Menu Availability

[Sdaniel]

Hi everyone,

We’re working on a new menu tailored for commuters, especially since we have a few locations near train stations. We plan to promote this menu through our branded mobile app and offer a promo code for customers who order from it. The menu will be available exclusively from 7 AM to 9 AM, Monday through Friday.

We’re currently using Online Ordering Pro and thought time-based ordering rules would help us manage this. However, after testing, it seems these rules aren’t quite achieving what we need. Specifically, we want to ensure availability during those times while allowing customers to pre-order ahead of time, such as the night before. Our business hours are 7 AM to 2 PM, but we’d like customers to be able to start placing orders as early as 5 PM the evening before.

Currently, when I set the availability rules, the items only appear on the online ordering page during the designated hours. We want to find a way to let customers place orders ahead of time while still respecting the availability window.

Any suggestions on how we can make this work within our system?

[Sdaniel]

I think we have the discount part figured out, but the part I can't quite make work is allowing guests to order off that specific menu the night before, but keeping the availability settings, since the menu will only be visible during the availability window. 

[josh212]

i thought you wanted visibility all the tme which is where catering and events would come into play. 

If you did want timeslots however an interesting spin would be through through toast tables experiences and prepayments. Which allows prepayments for certain items or "experiences," capped at a certain amount per 15 minutes with capacity and turn time rules in place. Which almost sounds like something that would potentially work

[Sdaniel · Accepted solution]

Thanks so much for the insight! I was able to figure it out, luckily no extra setting adjustments needed, time availability works with scheduled ordering based off the time they place the order for a future pick up. We're using this as an initiative to push app usage and also promote our new commuter menu. From the discount perspective, we're sending out an email blast with a promo code to use at checkout via the app. 

[Sdaniel]

It honestly would be ideal if we could set multiple time slots, but I understand that is not possible right now. Luckily, we are just starting this roll-out with 1 location as a test, so we may decide that the current availability setting is ok. 

Thanks so much for the insight! 🙂

[Sdaniel]

Thanks to everyone who shared their insights! I figured it out, and it turns out it was much simpler than I originally thought. Essentially, the menu works in conjunction with the guest’s scheduled order. The commuter menu will only appear if the order is scheduled within the menu’s set availability window. If the order is scheduled outside of that time frame, the menu will not be visible. I did some testing, and no extra set up needed aside from changing the menus availability.