Tripleseat Reviews

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

I'll start out by saying that I'm a one woman operation. I'm the only one in our restaurant that sells, details and facilitates all of our events, plus plans all of our in-house events, plus managing the actual restaurant side...so I have a lot to do! Tripleseat makes my job exponentially easier and more streamlined. One of my favorite things is that they listen to their users. Every month there is something updated that makes it that much butter, and their customer service is fantastic. They've also started hosting events so you can get hands on training, meet the team, etc. I love that!

There are a lot of features that I don't use being one person in one unit. It would be nice if there were different tiers of pricing based on the parts you use and those you don't (like a Tripleseat Lite vs. Tripleseat Multi-Unit). That's about it!

This is a super user friendly cloud based software me and my team utilize. It is so much better than previously used platforms that were. Less modernized

Sometimes there are glitches and it is hard to get ahold of someone ASAP to help rectify. It does have added options that I’d like to use but I’m not sure all the kinks have been ironed out all the time yet

Ease of use. I can easily train other employees quickly on how to book orders. I love the customization and ease of adding new menu items. The reporting is excellent for keeping track of sales and other marking tools.

I wish that it had the ability to auto populate a packing slip for the kitchen. I.e. when fajitas are ordered for 10, it would populate on the kitchen sheet the exact amount of food by oz or quarts the kitchen would need to prepare.

This program has turned our event planning into a very easily streamlined business. It is so easy to book groups, send menus, send invoices, and even collect payment. The calendar portion makes it to where I can have my entire staff have access to seeing when dates are booked, without them seeing any other details, so they don't have to come to me to ask if a date is available. It also makes it very easy to track clients and to use as a database.

There are just a couple tweaks that could be made to make the mobile app a little more user friendly, but all in all, it is a great program.

Use of templates and ease of data transferring within system, reports, etc.
Customer service is on point!
'live' edits

Not being able to change titles of some items.
Being more in line for full service and not catering how we do.
Not being able to save locations for deliveries with notes.
Having to export items to excel to get reports
Not having a 'product mix' report of menu items

I love using Gather for the ease of everything from creating contacts to confirming final guest counts.

My only complaint about Gather is the inevitable few and far between glitches with occasional product updates. The issues are always resolved quickly, and the customer service is top-notch!

Tripleseat's program format is very user friendly. It was developed to make creating and editing BEO's very simple. Loading your banquet and catering menus is very simple. Event quotes, contracts and payment details are all accessible without a lot of extra effort.

There's an occasional delay in menu/ pricing updating and a lot of daily emails for your team.

Our team loves how each client has his/her own customer portal. It is fairly easy to change any details at any time. It is also imperative for us to be able to send an approval request to each client at the time of solidifying details for an event. Really helps us to ensure our team can execute the event flawlessly.

We wish that Gather was able to track any changes made by one of our team members so that when a change occurs, we can know exactly who made it and why... Or that there was specific place for a team member to track changes in the portal. Also, we wish that there was a way to approve each specific section instead of just an over all proposal. Our clients are dealing with TONS of wedding details (not always through us) and they have a lot on their minds.

We are a restaurant with a huge catering business and this software was designed for an on site caterer with event rooms versus everything being off site like our business model. I am looking forward to the modifications in the future that close the gap on the two concepts better. It has made proposal writing a dream! I love that everything is live across the entire booking with a click of the mouse. The customer service is unbelievable! Everyone is always so pleasant & receptive with all of my questions, comments, concerns & suggestions. The mobile app is great and we want to use it more but the team communication alert email doesn't function on mobile which renders it useless to our team. The reporting seems to constantly improving but we can not connect it to our system so we do not currently use it but I look forward to a day when we can. I absolutely love all of the filtering throughout the entire program and how there are multiple ways to find a previous booking. The calendar is my favorite view and I am looking forward to beginning to use the task function shortly. I have created many many menu templates which is superb but would like to copy one from an actual booking as well. Overall, I completely understand that this is meant for more formal venue catering so I am just grateful that I am able to utilize it at the level that I can for corporate/off site catering. It is so quick & easy and I just cant believe how effective it is to update for a client. Great job!

The biggest issue with Gather for us is that it does not report to our inventory/reporting system. We have to manually ring everything into our Revel POS system in order to capture an accurate product mix. Basically this means that this software is really only for me to create the proposal and our comptroller must recreate everything in another program. Huge waste of time but a necessary evil for me to have this valuable tool to do my job. I wish that there were more templates for multiple sections including but not limited to the notes sections. I find myself copy & pasting my own words dozens of times a day. I would like to see the lead be able to be customized because I have to ask a set series of additional questions before I may even begin a proposal. It would be really helpful to copy & paste emails into the message section to be able to assure an accurate add. I think that it is important to add a confirmation to the client that their CC info has been added correctly. I get MULTIPLE emails a week asking if we are all set since they do not get a confirmation. Please finalize the condensed versions that you have been toying with. Please go back to the notification to COMPLETE the gratuity, 50% miss it. Lastly, add the onsite contact info to the CHEF BEO. We use that version for the driver because it is a cleaner version to pack the van with. The regular BEO is only sent to the client with the proposal because it has too much going on for the delivery pack list. Thanks!

Continuous growth, integration with other software, able to be customized on many levels, great client interface for ease of planning, live document updating

High learning curve, some internal programming can be clunky, not enough freedom for customizing, email drafts are not saved, when using Seven Rooms, it would be fantastic if events were automatically populated into the reservations system

The Event Portal feature. Each event having its own specialized url that allows the client to see everything in a very organized fashion makes the process of converting a quote to a sale much easier. The integration of credit card processing (we used Stripe) keeps the client from using other options (like Square) that would force them away from the portal.

Trying to keep you locked into their email ecosystem. The email integration is terrible. I wish they would support a Gmail integration. If I want to get my client to approve a proposal - they have to be emailed through their own email system that is not as user friendly and completely breaks the cohesiveness and intent of the software when I have two different email chains happening (which the client flips between without realizing). Make the event approval option available without having to email them please.

In addition, they will charge you for leads from Yelp, even if they don't book! It is a very shady practice that needs to stop. Focus on good software, not making money off lead conversions from third party lead sites please.

I'm not at all a pro but so the ease of use is very important. The software was not designed originaly for my type of use, I'm a movie theater with special events. However it has been curved to be able to offer me everything I require to keep track of my special events. The calendar is esential for the number of events we have as each new movie release generates a new special event be it birthday parties or receptions and sometimes just a movie only seat reservation. Each style has to be noted and written up using the software to outline for each department in the Theater. The ability to arrange the many buckets we use to otline an event form the original set-up, as our understanding of the software increases is great.

Having to update each time changes are made to see how it will look onl the BEO is a little challenging. Then to view any changes I have to open up the BEO to see how it looks/fits etc. It would be nice to have a real time view/function of some sort to be able to see what someting looks like without having to udate first.

Gather has helped streamline our business by providing a fast and easy way to communicate with our clients in a clean professional format. We use the "Copy" feature very frequently as we have many repeat clients. The live update feature while we are on the phone with clients is very helpful and many clients comment how nice that is.

We wish we could customize the font size on the Chef BEO. We use the Chef BEO as orders in our kitchen and it would be beneficial for us to be able to make certain items stand out more.
We find ourselves directing many clients to the "Print Summary" hyperlink on the Summary of Charges page. If there was a way for this button to stand out as the full breakdown/itemized invoice that would be very helpful.

The ease of Gather is truly amazing! The report functions I use daily to see overall growth and what needs to be improved on. The calendar is able to be viewed on the app along with a desktop as well as edited on the go from a cell phone. All documents are easy to read for sales coordinators, chefs, as well as servers. Creating events is easy and tracking channels for marketing is a great way to keep updated on marketing campaigns. Also staying organized through Gather is great by creating tasks, not only for yourself, but interns or other sales coordinators. The messaging system is great for communication with other team members.

I would love to see the sales coordinator on the pop up portion of the calendar. Also, the messages changed into a drop down, however, when you are trying to scroll for some thing, clicking on every single individual message is time consuming and everything should be about saving time. The app is only for viewing and not able to do any editing, which does not save time. Sometimes there is slowness or some glitches, such as Gather cancelling the event or duplicating the event when creating.

I love that the software is live so I can make changes on line in front of the customer, while on the phone with them and they can sit right away in front of their own screen.

Sometimes the issues with their servers slowing down can be bothersome, especially during the working hours.

It is extremely easy to use and saves me time! I love everything about gather! Reporting is easy to generate, message templates cut down my work time, the online cc and event agreement make it easy for my team to reference and of course the Gather team is always friendly, helpful and has become an extension of my own team.

Honestly I do not have any complaints about the software maybe that I didn't use it sooner. I would like if they partnered with OpenTable, but I believe they are working on that.

Customer Service, price, and rapidly growing features

I can't think of any cons. I think there is always room for improvement, but nothing sticks out to me as a problem. I did, however, have some difficulty integrating my bookings calendar with my google calendar, but almost immediately, the awesome customer service team helped me out with it.

From the customer/client experience, it's wonderful. Great, professional design, easy to review contracts/policies, make payments, and correspond with questions. From the admin perspective, I like that it keeps me organized. There are so many moving parts to events and it's so nice to have everything organized in the calendar, have each event represented, and every event have it's own page to store details, connect with the client & staff, track & collect payments, create and send policies to review, request payments (can be custom or based on pre-set pricing menus), and store details for your team and/or the client (i.e. event floorplan, vendor info, etc). Gather's customer support has also been amazing! They always respond to questions in a timely manner and provide webinars on a consistent basis as well.

It's pretty complicated to use and takes quite a bit of training, which can make it hard to collaborate or inform part time staff or contractors on event details (or have them help with invoicing, scheduling, etc). There is also not an ability for clients to "sign" contracts, only approve proposals. For an industry that can be pretty litigious, I wish they emphasized their event policies a bit more.

I love Gather's tools for automated guest messaging, customizing menus and terms, and lead management.

Upgrades that seem like they should be obvious/easy are not quickly addressed. For example, I cannot assign an existing contact to a new lead, rather I have to re-enter the client's information each time. Small features like that can make a big difference in day-to-day management, and should be more of a priority. The email tool also needs some work. You cannot save a draft or reply to a message without creating a new thread. Also, the way that email addresses show up to clients is cumbersome. They should work on a solution to mask the @gather system display and instead show my actual email address (clients see the system email address and get nervous that they're message won't reach me). There is also a lot of room for improvement in terms of approval (e.g. being able to get separate approvals of terms and menus, rather than just one overall approval), and for resources for complex and offsite events (e.g. adding pack lists and timelines).

I love how easy Gather can customize booking agreements for different clients. We book a variety of events and need to be able to create menus, set up templates, policies, etc for each of our clients. Gather allows you to personalize all of these items as you work on the agreement, instead of having to leave out to another screen or part of the software. It also helps us in communicating specific details to our guests, as we get to modify things so meticulously.

The ONE feature I have found to be missing is being able to auto populate a task list for an event. We have a few non-negotiable that we handle internally to make sure bookings are successful, and it would be nice to be able to get this task list applied like a template.

The software is easy to use. You can work your way through the program and it is easy to navigate. The customer support is wonderful. They really work with you until they find the problem. They are all very friendly and keep you posted on finding the issue as well.

I miss putting information in sometimes because it does not require you to tab through some of the spaces. I find it is an issue for my counterpart as well.

Gather is so easy to learn and use for both hospitality staff and event hosts. It is the best tool we have for company wide event communication. Every event detail is tracked and available for your full team to execute a flawless event.

I have no complaints about the software at all. The updates are smooth, customer service is fast, reports are easy. The credit card processing also made staying credit card compliant a piece of cake.

...I do find the team communication feature to be very confusing or unnecessary.
I would like for it to integrate with Open Tables in the future.