Good experience, can use improvements

The system every Private Dining Sales person has been waiting for!

I had the pleasure of being introduced to Tripleseat at a previous job, and that company unanimously agreed for all of the concepts to make the switch to their program. It was better than the other options out there at the time, and made the most sense. After working with everyone while being at that company, I brought them on board to my current employer. Their sales team, support team, training team, all of them, are so friendly, and helpful! There is no question too small, or request too large to be considered. I am a big fan, and would recommend them to anyone looking for a new booking system in a heartbeat.

Pros

My favorite part of TripleSeat is that everything makes logical sense, and is able to be customized to your needs. When inputting the information, you don't have unnecessary steps in order to get your basic needs into the system. If I have a brand new manager who only gets a date, time, number of guests, and the host's contact info, they can (within minutes) get them a contract. At the very least they can send them an email with menus and instead of loosing a sticky note, have it tracked so I can follow up. Truly this was made for the Sales person in mind, with how the data is tracked, and how much time it saves.

Cons

My only wish for the software, was that it would allow for you to track correspondence directly with a contact and not having it connected to an event. There doesn't seem to be a way to pull up someone who is in your data base, and just send them a prospecting email, or share with them updated menus or promotions. You have to export their contact information and email, or use a previous event.

Gather is the ONLY program for me!

I am saving so much time using this software with clients. Half the time it used to take me to send contracts.

Pros

Gather is the best software to use for private dining, the ease of use is like no other! You can use it on the app, computer, tablet etc... it is very easy to develop files to save on the software and send contracts to clients. Once you train your staff their are very little questions that follow because of the ease of use with this product. Clients also love it because it leaves less back and forth with contracts and they can do everything they need from the form you send them. The software also works with your email and you're notified on the home screen and via our work email. They're constantly upgrading and using new integrations as well.

Cons

This is not a con because I don't know if this is possible, but if Gather could find a way to integrate with Open Table so contracts update to that software it would be amazing. I am not a computer programmer so I have no idea if that's possible, but really their are no cons with Gather.

Tripleseat

I am already looking for a new software and have only had this for a few months.

Pros

This has such potential but is as if they didn't finish.

Cons

Billing and invoicing is not automated. I have to go into each account, create a contract then manually apply a payment. Takes me hours to do what should be automated.

Extremely bad customer service, buggy software

Even though we gave them notice of cancellation after about 9 months they have twice charged our card for renewals which are not valid.

Pros

Generally the contract feature was fine. We liked executing contracts on line even though the contract tool did not have all of the client info required

Cons

Regarding our disappointment with Gather I would point to the following – all of which I have reflected to your support people and none of which have been acted on: Your IOS app seems to be able to send messages to clients and it does seem to be able to send templates but not free-form messages. Yet it often leads the user to believe a message has been sent when it has not About 45 days ago new inquiries stopped showing up in your new messages list – your support people insisted this was not a change but it was. It seems logical that new leads would be the most important new messages I asked you to make all the numbers and metrics on your Home page hyperlinked, but you have not. If I see I have two new leads I can click on that number and it takes me to the new leads. If I see I have one new contract signed, the numeral “1” is not hyperlinked and I have to search for the new signed contract. It is difficult or impossible to add a second client contact name but in the wedding business it is pretty normal to have at least two client counterparties. Yes I know about the “onsite” contact but that is not a default email recipient. Look at the confusion that appears in some proposals. Your proposals are not properly itemized and clients do not seem to notice that I have attached a “BEO” which is not a term I could define for you. Look at both “xxx” and “xxx” as examples of proposals where they thought we got the price wrong but they don’t see the security deposit because it is not itemized in the proposal. It is completely ridiculous that the client could sign an e-contract without being forced to enter and validate their address, phone, full and correct name, etc. Our normal course is we get a contract signed and then we chase down the additional information required to actually have a contract with the Zenith Additional Information form. This is cumbersome and probably not legally defensible. I want the client to execute the contract having filled in and validated their complete contact info