Schedulefly

Easy, Intuitive Restaurant Staff Scheduling

Staff scheduling gives me a headache and is very time consuming. With this tough economy, I need to spend more time focused on guest experiences, and less time dealing with scheduling hassles. I am curious about Schedulefly and I know you use it. Tell me about it.

I was in the same boat. Now scheduling is simple, and dare I say fun! And my life – and my employees’ lives – are much easier. Schedulefly is an extremely intuitive, easy web-based staff scheduling tool. Well, it’s more than that. It’s a place to create and manage schedules, as well as build teamwork and better communicate with our staff members.

Person with Scheduling Headaches Happy Schedulefly Customer

Do tell!

Creating schedules took me 2 hours per week before Schedulefly, and I had to create them at work. Now it takes 20 minutes – and I create schedules from home! And I don’t have to deal with phone calls, schedule changes, etc. My employees receive their schedules on their cell phones as well as via email. They can also log onto Schedulefly’s web site any time to check their schedule – in fact they can check their schedules from their Facebook page!

Person with Scheduling Headaches Happy Schedulefly Customer

I am not very tech savvy. Is it complicated to learn? Do I need to be a “tech guru” to use Schedulefly?

My friend, I was in the same boat. I can’t begin to express how easy and intuitive Schedulefly is. I even asked them about that. They told me they built it with people like us in mind! Even better, when I have questions I can call or send a question from the web site, and they respond right away!

Person with Scheduling Headaches Happy Schedulefly Customer

So how do you manage time off requests? I have to sort through scribbled notes on the backs of receipts. I can barely read the writing most of the time, and sometimes I find them after I have created the schedule. It’s a pain!

With Schedulefly, employees enter their time off requests online, and you can see their requests when you are creating the schedule. You can still schedule them if you need to, just like you do now. It’s neat how they can make requests for each week, or permanent requests for situations when they have a class, or work another job.

Person with Scheduling Headaches Happy Schedulefly Customer

Wow! That would make life easier for me and my employees. Hmm. What about shift trades?

Employees no longer have to make calls to find people to pick up shifts. They can offer up shifts from Schedulefly’s web site. For instance, a server can offer a shift to all other serves, or just to specific person. Of course the shift trade has to be approved by me – which I can do with the click of a button on Schedulefly’s web site, or even from my Blackberry.

Now that is cool!

Yep. For me and for my team!

Happy Schedulefly Customer Person with Scheduling Headaches

Yeah, we thought this would just help us spend less time scheduling. Now we realize that tools like the Message Wall enable us to post messages – which are sent out to all staff members via text message and email – when we need to schedule a staff meeting, or announce something we need them all to know about quickly.

You said Schedulefly also helps you build teamwork and better communicate with your staff members. How so?

So you don’t have to call them and track them down anymore!

Nope! Also, Schedulefly looks a lot like Facebook, which I don’t use, but my staff members all do. They can upload their photos to their Schedulefly profiles. The entire staff is alerted when it’s somebody’s birthday. Let’s just say that my staff loves it so much that I now list it as a key benefit when I am interviewing both staff members and managers!

Person with Scheduling Headaches Happy Schedulefly Customer

You bet it does!

I hadn’t thought of that. So it helps you attract and retain top talent – which is even more important during a tough economy!

What are the other benefits?

I used my saved time to focus on guest experiences. I use the labor cost module and have cut my labor costs by 3%. We NEVER have staff members miss shifts because of scheduling “miscommunication.” We store documents such as new hire training documents, menu changes, and any document we want to store on Schedulefly’s web site, so we save a bunch of paper and ink. The list goes on….

Happy Schedulefly Customer Person with Scheduling Headaches

Quite the opposite. It is a monthly subscription, and we make a return on our investment with my time savings alone! They list their pricing on their web site, and they don’t nickle-and-dime you. You get everything for one fixed monthly price, or you get a discount if you want to prepay for a year. Check out http://www.schedulefly.com/pricing.htm

O.K., this is clearly a great tool. Must be expensive!?

Am I right that they have a free 30-day trial?

Yes. In fact, you can sign up for the trial on their web site without having to call and speak to a slick sales person. And they don’t hassle you during the trial. If you like it, you let them know and they will start billing you after your trial.

Person with Scheduling Headaches Happy Schedulefly Customer

Yes! And by the way, the love customer suggestions for enhancements, and they are nimble enough to make changes quickly. I suggested an enhancement to them and it was created within 24 hours! I made another suggestion for a pretty big enhancement, and they are working on it now.

So they are easy to do business with. And you can call and speak with a real person instead of having to find all of your answers in some ridiculously long FAQ section.

Sounds too good to be true! Are their competitors the same?

You know, we explored several options before picking Schedulefly. Some of them seemed to just web sites – not businesses. No phone number if you need to call them. No mention of who runs the business on their web page. And then of course some competitors have flashy web sites but their scheduling mechanisms are hard to use and require a lot of training. We found Schedulefly to be by far easiest and most intuitive to use. And quite frankly, they were the most flexible, easy-to-do-business-with team of people we found – by far! They are passionate about their customers!!!

Person with Scheduling Headaches Happy Schedulefly Customer

Ironically, I spoke to one of their customers before I got started as well. She told me the same things I am telling you. In fact you can see what some other customers think at http://blog.schedulefly.com/

That is some endorsement. I wonder if I will have the same experience.

O.K., I need to run a trial. Do I have to call somebody?

Nope. Just hit the Free Trial button at www.schedulefly.com.

Person with Scheduling Headaches Happy Schedulefly Customer

Ironically, I spoke to one of their customers before I got started as well. She told me the same things I am telling you.

That is some endorsement. I wonder if I will have the same experience.

O.K., I need to run a trial. Do I have to call somebody?

Nope. Just hit the Free Trial button at www.schedulefly.com. Message Wall =

Easy Communication