Restaurants constantly struggle with an unbalanced clock. During the afternoon on a weekday, restaurants can be empty with no customers to serve. You might even see a tumbleweed rolling past. But at night, and on a weekend? Some restaurants have to turn people away. Why can’t there be a balance between the two? Wouldn’t it be better for those shops to get more business on those lazy afternoons? Enter ThinkNear.

ThinkNear, a New York City based startup, is helping businesses make the most of their day. By signing up for their services, which cost $99/month, companies can tell ThinkNear what hours they’re at their slowest. The companies enter what discounts they’d be willing to give out, and ThinkNear takes care of everything from there. On certain apps that customers use, ThinkNear publishes those discounts. ThinkNear also sends out push notifications and occasionally text messages to inform people of the cheap prices. The discounts can only be used for that slow period of time before expiring. ThinkNear also sends out these coupons when other events impact customers’ preferences, like weather, special events and holidays. The coupons also target locations, so customers only get them when they’re near the store of note.

Conclusion

Just like SinglePlatform, this is another startup that’s helping small businesses stay relevant as more finder apps come into play. But using the time of day as a factor sets it apart. One of the issues that businesses have with services like Groupon is that they have to honor the coupons at all times. So if a customer comes in with a Groupon during the busiest time of day, the store still has to allow that customer to use it. With the discount and the splitting of the bill with Groupon, the company suffers a major profit loss. ThinkNear is affordable for most companies and only offers discounts when shops are desperate to give them out. That’s a win for both the customers and the owners. As finder apps keep growing, ThinkNear has a chance to grow right with them.