How do you deal with no show and no answer orders?

[Daddio]

In the past month I have had more no show and no answer orders than in the rest of the 4 years I have been open. How do you deal with these? I get the phone number the person is calling from as well as the persons name but if they refuse to answer or say they changed their mind after the order has been made what do you do?

 

[stebby1]

We just void the order. If a customer does this repeatedly, we will flag the customer with an alert note and require a credit card before taking any more orders for them.

It stinks because we are out the food and labor for that order, but we cant really leave it on our books as it would through our cash over/short off for the day.

 

[Integraoligist]

stebby1:

We just void the order. If a customer does this repeatedly, we will flag the customer with an alert note and require a credit card before taking any more orders for them.

We do that as well. If someone dosent pickup the order, answer the door, or answer the phone if we have to call them… we post in the Priority comments that they did’nt pay $ for their last order, with the date and time. So if they call and try to order again, we get extra info from them and call them back right after they order just to confirm… and yet if they do not pick it up a 2nd time, then we flag them and they must pay by C.C. or by cash in person before the food is made from now on.

No problems with this method yet.

 

[pizzapirate]

Integraoligist:

stebby1:

We just void the order. If a customer does this repeatedly, we will flag the customer with an alert note and require a credit card before taking any more orders for them.

We do that as well. If someone dosent pickup the order, answer the door, or answer the phone if we have to call them… we post in the Priority comments that they did’nt pay $ for their last order, with the date and time. So if they call and try to order again, we get extra info from them and call them back right after they order just to confirm… and yet if they do not pick it up a 2nd time, then we flag them and they must pay by C.C. or by cash in person before the food is made from now on.

No problems with this method yet.

Problem here is that they can call their bank and have the charges reversed. Unless you physically swipe the card and have them sign it you are still left hanging.

 

[stebby1]

Couldn’t you provide the bank proof of the order and have the charges stand?

I’ve gotten notices before on banks processing chargebacks and all we had to do was send proof of the order to get the charges to stand. I usually include information from our caller-id system as part of the proof as well.

 

[Integraoligist]

well whenever we have HAD to get a credit card # from a person before their order is placed, they magically started answering the door/picking up their orders. We’ve never had any problems of chargebacks.

 

[pizzapirate]

Integraoligist:

well whenever we have HAD to get a credit card # from a person before their order is placed, they magically started answering the door/picking up their orders. We’ve never had any problems of chargebacks.

I’m not saying your practice does not have influence on them picking up their order (I believe it does), but in the end they can simply have it reversed and you’ll get a chargeback fee to boot. My chargeback fees with Link are $20.

I’ve thought about taking such measures myself but in the end I just chauk it up to the cost of doing business. I’ve been in the restaurant business since I was ten years old and have never had a serious problem with it. Even your best customers can flake and I don’t want to take a chance offending anyone.

Recent Scenario:

About a month ago we called a customer who hadn’t picked up their pizza. They said they picked up a pizza from a different place (don’t know if by mistake or not) and would not be picking it up. Later I looked them up in the computer and saw that they had ordered 107 times in the past 12 months. Two nights later they ordered again . . .

Most people have no business or economic sense. They feel as long as someone eats the pizza its not loss. People have actually told me “ah, come on, I’m sure your employees ate it”.

 

[indie_pizza]

pizzapirate:

Integraoligist:

Recent Scenario:

About a month ago we called a customer who hadn’t picked up their pizza. They said they picked up a pizza from a different place (don’t know if by mistake or not) and would not be picking it up. Later I looked them up in the computer and saw that they had ordered 107 times in the past 12 months. Two nights later they ordered again . . .

Most people have no business or economic sense. They feel as long as someone eats the pizza its not loss. People have actually told me “ah, come on, I’m sure your employees ate it”.

I have to agree. A pie costs me $3.50 to make at the most. Turning off a customer just doesn’t make sense, no matter how stupid their reasoning may be. The next time they order, I will at least break even on their account.

 

[mandino]

stebby1:

Couldn’t you provide the bank proof of the order and have the charges stand?

I’ve gotten notices before on banks processing chargebacks and all we had to do was send proof of the order to get the charges to stand. I usually include information from our caller-id system as part of the proof as well.

Actually, there is a way to account for this:
You would need to discount the order using a discount called ‘Bad Debts’, or ‘No Show’. On the books, you would Credit Sales and Debit Bad Debt Expense. This is the same practice used in companies that give terms, and someone doesn’t ever pay their bill. For them, they would Credit Sales and Debit Accounts Receivable, and then if the bill was never paid, they would Credit Accounts Receivable and Debit Bad Debt Expense.

This would inflate your sales though, but it would make your COGS make sense and trackable. On our books, we account for gross sales, then less discounts and refunds, which gives us our net sales number. This net sales is really our sales, but the gross sales allows us to compare COGS to, so that we know we don’t have a theft issue. You could make the bad debt expense in the same area as discounts on your income statement, so that it really wouldn’t inflate your sales, but it would give you something to compare your COGS number to.

Maybe this is more information then you were looking for, just hoping to help.

 

[Charles]

Mandino,

That is exactly the way to do it.