Restaurants switch to ordering online when it's faster for them than texting you. Make the online order quicker than a text, show each account its own prices and cutoff, keep answering texts while they switch, and roll it out one account at a time.
That's the whole method. The rest of this guide is how to make each part true.
Why restaurants keep calling and texting
Look at the order from their side first.
- A text takes ten seconds. The chef is standing in the walk-in at 11 PM. They type "2 cs limes, 1 cilantro, same tomatoes" and go home. A website that needs a password, a search and a checkout loses to that.
- They don't trust the price online. If the website shows a catalog price and the invoice shows their contract price, they stop looking at the website.
- The person ordering changes. The owner orders Monday, the sous chef orders Thursday. Only one of them has the login.
- They like the rep. Some accounts text the rep because of the relationship. That's worth keeping.
None of this means they won't order online. It means the online order has to beat the text on speed and trust.
Make the online order faster than a text
Count the taps. If a reorder takes more than four, it's too slow.
- One login per person, kept signed in. A sign-in link sent by email, then the phone remembers them. No password rules.
- Their items first. The order screen opens on what they bought last time, not on your whole catalog.
- Reorder last week in one tap. They change two quantities and submit.
- It works in the phone's browser. Nothing to download. An app store link is one more step they won't take.
- Search works the way they write. "Limes", "lime 200" and your SKU should all find the same item.
Show their price, their day and their cutoff
Trust comes from the order screen matching the invoice.
- Show each account its own price list, never a general catalog price.
- Show the delivery day before they add a single item: "Next delivery: Thursday. Order by Wednesday 2 PM."
- After they submit, send a confirmation with an order number and the delivery day. An order number ends the "did you get my order?" call.
Keep answering texts while they switch
Don't turn off texting. Accounts that text will keep texting for months, and some never stop.
What changes is what happens to the text. Instead of someone retyping it at 6 AM, the text gets read, matched to that customer's items, and sent back as a list to confirm. When they reply yes, it becomes an order in the same system as the online orders.
The warehouse gets one list of orders no matter how they came in, and nobody has to change habits to keep buying from you. More on this in how to take orders by text message without losing any.
Roll it out one account at a time
A mass email with a login link gets ignored. A two-minute setup on the customer's own phone doesn't.
Week 1. Load your price lists and delivery days. Pick five friendly accounts that order often. Set up their logins yourself and place one test order with each of them.
Week 2. Reps and drivers set up the login on the restaurant's phone at the next visit, for the person who actually orders. Leave a card with the link at the register.
Week 3. The next fifteen accounts. Ask the first five what slowed them down, and fix it before you add more.
Week 4. Everyone else who orders weekly. Keep a list of accounts that still only text, and leave them alone.
Give them a reason that isn't a discount
A discount for ordering online comes straight out of margin and teaches customers to wait for deals. Better reasons:
- A later cutoff for online orders. If phone orders close at noon, online orders can close at 2 PM. They get two more hours; you get orders nobody has to type. See how to set order cutoff times.
- Order history and invoices in one place. A chef who needs last month's invoice for the owner will log in to get it.
- Fewer wrong items. When they pick the item themselves, the wrong size stops showing up on the truck.
What not to do
- Shut off phone or text orders on day one.
- Make them create a password with symbols.
- Show prices that don't match their invoice.
- Make the first online order slower than a text.
- Announce it to every customer at once and hope.
How to tell it's working
Track three numbers every week from your own orders:
- Share of orders by channel: online, text, phone, rep.
- Minutes from order to confirmation, by channel.
- Errors per 100 orders: wrong item, wrong quantity, wrong day.
If online orders grow and errors fall, keep going account by account. If an account tried it and went back to texting, ask why. The answer is almost always one of the slow steps above.
Questions
Should we charge a fee for phone orders? You can, but only after online ordering is easy. A fee in front of a slow website just annoys people. Try a later online cutoff first.
What if a customer never switches? Let them keep texting. Once texts become orders without retyping, a customer who texts costs you very little extra.
Do customers need an app? No. A link that opens in the phone's browser and keeps them signed in beats an app download.