11 Order Taking App Upgrades That Boost Accuracy and Sales

When taking customers’ orders for your restaurant, accuracy and consistency are key. Traditional manual order taking has potential to cost your business thousands by creating room for human error, thus lost sales and less revenue. This is why most restaurants and convenience stores (c-stores) are turning to technology, either adopting or upgrading order taking apps.

In this article, we break down 11 game-changing modifications that you can make to transform your order accuracy, manage orders more efficiently, and set your restaurant on a direct path to error-free operations and increased revenue. 

App for Taking Orders Foundation Features

The best restaurant order apps start with a strong foundation, including these two categories of crucial features and functionality. 

Order Taker App Essential Components

The first step with upgrading any restaurant order taking app is covering the basics. This looks like making sure your restaurant’s order-taking interface design, system to capture customer details, order management dashboard, and real-time synchronization across your integrated systems are all present and running efficiently. 

Apps for Order Taking Integration

Integrations make sure the information in all your restaurant's systems is consistent and accurate. They ensure customers see up-to-date menu details, process accepted orders promptly, and handle payments seamlessly. You accomplish these efficiencies by connecting your point-of-sale (POS) system, kitchen display technology, and payment processing to your order taking app. 

Order Taking Apps Advanced Capabilities

Once you have a reliable baseline for taking orders, consider implementing these advanced features to enhance the customer experience and drive sales further. 

1. Multiple Orders Handling

As your restaurant business grows, you’ll need to be able to handle several orders simultaneously. Doing so with accuracy and speed is also crucial. Advanced features to help you accomplish this include order type management, table assignment features, and queue prioritization systems.

2. Instant Order Updates Systems

Real-time order updates are important for both customers and your staff. Features like instant order status tracking, customer notifications tools, kitchen communication tools, and automated order updates work together to keep everyone in the loop about your guests’ order status. 

Key insight: To learn more about online ordering trends and crucial advanced features that you can use to set your business apart, read our latest Online Ordering and Catering Report.

3. Out of Stock Management

Syncing your stock management and order tracking app ensures menu item accuracy so customers don’t order an item that isn’t available. 

4. Available Items Tracking

Real-time inventory synchronization, automated menu adjustments based on stock quantities, low or out-of-stock alerts, and predictive ordering features are important features for your order taking app. You receive the information you need to maintain accurate stock quantities, strategically reorder supplies, and prevent unexpected stockouts.

5. Items Based Recommendations

Customer order data gives you valuable insight into guest preferences, allowing you to customize their experience accordingly. App features to do this include smart upselling algorithms, menu item bundling suggestions, highlighting popular items in the app, and automatically featuring seasonal menu items. 

6. Customer Satisfaction Improvement

Satisfied customers are more likely to return to your restaurant and recommend it to their friends and family. Use these order taking app features to boost customer satisfaction.

7. Customer Requests Management

The best order taking apps meet customers where they’re at through customization features. Functionality like special request handling, dietary preference tracking, and customer order history gives your app a touch of personalization that also streamlines the ordering process. 

8. Dine In Experience Features

For guests dining in person, you can leverage features like table-side tablets where guests can place orders directly, wait time estimates, service call buttons, and feedback collection systems to make their dining experience easy and memorable. These features increase clarity and consistency, which aid in boosting customer satisfaction. 

Advanced Features and Connectivity

There are a lot of moving parts behind the scenes of your restaurant technology, so it’s important to incorporate advanced features to ensure everything runs smoothly. 

9. Offline Functionality Benefits

Features like an internet connection backup and automatic sync recovery create a safety net for your order taking app’s functionality if anything goes wrong. They can help you get back up and running faster. Additionally, local data storage creates a central location where you collect all important guest data from the online ordering apps. 

10. Sales Reps Empowerment Tools

Starting with a great offering makes it easy for your sales teams to draw in more customers, and this is one important sales enablement strategy for restaurants. 

11. Mobile Order Capabilities

You can set your mobile ordering up for success by making it compatible with multiple devices, including smartphones and tablets, including location-based features, Facebook page integration, and website synchronization. These upgrades make the mobile order processing workflow seamless and straightforward. 

Different Pricing Strategies

Pricing tiers can help you attract more customers by offering more ways for them to engage with your restaurant. 

Free App vs. Premium Features

Start by making a basic plan that has some limitations compared to the features in the more advanced tiers. The more premium tiers should include factors that make it worthwhile for a guest to pay more to upgrade. One of the easiest ways to determine which features to include at each tier is by calculating the return on investment (ROI) for each one.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ordering Apps

These are our answers to common questions about ordering apps. 

What is the best way to take orders?

The best way to take orders is to utilize technology to keep orders organized, assign customer seat numbers to avoid order confusion in the kitchen, and document every order, including customer-specific alterations, for easy access.

What is the best ordering app to use for small restaurants and convenience stores?

Paytronix is the best ordering app to use for small restaurants and c-stores. It simplifies creating online menus, managing orders, and maintaining consistency across multiple locations. 

What is the most popular ordering app in the United States?

DoorDash is the most popular ordering app in the United States while Uber Eats tends to be the most popular internationally. 

Your Accuracy Transformation

Manual order taking creates too much room for error, but the right technology and advanced features can solve these challenges quickly. It’s wise to start with core features to make sure you cover the basics before expanding to include more advanced elements to your order taking app.

Paytronix can help by streamlining order taking for your restaurant to drive accuracy and revenue. Request more info from our team now.