One of the main reasons we switched to Toast from our previous POS was the addition of Order & Pay at the Table. This service is a game changer for how we operate (formerly a fully counter-service model), but there is one main problem with the setup -- guests are left in the dark.
We have implemented Toast's "New Steps of Service" plan and have seen overall positive results. The biggest complaint we have is that allowing customers to submit orders at will means we have no kitchen throttling. The lack of throttling leads to us being completely overwhelmed during our peak times as our KDS screens flood with orders. We have spoken to our customers, and the overwhelming majority would be ok with longer wait times as long as they know in advance that food is going to be delayed. While our Floor Captains try, it is not always reasonable to tell every guest that orders are backed up, and we inevitably get complaints.
We pay for Order & Pay, we pay for the KDS system, we have all of the necessary data at our fingertips to tell the guest exactly where there order is and how long current tickets are taking to be fulfilled. Why can't we display this to the customer BEFORE they put in their order? A simple "current wait time for this item is approximately 40 min" would change our customer experience dramatically. Even if we had to manually create this wait time for item groups, it would give us a much needed point of communication that we can't always give our customers, currently.
This is the one change that order and pay needs to be an ideal setup for high-volume, casual restaurants across the country.
