

2009-01-15T23:09:00.016-05:00

We are starting to see more and more of our customers using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to connect with their customers. Twitter is a great one for building awareness about your product or service - and connecting with "followers" who share your same interests and/or are interested in updates from your business. The team here at Schedulefly uses Twitter to connect with our customers, friends and industry experts to let them know about projects are working on and exciting news at our company....and some random stuff to keep it fun.

It could be a very interesting marketing tool for restaurants looking to broadcast updates to customers - possibly including specials, menu changes and maybe even real time updates on how busy the restaurant is and whether there is a wait. It's also great for promoting your website/business as well since twitter posts are indexed very quickly by search engines - and can link back to your website.

Here are a few interesting ideas as possible twitter "tweets" to customers....

- Tweet lunch specials to local businesses
- Tweet whether or not there is a wait
- Ask customers for feedback on new menu items ("crowd sourcing")
- Tweet daily or weekly coupons (with links to printable coupons)
- Accept reservations and/or orders via Tweets (maybe Direct Message tweets)

Here are a few good short posts on this topic and some more ideas -

http://www.dreamsystemsmedia.com/blog/index.php/every-restaurant-needs-a-powerful-twitter-and-facebook-account/

http://www.conversationalmediamarketing.com/2008/12/if-i-were-a-restaurant-id-use-twitter-to.html

If you are already doing this or decide to try it - let us know how it is going!

Schedulefly Team
http://twitter.com/schedulefly

Are you Passionate about the Customer Experience?

2009-01-04T09:32:00.005-05:00

In every business - taking care of your customer and the customer experience is more important than ever - it creates a loyal customer who will keep coming back. The customer has so many options and especially in today's economy - he or she will always choose the product or service that they know will give them a great return on their investment - whether that is a meal out or a new pair of shoes. My family has always enjoyed eating out. Cooking is fun now and then - but it is such a luxury to have someone set your table, seat you, suggest specials, make and bring you your favorite drink and serve you a wonderful meal. Best of all - they do the dishes! This has become even more of a luxury in the last year.

Like many families now - we no longer eat out 2 or 3 nights a week. We eat out maybe once a week - if that. I've found that we also tend to stick to the places we have been before - or have heard of from friends and family that had a great experience there. We go where the love is. We tend to go back to the restaurants that remember us - they remember my son likes the crayons and my wife likes un-sweet iced tea. They have happy employees who smile and say "welcome back" - every time. Because of this - we are loyal customers. The food at our favorite places is certainly good (got to have good food) - but in some cases - I am sure it's not as good as the place next door. It's the love and the entire customer experience that brings us back. We know, that on our one night out, we are not taking a risk. We will indeed have good food and more importantly - a great time.

Our customers are most likely feeling the impact of what I've described above. Our online employee scheduling service can help ensure they are delivering an exceptional customer experience. How? For starters, they can:

1. Cut scheduling time by at 50% (usually more) and use this saved time to focus on delivering a world class experience to help attract and retain customers.

2. Generate employee delight and reduce turnover: No more need to call or drive to check their schedule; it’s available 24/7 online. Managers have all the critical information they need, at their finger tips, when making the schedule. Their staff receives their schedule and schedule changes via email, text message, and their Facebook page! Happy, engaged and informed employees definitely make for a better customer experience.

3. Go Green! Our software can facilitate their efforts by reducing paper waste and their overall carbon footprint. One of our customers with only 50 employees (who were all forbidden to call in to check schedules) has estimated that his staff is driving 20,000 miles less per year since switching to online employee scheduling.

For us here at Schedulefly it is the same. We work hard to make sure our customers enjoy our service and our product. We love to hear from them and we love to interact with them and make them feel at home. We know they are spending their hard earned dollars with us - and we make sure they feel good about that. Our product is good, getting better each month and they can count on that. Our service and the intimate customer care we deliver is what makes them loyal.

Happy Holidays from Schedulefly

2008-12-21T19:12:00.004-05:00

Its been a great year at Schedulefly. The feedback we've received this year from our customers and all the businesses who have tried our online employee scheduling product has been awesome. Every comment, idea and suggestion we've received this year has been taken to heart, considered, thrown up on the whiteboard and often addressed and implemented the same day!

We've created a really cool (and quickly growing) community of owners, managers and employees who make great suggestions that almost always benefit the entire community. All of your emails and posts to us are passed around to the entire team for thoughts and comments. We really do read and listen to each and every one. Keep em coming!

We hope you have a safe and happy holiday! Enjoy this short jib-jab skit staring the team at Schedulefly....it is indeed a wonderful life!