Handling orders.

This is kinda of embarrassing but everything is set to go, except one small thing.

The PC that we we’re going to use was damage and we had to return it to the factory, I decided to give it a go anyway (We’re doing a soft opening) and start charging the old fashion way. For a mere two weeks.

Any tips on how to handle order?. Rudimentary? people come up , we write the order, post it to the cook and be done with it? if someone has other perspective I would be very glad to hear it.

Thank you so much.

Adrian.

Adrian, wow you must be very excited now, so close, so close!!!

A soft opening is an initial test of your operations - that means staff, menu, EQUIPMENT, before you go ‘live.’ I would advise having 2,3,4 or more backup PCs, and other backups in case of equipment failure, or personnel problems. Yes, any ‘guest’ ticket book at SAMS or RD would suffice, but I suspect you have many more considerations beyond that… What if the phone doesn’t work? What if the internet is down? What about credit card processing problems? What if the power goes out? What if the coolers go down? What if the oven has problems? What if you run out of product? What if the fuse box has problems? What if it rains? What if you don’t have enough change? What if you’re robbed? What if someone hurts themselves? What if an employee is injured? What if the mixer doesn’t work? On and on and on…

Best advice, think about all this hard. Have a handyman, electrician, and equipment guy handy, and extra staff - just in case. A bad ‘soft’ opening can lead to a bad opening.

Good luck!!!

Write out a list of abbreviations for pizzas and toppings. Post by phone and in kitchen. if order takers write up a difficult to read ticket, have a policy to rewrite it before hanging.28 years still writing tickets ! for new store i’m going for (maybe) point of success pos,i had a waitress who worked for me 8 years. started at 15, graduated u. santa barbara, very smart and tech savy (not me!) went to work managing a much larger restaurant with POS, she said she hated it !!! she longed for the simplicity and speed of ticket writing in our small place (75 seats) seems contrary to everything i read here in the think tank, i can write 10 to go tickets with call waiting in a very short period of time (unless the customer asks a million questions),if i’m waiting tables,write ,hang,get drinks, next,how can i stop and imput the order on a POS and say that it saves time???i’d already have table #2 order taken as well,as well as having ALL items written on my ticket vs not imputing on pos and given away free,as i’ve seen being a customer at other restaurants with POS,am i the only knucklehead here!!!

this is more the lines of what I was thinking John, putting ‘post it’ in the wall for the cook to see. Great idea with the abbreviations!.

I think the post system gives you accountability , it helps with the sales, having track of your material and it’s easier for doing the numbers. Taking the orders , doing it the old fashioned way takes the cake.

The benefit of the POS is not necessarily just speed but for easy data collecting and number crunching.

Adrian are you also doing delivery or just dine in?

Pick up at first. Dining in, in about two months.