Online Ordering

[bodegahwy]

Not that different than having an employee stuck on the phone yapping out the deals or the menu to a customer and then having to input the order in.

That is exactly the point… You aren’t getting one of the best benefits of online ordering. In my view if it is not fully integrated it is not worth doing.

 

[durbancic]

That is exactly the point… You aren’t getting one of the best benefits of online ordering. In my view if it is not fully integrated it is not worth doing.

My sentiments exactly. For some locations and situations it might be different, but I only want my orders coming from 1 site and being integrated into my system. Bing, bang, done! Plus, if they are not integrated, I don’t want to have to decipher each type of fax/email/printout to remember where the pertinent information is on the page.
I could see though, if I was located in a BIG city, the possible benefits of being on those pay for sites … then pushing those customers to order online next time so we don’t have to pay the fee.

 

[EZ-Chow.com]

Not that different than having an employee stuck on the phone yapping out the deals or the menu to a customer and then having to input the order in.

Actually it would be quicker and more effective since there is less room for mistakes as the order is already printed out and not having any communication issues that happen over the phone.

As many posters have mentioned, integration is the important aspect. All the “big” companies integrate their online orders thru their POS, thats where the efficiency comes into play. Now instead of having 3-4 employees taking orders via the phone, you now have one-two. Plus you are collecting valuable information about the customer etc, consistently. Integrated ordering makes the ordering process “seamless”. ez-chow.com offers affordable Micros, Aloha, or Positouch integrated online ordering.

 

[mozza]

Send me your email and I will give you a free online ordering site, you create and manage your own menu. Orders come to any tablet or smartphone. Great reporting and intelligence built in. We’ve been using it about 6 months.

Add buttons to your website, Facebook page, etc and there is a great mobile app. Free if you use without payment gateway. Add for only $30mo. unlimited orders. I get 20% of the monthly fee if you sign up through me. We are using it free since we have no payment gateway partner here in the Rep. of Georgia.

 

[Swalloo]

Lots of great options here! Let me add one more into the mix: http://swalloo.com/pro/
First of all, we’re not for everyone. No POS integration (yet).

We offer a nice alternative to the small pizza shop who wants to move away from paying % commission on each online order. For $49 per month you get unlimited online ordering, (0% commission), plus a responsive mobile friendly website (not just a menu) with integrated email marketing system. User friendly dashboard for easy site/menu updates. We can also add our takeout ordering system onto existing sites for $39 per month. Confirmed orders arrive via fax or a supplied Android tablet.

 

[PizzaSoft]

This has been a fascinating thread. I think a few things could be summarized.

1. 
   []People want everything. Full integration into the POS. So how come nobody is mentioning how much it costs to either buy a full suped up POS like the ones people are talking about, or even upgrade or change their existing POS? It sounds like it’s pretty cheap and easy to me (no new training etc…) based on the comments here. Is it really? That surprises me.
   []Taking the time to key in an online order that shows up on an app on a phone or tablet sitting next to the pos seems to be too much work, even though that’s exactly what they do with their phone orders. Sure everybody doesn’t want to even have to bother to enter the order, but again, at what cost? Does everybody have the money to spend on these things? Is doing the same thing you do with phone orders (key them in) worth perhaps a 15,000 savings? Or even saving a $5000 upfront cost? Doesn’t sound like it is. That’s surprising. This must be a pretty big, wealthy and successful group of restaurant owners. Most restaurant owners that I know cringe at the price of these fully integrated POS systems. But it doesn’t seem so here. Interesting.
   []Nothing but fixed cost or per transaction pricing. That makes sense to me. After all, if the cost is the same to provide the service, regardless of the ticket amount, it should be the same cost per transaction (short of any CC stuff). There is one online ordering company I saw that is completely free. Yes, you heard that correctly. However, they handle the transaction for you. If you want the transaction to go directly through your merchant bank where they never touch it at all, they charge you about $30/month, but at least it’s a set fee. So it looks like they aren’t exactly free, and must be marking up the transactions they handle, or else if they can’t make the money there, then it’s $30/month. Not bad.
   []According to most comments here, even if a good online ordering system that provides an app so you can see when new orders come in is free, or inexpensive, people still would rather pay thousands, perhaps tens of thousands so that they don’t have to key in an order like they do with phone calls.

Extremely interesting comments.

 

[RobT]

I believe there is a market for the product you are talking about.
Low volume , price sensitive, inexperienced stores would buy this product.

The guys in this forum have been around the block and I’m sure all they care about are efficiency & tightening of labor costs like myself .

My cost for online ordering works out to $1.09 an hour. Much cheaper then minimum wage.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Registered_Guest]

This has been a fascinating thread. I think a few things could be summarized.

1. 
   []People want everything. Full integration into the POS. So how come nobody is mentioning how much it costs to either buy a full suped up POS like the ones people are talking about, or even upgrade or change their existing POS? It sounds like it’s pretty cheap and easy to me (no new training etc…) based on the comments here. Is it really? That surprises me.
   []Taking the time to key in an online order that shows up on an app on a phone or tablet sitting next to the pos seems to be too much work, even though that’s exactly what they do with their phone orders. Sure everybody doesn’t want to even have to bother to enter the order, but again, at what cost? Does everybody have the money to spend on these things? Is doing the same thing you do with phone orders (key them in) worth perhaps a 15,000 savings? Or even saving a $5000 upfront cost? Doesn’t sound like it is. That’s surprising. This must be a pretty big, wealthy and successful group of restaurant owners. Most restaurant owners that I know cringe at the price of these fully integrated POS systems. But it doesn’t seem so here. Interesting.
   []Nothing but fixed cost or per transaction pricing. That makes sense to me. After all, if the cost is the same to provide the service, regardless of the ticket amount, it should be the same cost per transaction (short of any CC stuff). There is one online ordering company I saw that is completely free. Yes, you heard that correctly. However, they handle the transaction for you. If you want the transaction to go directly through your merchant bank where they never touch it at all, they charge you about $30/month, but at least it’s a set fee. So it looks like they aren’t exactly free, and must be marking up the transactions they handle, or else if they can’t make the money there, then it’s $30/month. Not bad.
   []According to most comments here, even if a good online ordering system that provides an app so you can see when new orders come in is free, or inexpensive, people still would rather pay thousands, perhaps tens of thousands so that they don’t have to key in an order like they do with phone calls.

Extremely interesting comments.

Lol. Sounds like you didn’t get the responses you wanted, eh?

You obviously don’t know much about this business. It is not only having to key in the order. A lot of it is the logistics in doing so.

When you get a phone order, the phone rings over and over again until someone answers it. For non-integrated online ordering (via fax, direct to printer, displayed on an app - whatever) it is a nightmare of missed orders, orders entered 15, 30 minutes after they came, etc. I’d rather just answer the phone.

Imagine getting an “online order” via fax, printer or app every 1 to 2 minutes for 3 or 4 hours straight on a Friday night. It would be a nightmare.

 

[durbancic]

Plus, you have to consider mistakes that are made keying in the order. If the order is directly integrated, you have no control over how the order comes in. …it is all on the customer, you just make what they order. If it’s integrated, you make what they order, no matter how odd an order.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Swalloo]

Lol. Sounds like you didn’t get the responses you wanted, eh?

You obviously don’t know much about this business. It is not only having to key in the order. A lot of it is the logistics in doing so.

When you get a phone order, the phone rings over and over again until someone answers it. For non-integrated online ordering (via fax, direct to printer, displayed on an app - whatever) it is a nightmare of missed orders, orders entered 15, 30 minutes after they came, etc. I’d rather just answer the phone.

Imagine getting an “online order” via fax, printer or app every 1 to 2 minutes for 3 or 4 hours straight on a Friday night. It would be a nightmare.

Ahh, the busy Friday night argument against online ordering. We heard this a lot from clients who typically take the phone of the hook when they are getting behind. In response to this, our system can can temporarily disable online ordering with a couple of clicks either on their system tablet, any PC or personal smartphone logged in to their control panel. Customers see a message to the effect of “Wow are we’re busy, please try back in a few minutes”. The online equivalent of a phone busy signal.

With our system you can also just as easily unpublish any menu items you happen to run out of. When the item is back in stock, just check the box to put it back on the menu.

Phone orders vs. online will always be a valid discussion. Sure, incoming orders can’t be ignored whether on phone, fax, tablet or whatever you use.

With a well planned online ordering menu the customer has all options clearly in front of him to choose what to order, confirm what he wants and pay for the order all on his time. Your employees don’t need to be on the phone talking the customer through options, verifying information that the customer can be responsible for. With phone orders there can also be issues with difficult accents to understand and bad handwriting to read.

One thing a phone order doesn’t give you is a way to retain that customer and get him back week after week. The Swalloo system captures all of your customer data and email addresses and stores them in your customer database. We make it easy to send out email specials or coupons to all of your customers. When they click on the offer, it brings them directly into your takeout menu, (coupon applied) and they’re ready to order from you again. Why not turn that one time transaction into an ongoing relationship with your customer?

 

[Registered_Guest]

Ahh, the busy Friday night argument against online ordering. We heard this a lot from clients who typically take the phone of the hook when they are getting behind. In response to this, our system can can temporarily disable online ordering with a couple of clicks either on their system tablet, any PC or personal smartphone logged in to their control panel. Customers see a message to the effect of “Wow are we’re busy, please try back in a few minutes”. The online equivalent of a phone busy signal.

With our system you can also just as easily unpublish any menu items you happen to run out of. When the item is back in stock, just check the box to put it back on the menu.

Phone orders vs. online will always be a valid discussion. Sure, incoming orders can’t be ignored whether on phone, fax, tablet or whatever you use.

With a well planned online ordering menu the customer has all options clearly in front of him to choose what to order, confirm what he wants and pay for the order all on his time. Your employees don’t need to be on the phone talking the customer through options, verifying information that the customer can be responsible for. With phone orders there can also be issues with difficult accents to understand and bad handwriting to read.

One thing a phone order doesn’t give you is a way to retain that customer and get him back week after week. The Swalloo system captures all of your customer data and email addresses and stores them in your customer database. We make it easy to send out email specials or coupons to all of your customers. When they click on the offer, it brings them directly into your takeout menu, (coupon applied) and they’re ready to order from you again. Why not turn that one time transaction into an ongoing relationship with your customer?

Um, didn’t make a “Friday night argument against online ordering”.

I made an argument against non-integrated online ordering systems.

Tell me again how 30-60 orders an hour are getting from your system into my POS? Quickly and accurately?

You say incoming orders can’t be ignored. Well, yes they can, when they are going straight into your POS without any intervention.

 

[PizzaSoft]

I believe there is a market for the product you are talking about.
Low volume , price sensitive, inexperienced stores would buy this product.

The guys in this forum have been around the block and I’m sure all they care about are efficiency & tightening of labor costs like myself .

My cost for online ordering works out to $1.09 an hour. Much cheaper then minimum wage.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Rob, it sounds like that works out to about $12/day. How many orders do you get? Do you have seamless POS integration as others have said is a must for them? If so, how much does the POS purchase or upgrade cost?

 

[PizzaSoft]

Um, didn’t make a “Friday night argument against online ordering”.

I made an argument against non-integrated online ordering systems.

Tell me again how 30-60 orders an hour are getting from your system into my POS? Quickly and accurately?

You say incoming orders can’t be ignored. Well, yes they can, when they are going straight into your POS without any intervention.

There’s no question in the world that a fully integrated system is always the best solution. Who could argue with that? How much cost and effort does it involve to either buy a new POS that does this for you, or upgrade your existing one? That’s the only question. Does everybody have that kind of money to put upfront?

 

[RobT]

Hi Rob, it sounds like that works out to about $12/day. How many orders do you get? Do you have seamless POS integration as others have said is a must for them? If so, how much does the POS purchase or upgrade cost?

I do roughly 15-40 a day depending on the day. It’s run seamless through my pos system. It is a must for me. It really is pointless to key in an order from a fax or tablet as I consider it a waste of time. I can’t imagine what it’s like for much higher volume shops. Complete insanity.
If I recall I paid a setup fee of $750 for my pos company in 2006 to add it . I rolled the dice and glad Im glad I did.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PizzaSoft]

Lol. Sounds like you didn’t get the responses you wanted, eh?

You obviously don’t know much about this business. It is not only having to key in the order. A lot of it is the logistics in doing so.

When you get a phone order, the phone rings over and over again until someone answers it. For non-integrated online ordering (via fax, direct to printer, displayed on an app - whatever) it is a nightmare of missed orders, orders entered 15, 30 minutes after they came, etc. I’d rather just answer the phone.

Imagine getting an “online order” via fax, printer or app every 1 to 2 minutes for 3 or 4 hours straight on a Friday night. It would be a nightmare.

No, I admittedly don’t know much about the business, which is why I ask questions and I am sometimes surprised by the answers. And I appreciate advice from people who are experienced in the business. So there are no answers that I “want”, except well grounded, experienced ones.

If you would rather just answer the phone as you said, then nobody has to tell you that you are losing business. No question about that and you accept that as you see the extra business as not worth the hassle. Some owners go nuts if their phones are busy because they see dollar signs slipping right past them. They’ll get 4 phones if they have to as they see an extra phone as cheap enough to warrant not losing the business or looking like it’s impossible to place phone orders on a Fri night with their place unless you are lucky. But others have more of your take on it and they at least have far less hassles and everything is manageable for them. So I can certainly see that point of view.

There’s no question in the world that a fully integrated system is the best answer. But at what cost? What do they want for it? If I were a restaurant owner with gobs of money to spend, I would get a fully integrated POS with seamless online ordering, delivery tracking and customer notifications, and I would get it soon as there could be lost opportunities every day, and more and more of them every day.

 

[PizzaSoft]

I do roughly 15-40 a day depending on the day. It’s run seamless through my pos system. It is a must for me. It really is pointless to key in an order from a fax or tablet as I consider it a waste of time. I can’t imagine what it’s like for much higher volume shops. Complete insanity.
If I recall I paid a setup fee of $750 for my pos company in 2006 to add it . I rolled the dice and glad Im glad I did.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree that nobody wants to key in anything. Why should they? But isn’t that the same thing as saying I don’t want to take phone orders because they have to be keyed in? That’s the part I don’t understand. An online order takes faster to key in than a phone order where the customer is bumbling around.

So you upgraded your system for online ordering all the way back in 2006? And that cost you $750 on top of any regular POS costs? So let’s say you do an overall avg 30 orders per day. At roughly $12/per day, that translates into roughly 40 cents per order, $360.00/month, almost $4500/year. Do they charge per order or is it a monthly charge?

 

[Daddio]

I agree that nobody wants to key in anything. Why should they? But isn’t that the same thing as saying I don’t want to take phone orders because they have to be keyed in? That’s the part I don’t understand. An online order takes faster to key in than a phone order where the customer is bumbling around.

So you upgraded your system for online ordering all the way back in 2006? And that cost you $750 on top of any regular POS costs? So let’s say you do an overall avg 30 orders per day. At roughly $12/per day, that translates into roughly 40 cents per order, $360.00/month, almost $4500/year. Do they charge per order or is it a monthly charge?

Your math is only partially complete. You must take the wages of the person transferring the order from a non integrated system into the POS to complete the equation.

 

[Swalloo]

Um, didn’t make a “Friday night argument against online ordering”.

I made an argument against non-integrated online ordering systems.

Tell me again how 30-60 orders an hour are getting from your system into my POS? Quickly and accurately?

You say incoming orders can’t be ignored. Well, yes they can, when they are going straight into your POS without any intervention.

Maybe I took this statement of yours out of context: “Imagine getting an “online order” via fax, printer or app every 1 to 2 minutes for 3 or 4 hours straight on a Friday night. It would be a nightmare.”

Our system isn’t for everyone. I didn’t claim it was. We are a nice fit for the old school independent pizza shop that doesn’t have a POS in place and are using the 'menu only website" services that charge up to 20% per order. We provide a full mobile friendly website with integrated ordering and email marketing for $49.

 

[PizzaSoft]

Your math is only partially complete. You must take the wages of the person transferring the order from a non integrated system into the POS to complete the equation.

Hi Daddio, sorry I missed this post earlier when we were talking about online ordering. I was actually talking about the expense of the RobT’s integrated system when I mentioned $4500/year after initial $750, so there would not be the “key in” expense included in that. That would be a calculation figured into a non integrated system like I am thinking of. So that’s definitely a good point to mention in regard what I am thinking of.

So if we assume roughly $10/hr (to make things simple), and it takes a full one minute to key in an order (that might be high), that is 60 cents per order. Maybe we call it 50 cents to round it off. So now, its 65 cents per order total with the 15 cents added to it. However, that’s assuming the hired person is constantly busy. The hired person, unfortunately, is a fixed cost whether you are busy or not. And they are also picking up the phone among other things, so an exact cost is hard to determine.

So I wouldn’t put a full 50 cents into the equation, and in fact I think my figures are way off and if someone can’t key in an order in 30 seconds or less, they shouldn’t work there. It’s probably really more like 10-15 seconds on average to key an order in. If it’s 10 seconds, they could key in 360 orders per hour. But nobody’s perfect, so call it 250, and that’s assuming they were constantly busy and forgetting about what they might be doing on the phone as well. That comes to 4 cents/order, not including productivity on the phone, handling the front counter, cashing people out, wiping tables etc etc…So it’s difficult to accurately put fixed costs such as that into the equation but they certainly do exist. Then there’s the cost of errors. There are always errors, but it should be very rare. Do the employees make a lot of errors with phone orders? I don’t know. I would hope they would get pretty skilled after they take their first 100 or so orders. But that would be a legitimate cost that should be added although it’s a very abstract one.

 

[PizzaSoft]

Plus, you have to consider mistakes that are made keying in the order. If the order is directly integrated, you have no control over how the order comes in. …it is all on the customer, you just make what they order. If it’s integrated, you make what they order, no matter how odd an order.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Do you find that there are a lot of mistakes when keying in phone orders? Does that cause a lot of problems?