No Phone Orders Heres How it Went

December

December

New member
This past Friday night I disabled my phone systems and used a message prompting customers to order online.

-I figured with this historically being a slower Friday, and being critically short staffed we might as well give it a shot.

-It was less stressful with out the constant phone ringing.

-A few customers voiced their complaints upon picking up their orders about how it gave them a hard time etc…Ive posed as a customer several times and thought it was very straightforward.

-some customers asked at what time were we going to stop answering the phones and why we werent answering the phones. (Our phone message explains why we arent answering the phone) I explained that its a tool and we are short staffed and we were trying it out for the first time.
It was clear alot of customers dont really understand why or how any of this works

-Saturday during the lunch rush a middle aged couple came in stood at the counter, I came over and immediately they shoved a screenshot of their bank account showing a pending transaction from us.
They said they tried ordering last night and it gave them a hard time, they didn’t get their order and there was no way to call us. They were expecting me to give them an instant refund. I explained that what they showed me was a pending transaction not a posted transaction, and the charge would fall off. They didn’t like that explanation. I have no idea why this issue happens to some customers…we dont get the order, they have a pending transaction. I suspect its a user error as it only seems to happen to a certain demographic.

-overall Its a useful tool, sales were a bit down. I suspect that once customers get over the aggravation of setting up an account online they would learn to love online ordering and that would come with a host of other problems…Overwhelming amount of orders placed at once is my main concern.
  • I am going to have to have an option to be able to get through to the store even though it defeats the purpose. I do see it being a useful tool just needs some streamlining.
 
I REALLY want to transition away from taking phone orders but think its still not time for me to do so yet. Online ordering is not only more efficient for us in the store but it also helps clear up customer requests that are sometimes unclear via the phone (sub this topping for this, half this half that etc…) The only downside to online ordering for me is people putting stuff into comments like, extra sauce cups, or add ham. They do this despite the comment box clearly stating that it is not for requesting food.

Your experience is how I think mine would go currently with probably a growing animosity from a certain demo if I continued the trend long term. I think the pending transaction with no ticket on your end is most likely there cc being denied for one reason or another (wrong address, NSF, some other random reason) and it still gets earmarked by the bank but not processed by you and thus your online ordering does not spit it out as a ticket. I HATE explaining pending transactions to people.
 
Exactly right about the pending transaction. I changed ours from full billing address to only requiring the zip code as additional info. The complaints have been way down. I need to check my statements to see if it has affected my rates. Seems like the OPs CC company requires #, expiration and cvv, then there is probably an additional field that isn’t required by the CC company but is required by the OLO company. Annoying.
 
It was an option in speed line for the online ordering with speeddine. If Worldpay would make all fields required to pre authorize the card, this wouldn’t be an issue. But Worldpay sucks.
 
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Surprisingly, my rates were unaffected. One store was slightly lower than the previous month. The other store slightly higher.
 
This was my experience also actually. Our previous processor told me our rates would be dramatically lower with the extra collected data but it had zero impact on rates and we had the same experience you did with cc denials. Got rid of it after the second month of using and no rate changes.
 
I’ve been adjusting my credit card info settings for the last 6 months trying the get the right balance between decent rates and customer happiness.

Last December with fees and chargebacks combined I was at 3.9%. In Jan I started requiring address and zip, but most importantly I took off the option to pay for an online carryout on the website. We now require the card to be brought in and run thru the chip reader. My fees and charge backs went down to 3.3% in Jan. In Feb I removed the address field and then in May I removed the zip code. My rates and chargebacks went up to 3.35% so it was barely any difference.
 
my impression of slang was that it was much better for things like reservations and stuff like that as opposed to taking raw orders, of which there is quite a bit of complexity on our menus as you know so it wasn’t quite there yet. I heard some good things about soundhound but never tried
 
I’m using something similar called StrideQ, and it pushes them to place their order online with a link sent to their phone. But, if they really want to order over the phone, they can press 1 and it rings in. For the online order, I gave them a $5 off coupon they used, so I could track who actually is using it. I had some initial pushback but two months in, no one complains and sales are still at the same levels.

StrideQ does a free 30 day trial, and you can have multiple prompts and directions those calls go.

Voice AI for ordering is a different beast and so far, nothing I’ve tried had earned me anything but complaints. Lots of complaints. Soundhound, voice plug, etc.
 
We have no phone number listed and only accept orders online or in-person. There’s a contact us section on our website which generates an email that goes to an address dedicated to just that. We can have 1 to infinite different people getting those emails and responding - in near real time and from anywhere. They can tap into our computers via RemotePC to update/cancel an order or call a prepaid cell phone we keep dedicated if the order has already printed in the kitchen.

Telephone ordering is wildly antiquated and a tremendous waste of time besides the incredible aggravation of it. Don’t be afraid to try it. If your product’s worth ordering by phone they’ll figure out how to order it online.
 
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