Seeking feedback on fulfillment and checkout issues 📝

[ElisabethB]

Hey Food & Bev folks! 👋
We'd love to know about the unique challenges and needs you face in your day-to-day, specifically regarding fulfillment and checkout with Square Online. Please reply to share your experiences with us below, and thanks in advance! 😊

[ZDeli]

Hello

I have some feedback on the new pre-order feature from a fulfillment point of few. Love that Square added this.

It is great to restrict when people can pick up but some of the limitations that we still see include the following:

1. We'd love the ability to set windows for pick up. Setting a time frame of 3 hours doesn't help the restaurant pace handing out pre-orders. We can say 1-4, but nothing is preventing everything from picking 1pm. I foresee this **bleep** an issue during busier times of year, like Thanksgiving or for us the Jewish Holidays.

2. The reports that Square generates aren't that useful (or maybe just they aren't that intuitive). I want to be able to run a report easily that shows me what is getting picked up on a future date - not when it was ordered. I can export a report from Square Online that has details and can sort by pick up day but the way this report formats the customer name is on a different line than the items, and while it does have the order number every line, it doesn't make for easy manipulation with so many cells.

3. Also, when i export the report from square online, if a customer is picking modifiers, the modifiers all consolidate into one cell, instead of individual cells, making it hard to sort.

4. Sometimes customers place an order online and then contact us to change the pick up time or date. I'd love the ability in Square to manipulate this so that we can track things more easily and not have to hand write changes on a ticket and hope the ticket doesn't get lost.

5. Square is doing a great job of merging functionalities between the Dashboard and the Square Online Dashboard but I'd still like a way to export Orders from the Square Dashboard and not just Square Online.

This is just some feedback as we test out the new pre-order feature.

I

[kmacmmurchy]

I agree that reporting in general is not very convenient or robust. It appears that all the info is there in the db, but getting it out is not great or easy. It would be nice to have the ability to schedule reports like month end and just have them email out to myself and bookkeeper in a CSV or PDF.  I had all of this and more on a 10 year old "Restaurant Manager" system I used to use.

I'm not even sure if you can just search sales on a single item over time? Maybe I'm missing something. Running payroll takes me over an hour as I have 5 stores, if anyone has tips or tricks on this I'm all ears. I could automate on my old system.

As for "3. Also, when i export the report from square online, if a customer is picking modifiers, the modifiers all consolidate into one cell, instead of individual cells, making it hard to sort."  In the database world; 1. Modifier = 1 Field, you're offering more than 1 answer in 1 field so they will all show up in 1 cell. For example: a cafe latte modifier may be "Latte Options", No Foam, Extra Hot, Decaf, Halfcaf, Skim and they choose more than 1 option. All options will show up in 1 cell. No way around unless they are separate modifiers.

Sorry I went a little off topic
KMac

[ElisabethB]

Thank you, @kmacmmurchy - love that suggestion about automated email reports, and I agree that is a must! Also, @Donnie-M might have some tips on payroll!

[kmacmmurchy]

I'm in Canada and there isn't the "Square Payroll" up here at this point. So still looking for insight.

[ElisabethB]

Thanks so much for this detailed feedback, @ZDeli - and great call out on needing a better way to manage customer-requested date/time changes!

[allwhowander]

Hey @ZDeli If I'm interpreting your request correctly, you can already update pickup times within the Square app. In the order details screen, tap on the blue pickup time, and you can modify the pickup time. Screenshots attached.

[ZDeli]

Oh my goodness. This is amazing. Thank you for showing this to us.

[TCSlaguna]

Hi @ElisabethB 

Not sure if this is within the scope of the question, however: 

We would like an events attendee list with email and phone number. That way we could easily see how many people are signed up for an event, and either send them email reminders or call them if an event is cancelled last minute. 

I think that falls under the scope of digital fulfillment? 😅

[ElisabethB]

Hi @TCSlaguna! That's an excellent point. I'm not sure if this does fall under digital fulfillment, but I agree that it could. 😉
I will pass this on to the team so it gets to the right folks either way. Thanks for sharing!

[JUYBoutique20]

I love this...I'm not in the food and beverage industry, but I could use this option when I begin my events this year.

[dolfloral]

Hello! We offer delivery using our "own courier". I need a way to offer my own list of cities that is not 'distance' based. There is a city less than 2 miles 'birdseye' distance from our shop but it requires crossing over a bridge with a $7 toll. Currently using the only option that works for us -- charging by 'distance-based fees' -- those who live across the bridge is being charged the same fee as those who live in the same city as us. Does any one have a solution? 

I have thought about charging the delivery fee using the modifier option but this makes our sales revenue very messy. I need to separate product revenue from delivery fee revenue. Thanks in advance! 

[allwhowander]

Hi @ElisabethB, we are having a heck of a time with fulfillment options in several different ways:

1. We started doing brunch on Saturdays (11:30am-3:30pm.) I've tried a combination of category timing, pre orders, and overall fulfillment window times, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make specific categories only available for pickup at certain time ranges WHILE simultaneously allowing my customers to place an order prior to that particular category time...

For example, a customer should be able to place an order from the brunch category at 10am to be picked up at 11:30am. But it tells them "this item isn't available" until the clock strikes 11:30am. This hurts us big time because we always have at least a few orders in for the day before we even open.

2. Please allow each category (or item) to have their own fulfillment options! We sell products that have zero prep time and are literally grab and go items. I want NO restrictions on order pacing for those items, just place the order online and it'll be ready instantly (also it wouldn't waste a pickup time slot for food orders.) But at the same time, I also need to control all the orders for hand made kitchen items with order pacing.

For example, category "Beer" is available with 0 prep time and no order pacing. But then category "Pizza" would be 30 minute prep time and 1 order pacing every 15 minutes. If the customer ordered from both categories, it would just default to the longer wait time. 

3. Limit order size based on category or item! We are a wood-fired pizza pub, and we can only cook 5 pizzas at a time! I have NO OPTION to limit the order size to 5 pizzas without also impacting that customer's ability to add salads, appetizers, drinks, etc.

For example, I'd like to say category "Pizza" is limited to 5 items per order, but category "Salad" has no order limit. 

4. The next available order time and/or location needs to be revamped. I know Square has made a few updates over the years to help make it more clear, but this continues to be the number one complaint by our customers. Not sure why theres a pop up to select a location when we only have one location? That's the first point of confusion. Second, the pickup time for some reason just seems to confuse people. We get people calling to cancel their orders ALL THE TIME because they didn't know the pickup time until they got the email or text message confirmation with the time on it. It's so annoying, and now that Square is charging us the transaction fees for refunds, this is a bigger priority for our business operations. 

Hope this is the kind of feedback you are looking for. 

[Kahart1]

Been dealing with that issue for a month now. I get an email saying everything is working, so I go check my site but there is no change. Still not working. Frustrating!!!

[pieous]

This is a vast subject area.

for me there's really too many to list. I'm going to tackle one extremely frustrating option that square came out with -within "orders" i assume this is what you mean by "fulfillment?"

square now allows you to take an order and schedule it. (This has been available for some time) Something that is/was needed. it enables our restaurant to take orders in house from people but put them into the orders que. Good idea on paper...but it doesn't work.

heres an example. 6:30pm on a friday night a couple wants to place an order. We're on a 45 minute wait, they don't want to order online like common folk, so we take their order and use the scheduling feature. we tell them it will be about 45 mninutes, there's a bunch of orders in front of you. We take their name and cell phone number and input it into the order where square collects the "add customer" data.

We tender payment and the order is immediately printed to the kitchen????? So now the kitchen will make this order if no one physically tells them not to. The order will come out at the wrong time and before it was supposed to unless we run through the restaurant and kill all the tickets at all the stations the order was printed to. ISSUE #1  THIS SHOULDNT HAPPEN

In the order list, the order is marked "new," even though the order was already printed. The way we do it here is to mark the order in progress as soon as we send it to the kitchen(as soon as we print the order).

so now 30 minutes go by and its time to print/mark the order in progress. So now we send it to the kitchen a second time. Order comes out of the kitchen - we hit our promised fulfillment time of 45 minutes, we mark the order ready.

The customer comes to the window 15 minutes after the order was promised asking where his food is? We say its been sitting here for 15 minutes, we marked it ready, didn't you get the text? He says no. He's right, marking it ready doesn't send a text or do anything.

please make this feature work so we can use it. It should follow the same sequence as "orders."

[Callee1945]

Wait, is it possible to take an order in-house from the POS and add to the order queue (which comes from Square Online)? How do I do this? I do custom cheese boards and current have a combination of the Square order list and manual paper orders I take in house. I would love to be able to schedule an order from the POS!

[ZDeli]

Totally agree with Callee1945 on this - being able ti inpute future pick up dates for orders placed at the POS would be amazing.

[pieous]

You can do this - but it doesn’t work - it’s a setting - the only thing that works is adding it to the que. Order prints immediately when settled - no text message alerts to customers when marked ready. 

[TLBB2018]

Hello! 

1--We would like the ability to fufill square invoices in our square online "orders" section. This will allow branding to stay consistant for customers with automated emails & make sure no orders sent via invoice are missed

2-We would like the ability to refund shipping labels directly in the square online order section 

3-We need the ability to have coupon codes such as BOGO to be used on square online 

4-We need the ability to have custom banners to say things like "vintage", "one of a kind", "handmade" etc rather than only the standard few 

[bmoder]

Hello,

First, I'd like to say the new preorder option has been extremely helpful with our holiday items. It has saved us many headaches.

Our biggest complaint on the online ordering side is in regard to the scheduling aspect. First, when an item is added to the cart, the default language states, "Please note, your order will be ready on our next business day". For our business that is not the case, and I can't believe we are the only one. We have a 7-day lead time for online ordering. Second, the pickup date is automatically set to the next available pickup date and time. There isn't a prompt for people to select their pickup date and time.

These two factors have caused a number of our customers to show up the next day expecting their items. It would be great to be able to change that default language, or just have it say, "Please note, your order will be ready on:". It would also be helpful for them to have to choose the date and time instead of it defaulting to the next available.

In addition, it would be nice if we had the ability to send an automated email to customers who scheduled a pickup via the POS. Marking an order "ready" in the Square Dashboard does not send anything to the customer. We use the online dashboard for those who purchased online, but this feature should be available no matter how the order is placed.

Also, quick shout out to @allwhowander for the how-to on changing pickup dates. I didn't realize that was a possibility.

Becky

Sweet Perfections Bake Shoppe

[pieous]

We would be way more efficient if items on tickets printed in order by category - where we get to set the print order.