Last week I ate lunch at a new wings and rings restaurant nearby. I bellied up to the bar and ordered some wings and a Bud Light, and started chatting up the bartender.

It turns out the she’s normally a night time bartender, but – get this – this place had been open only three days, and the daytime bartender didn’t show up. No call. No communication. Nothing. She just didn’t come to work. So guess what happened? The manager had to drop everything, find his phone list, and start calling every employee trained as a bartender – desperately hoping to find somebody who could work. He got lucky and found the nice young lady who took care of me.

Now this story isn’t unique – it’s probably happened to most people reading this, and it will happen again. However, until now restaurant communication was a problem, and it took lots of phone calls and voice mails to try to track somebody down. But had the manager used Schedulefly, he could have blasted a text and email to all bartenders with a single click – and asked who could come in. No phone calls. No voice mails. Just one click and everybody would instantly get notified of the fire drill. Easy and fast restaurant staff communication. Here’s an example…

This could also be done from a Blackberry, iPhone, or any mobile web phone…

I was also curious why the person who was scheduled wasn’t there. Maybe she wrote down the wrong schedule when she saw it posted at work. Or maybe she called to find out when she was working, and somebody told her the wrong day / time. Or maybe she just decided she didn’t want to work there! Funny thing is, Schedulefly would have also helped with the first two scenarios. She would not have had to write down her schedule or call and find out – rather, her schedule would have been available at www.schedulefly.com and on Facebook and iGoogle. Oh, and it would have been texted and emailed to her as well. Point is, she definitely would have know she was supposed to be there, and a fire drill may have been avoided altogether.

Keepin’ It Simple & Fun,

Wil @ Schedulefly