Meet Waitr
Waitr is a digital platform that businesses can use to automatically notify their customers when an action is required from them. For example, pick up an order or collect their car from the car wash. Additionally, customers can also use Waitr to pay for their order on the go.
Waitr helps businesses gain valuable insights into their business like the average order size or wait time for their customers which helps businesses make changes that will save them time and money.
What makes Waitr different from its competitors is that they prioritise communication between the merchants and customers to be as seamless as possible, while keeping up with the standard of 4IR POS technologies.
THE FOUNDER
Melvin Musehani is a coder by heart, more than he is a business person. He started coding at the age of 13 and hasn't looked back ever since. Melvin’s career as an entrepreneur started 7 years ago when he left his full-time job and started a company named Appchemy. Appchemy is a platform that builds apps for clients, and this has allowed Melvin to learn and observe what works and what does not work when building an app. Melvin also runs an online gaming community, which is perfect because he is a gamer himself.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Like most startups, Melvin started this because of a personal experience he had, and he didn't want to only solve the problem for himself, but for everybody else having the problem. This project took form when he went to a printing shop. He arrived early that day so there wasn’t a lot of traffic in the shop. Shortly after arriving, there was an increase in traffic and he instantly noticed prospective customers shying away at the door as they saw the number of people in the shop. Imagine an app that notifies you when your food, car at the carwash is ready for pickup or if only you could be notified when you’ll be next in line at a printing shop. Imagine the efficiency and convenience of never really having to wait long periods in queues. The purpose of Waitr is to allow a more efficient process between the merchant and the customers. Waitr ensures customers do not have to wait at the premises of the merchant, by providing merchants with a POS that communicates order readiness with the customer via SMS or a web app.
KEY LEARNINGS
“Successful endeavours take form when you just begin working on the initial idea. ”
You don’t always get it right the first time you try, but you learn that with time, dedication, hard work, and the necessary improvements you make to the initial idea, things will take form and work out at the end.
One of Melvin's biggest accomplishments has been the ability to get this far with a self-funded product that was nothing more than an idea. The ability to see how the product has improved the efficiency of businesses makes him very proud.
KEY THOUGHT
I personally believe that time is one of the most invaluable things in life. Waitr allows both the merchant and customer to use their time efficiently, and allow them to focus their energy on other important aspects of their business and on things that they enjoy doing.
WHAT IS NEXT FOR WAITR?
Our next focus is a marketing campaign that aims to attract South African merchants to our platform, especially businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19 with customers that are fearful of being in crowded places or waiting in queues to get what they need.
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