Grand Strand restaurants embrace new technology

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - Deciding where to eat in the Grand Strand is never easy with so many options for customers to choose from, but now two area restaurants are using new technology to help set them apart from the rest.

Drunken Jacks in Murrells Inlet has been a staple in the area for more than 30 years, and in the last few weeks they have changed their pager system.

Drunken Jacks guests can now give the hostess or host their cell phone number and when their table is ready, a text message will notify the customer.

The service "No Wait" costs the business about $50 a month, compared to the $80 pagers which sometimes go missing.

Mike Brown is the Operations Manager at the restaurant he said the movement away from the pagers to text messages allows patrons to move more freely around the Inlet.  He also adds for customers who are not sure about giving their cell phone numbers out, there is no need to worry, "we're not going to use their information to send out a mass text."

Although Brown does add the staff can send out a personal text to interested parties saying thanking them for choosing to eat at Drunken Jacks.

The restaurant will use both systems it has until customers get used to the new one.

Down the road in Surfside, the Eggs Up Grill is using iPod 4's, and an app installed into the device to assist in their day-to-day service with customers.

Instead of pen and paper, waitresses and waiters can be seen carrying the device to type in a customer order. Then, the message electronically sends to the kitchen, where the cooks receive a printed ticket.

Back in 2005 the Eggs Up Grill first started using the iPod's, and since then owners said they've perfected it.

The owners of the popular breakfast spot said it gives their staff 40 percent more time to wait on their customers than the traditional method.

Workers said having the new technology doesn't make them want to go back to the handwritten orders anytime soon.

Copyright 2013 WMBF News. All rights reserved.