Gather Review

PROS: I run few restaurants and this product helps me to improve my internal communication. I work from my office and my task is to deal with few different location, and this could make the whole process difficult. I’m able to provide my entire team with accurate information and to respond to inquiries efficiently and quickly. In my opinion, the generated proposals are great for both our team and clients. They are clear, easy to read and intuitive for everyone. Also, I love that I can have an access from anywhere.

CONS: In my opinion, they could work on some updates with the homepage, so I can easily move through leads like email by click without going back to the main page. I would like to work in my email account instead on the system. It would be great if there is a way to add additional contacts to the messages within the system.

PROS: Its layout is great and the look too. I love the email interaction and integration with my gmail account. It is very easy to set it up and to edit it.

CONS: I don’t like that there is no option to add internal notes for the kitchen, I want to add some details on the event summaries that would be invisible to the clients. It can be time-consuming to go back and then add or delete the items. Some of my clients are confused with the email address and they have some difficulties with the links, I think that people still love PDFs. Also, there is an issue with software firewalls and some companies can’t receive the email.

PROS: I operate a high volume restaurant. Getting my hands on this software made it easier for our internal communication. I'm working at a corporate office. I deal with a couple locations which tends to make communication a bit challenging. It helps to offer our whole team with the right info so it would give me the chance in answering inquries swiftly.

CONS: I feel some updates should be made with the homepage. This would allow for moving through leads easily. By clicking each one, you won't have to go back to the main page. I love working within my e-mail account instead of the system. There have been instances where it can get repetitive when I'm logging in.

PROS: With this software we can easily communicate with our clients. Everything within the software is easy to use, starting from client’s online portal to automatic generated forms that we can send. We look forward to use its Gather Payment function.

CONS: I wish to see synch with Outlook, it has synch with Google calendar but we prefer Outlook. I would like to create custom forms and reports, their stock reports that are great don’t meet our needs.

PROS: I love how we can easily keep all event info in one space and many other can access this information as well. The customer find it easy to use, they are able to preview the proposal and to make payments online. The whole communication with a contact is shown within the file. This saves lot of time because we don’t have to search through old emails and to remember details of the discussion we had.

CONS: It would be great if they could make auto-generated menu that would be more personalized. The menu function it’s not as helpful because it auto-formats all the things generically. We have to re-create the menu every time because of the backgrounds on our menus.

PROS: You can use this tool for many function and everything you need is in one place. It allows us to upload our banquet menus, we are able to customize menus for out quests and send them messages and to take a look at messages between guests and my manager. I’m able to tag users when we have some interaction with our leads. We can easily keep track on everyone from one place. There is even an option to send attachments to our quests and to save them in Gather.

CONS: I wish there is an OpenTable or Micros integration.

PROS: Its own e-mail thread houses info from clients who've made their first inquiry all the way to the "Thank You" e-mail. You easily peek into all e-mail in a single location. That way you can pick it up almost immediately as the phone is ringing. And you get to refresh your memory on the things you've been talking about.

CONS: There's one thing that I don't like. Most of my clients block the special e-mail thread coming their way. A lot of times, it goes straight to the Spam folder. This led to some interruptions in the process. I always do a follow-up with additional e-mail I've yet to hear or know that the client already opened the e-mail.

PROS: Gather’s layout has some learning curves, but once you learn it becomes interesting and it saves lot of time. I don’t have to submit event notes, financial breakdowns, contracts and proposals into various system because Gather allows me to do all the work from one place.

CONS: What I don’t like is the tag “Food” items in event summary because it can be little confusing. We have different categories and the “Event Notes” that we have to select are already in pre-selected categories. It can be really annoying.

PROS: Gather makes my work much easier. I use it from home, on my mobile device and at my office. I can easily organize and host events. I’m able to track financials and to keep track of the money I’m bringing into the business by adding payment methods and tracking them by categories. I always attend their webinars because they are helpful.

CONS: I wish I could easily track return guests or to set up repeated reservation, because we have lot of clients who book on 1st Monday of every month or 13th of each month. I would like to do this instead of re-creating several different events and to send several different proposals. I would like to create events and to keep track of the entire calendar form my phone.

PROS: The email communication stores all important information from clients’ inquiry to thank-you messages. We are able to look at emails in one place and to pick up the information we need.

CONS: There are lot of things that I like, but my only dislike is that my clients say that the emails goes directly into the spam. I always follow up additional email if there is no feedback or “seen” that the client has opened the email, this is great feature though.

PROS: Gather has made my work life a lot simpler. I use it at home, on the road, and at work. It's intended to manage and host events happening in our establishment. I like how I can keep track of the amount of money I'm raking into my business by including payment and keeping track of them per category. This is meant to help accomplish my business goals.

CONS: I just wish there's a way in keeping track of returning guests. Or at least have some sort of a setup for a recurring reservation. We've got plenty of clients booking on the first Monday/13th Month monthly and etc... It would be convenient to be doing this all at the same time instead of making varying events and sending a lot of proposals through e-mail. It'd be a plus to create events and checking the whole calendar from the mobile app itself.

PROS: Great tool for managing catering side of the company. I’m responsible for 3 restaurants but Gather helps me to slow down and to be sure that I won’t forget anything when doing the projects. It is simple to use and highly helpful for team communication within the company, especially when it comes to the interaction between myself and director. We are able to update things in real time and to be sure that this is visible to our clients. I love team communication tool because everyone in our company is updated all the time.

CONS: The financial status can be tricky, but I’m new with this software. It could be great if there are more colors within the color code.

PROS: Gather is great tool when it comes to organizing every event details in one. All event details are broken down into small pieces/tabs for messages, financial and BEO’s. As part of restaurant group there are lot of events that are happening. Gather helps me to keep track of details in more organized way and to send messages with questions or updates to our event teams or management department. I don’t have to go online or to search through old word documents in order to find event notes. It makes my job easier.

CONS: The old system had everything in a word document and it wasn’t available online. All in all, I like this product.

PROS: Simply put: Gather is a great product. It's simple. It makes it easy in keeping track of any party. It houses all info of an upcoming event in a single location. This makes it possible for anyone with access to find it.

CONS: To be honest with you. There's not really a lot of things that I hate with the product. If wanted to hate something about it, maybe it would have something to do gathering payments online. That part can be confusing in the initial going.

PROS: A highly intuitive software. This starts with new leads alerts. Communication is easy with this software. Gather ensures everything from contract signing to templates are smooth. I like how the software can integrate all communication streams from one point of refernece to going back and seeing conversations made with the client.

CONS: Only a few criticisms that come into mind. If I wanted to improve this, I'd change a number of things. When peeking through docs for a certain event, navigating from one place to the next results to you getting booted out of the platform. You'd have to log righ back in. This is annoying especially when you want to look into a number of documents or want to print out something.

PROS: I like how it's is simple in keeping event information in a one space for certain personnel to access. It's simple enough for customers to utilize this. I like how they can peek into their proposal and do online payments. I like how communications made with a contact are displayed in within the file. This significantly slashed the time it takes to dig through older e-mails.

CONS: An improvement that I'd highly suggest is to create an auto-generating menu that users can personalize. At this point in time, the menu feature isn't helpful. This is due to the generalized auto-formats. We have menu backgrounds on the menu with our logo. Essentially, we're seeing ourselves making the same menu each and every single time.

PROS: I love the connection I have with my clients. I’m using mobile app to check the availability on the go and to respond to questions via messages. The response time to client inquiries is very important, this helps me to be ahead of competition. It is flexible tool that allows me to do my work from anywhere.

CONS: The business mobile app misses calendar view. This is very important because I need to check specific dates. Right now I have to scroll via hundreds of bookings in order to find what I’m looking for. Also, there are no full messages fed on the desktop version. When I receive lot of messages in one day it can be difficult to review them without looking back through emails.

PROS: I'm assisting in the management of my company's catering side. That would mean having the responsibility to cater to several restaurants in Austin (Texas). My mind would constantly be racing from doing that. Fortunately, Gather functions as a translation that would slow things down for me. It ensures that I don't forget anything that's going on.

CONS: Its financial sections can be a confusing at times. But I'm starting to get the hang of it. There's nothing much that I hate. Maybe it needs to have more color codes to represent one event to the next.

PROS: Gather is an intuitive software, starting with new leads and alerts. It allows easy communication within the system. It has great templates for contact via signing contracts. It makes the work smooth and effortless. I love how the software integrates the communication streams into one point of reference. It allows us to see every topic we have discussed with the client, whether the communication was through app or email. It offers smooth transfer of the documents.

CONS: When I try to look through the documents for BEO or some other event when navigate it back the system takes me out of the software and I have to log in again. This is frustrating because I need to look several documents or to print something. They could make the software more intuitive.