topic Re: TDS Scheduled Delivery Times in Restaurant Operations

TDS Scheduled Delivery Times

MariaM — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 21:40:58 GMT

When a customer places an order through TDS online, the time they choose to have it delivered is actually the pick up time at the restaurant, and not actually the desired delivery time for the order. Does this make sense to anyone?? How do you let a customer know to choose an earlier time based on this information? We are getting a lot a complaints about late deliveries due to this. I'm attaching a picture to show what it looks like when a customer orders. How in the world would a customer know this is the Dasher pick-up time, and not the expected delivery time??

Re: TDS Scheduled Delivery Times

au79teahouse — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 02:15:23 GMT

So in Toast' article about TDS, it does state that the time shown would be picked up time not delivery time.

link to the article: https://central.toasttab.com/s/article/Toast-Delivery-Services-Online-and-Phone-Order-Workflow

You could add a "Spotlight Feature" which allows you to add a banner message and a brief message of Max 512 characters on your online ordering page to inform your guests about it.

Re: TDS Scheduled Delivery Times

MariaM — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 02:26:39 GMT

Yes, I am aware of that. What I'm asking is how would a customer know when they choose a delivery time, that it's the time the Dasher arrives at our store, not the time that they would like it delivered by. If I were a customer and saw the message above that said "Scheduled Delivery Tomorrow at 11:00am" I would think that is the time it would be delivered. How is the customer supposed to know what time they want the Dasher to arrive at our store to pick up their order??

Re: TDS Scheduled Delivery Times

au79teahouse — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 03:07:40 GMT

I agree with you. If I was a customer, I would think the same way. I am not very familiar with TDS. The temporary solution I can think of to help out with your problem would be adding a "banner message" on your ordering page to inform your guest about the expected delivery time (something like "if you wish your order to be delivered at 11:00 am, schedule your order for delivery at 10:45 am" . I would also add the same message under "Guest Communication" for delivery just to make sure guests will see the message. Hope someone with better knowledge on TDS would be able to shed some light on this problem!😅

Re: TDS Scheduled Delivery Times

MariaM — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 03:09:35 GMT

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. I will look into some of your suggestions.

Re: TDS Scheduled Delivery Times

CommerceCait — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 16:02:38 GMT

Yea this ux design flaw is frustrating, but it actually does correct itself. However, then its up to the customer to 1) be observant that it's changed and 2) understand it's a system flaw and not blame us for that. We aren't always so lucky. The problem corrects itself when they go to checkout. If our customers choose a delivery time of 11:30am, when they go to their cart to checkout, the Dasher time adds on and their delivery time changes to 12:00pm. They also get 12pm on their confirmation.

Re: TDS Scheduled Delivery Times

MariaM — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 19:01:37 GMT

FYI, I go into "Guest Communication" to update the message, and there is 150 character limit. So I have to try to explain this in 2 sentences. Ugh.

Re: TDS Scheduled Delivery Times

au79teahouse — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 22:16:32 GMT

I can understand your frustration. make sure you also check out the “spotlight” feature which allows a longer message. And it shows up right on the top of your ordering page. Those are the things can be done at the moment until Toast fixes the problem. 😞

Re: TDS Scheduled Delivery Times

lafogatavram — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 03:38:37 GMT

I've been trying to get Toast to fix this for so long. It's such an obvious and major issue and I'm surprised nothing has been done about it yet. I spoke to Doordash and they mentioned that Toast needs to send the order as "delivery time" as opposed to "pick up time." You'd think it'd be an easy fix but I guess not. It's in the hands of the programmers and integrations team.

I usually call Doordash and change the pick up time for larger catering orders since those are a little more time sensitive. I think having the banner would work but then I'd have to confirm if the customer saw the message or not before changing the time with Doordash. =\