What Ask Me Anything topics would you like to see?

[jenni]

Hey everyone!

We’ve loved having the opportunity to hold exclusive Ask Me Anything (AMA) chats here in the community with Toast product experts and members of the leadership team! What conversations are you hoping to have? We’d love to hear! Drop your AMA topics / ideas below in the chat 👇🏽

Here’s a roundup of our AMA’s to date:

• AMA with Megan Anderson, Chief Customer Officer  
• AMA with Shivani Gupta, Product Manager for Order with Google
• AMA with Trip Jagolta, Sr. Product Manager for Catering and Invoicing

-Jenni

[Rob]

Great ideas! Thanks for sharing, and keep them coming! 

[bubbajonesjr]

Remove the $0.99 per online order fee. Charging my customer a fee for your benefit is completely unacceptable. Without a viable solution I will be forced to at a minimum disable online ordering, and potentially switching pos systems all together 

[Rob]

• Hey @bubbajonesjr. Thanks for reaching out with your feedback. We take all changes that might impact our customer community very seriously here at Toast.
• Toast is continuously investing in new features and capabilities across our platform to help restaurants like yours remain competitive. Specifically with the digital ordering upgrades, we’ve invested significantly in new features to help restaurants retain the guest relationship and avoid costly commissions, such as a direct integrations with Order with Google. We've also added $3K in annual chargeback coverage (up to $250/month) on Toast Online Ordering Channels to help protect your bottom line. You can learn more about the results some of our customers have seen after being upgraded here. 
• Adding a small $0.99 Order Processing Fee paid by guests on orders $10 and over is a way for us to fund continued innovation for our community, avoid costly commissions charged to restaurants, and help keep costs low for guests compared to many other digital ordering platforms.

[bubbajonesjr]

Hi Rob,

thanks for responding. completely unrelated to the $0.99 fee issue, what exactly is a community manager? 

Toast should be continuously investing in new features with my monthly fees. That is why I pay them. How will charging my customer a fee retain guest relationship? Not one of my customer will be glad to be paying more for absolutely no benefit to them or me. The only bottom line trying to be protected here is that of Toast. 

As my POS company, charging my customers even $0.01 is 100% unacceptable. It has nothing to do with the size of the fee. And just because you put it out for $0.99 today, what is to keep you from making it $10 tomorrow. You are not a third party charging a fee for their platform. You are, or at least were until this, my supposed partner. Placing a customer facing fee is not something I agree with. This fee will come across as coming from me. Not from some marketplace.  This is a complete erosion of trust.

I am looking into new POS system. And based on feedback I've seen here and elsewhere I am not the only one.

[Rob]

Thank you for reaching out to our team with your concerns. We take changes to our pricing model very seriously here at Toast. We are always investing in new features and capabilities across our platform to help restaurants remain competitive in a highly dynamic market and strengthen the relationship with their guests. With this digital ordering upgrade, restaurants like yours will benefit from a number of new features designed to help increase sales with access to millions of guests through new channels like Order with Google and search engine optimized menus to help increase website traffic. We’ve also added up to $3K in annual chargeback coverage ($250/month) on Toast Online Ordering Channels to help protect your bottom line. 

Results from customers upgraded have been promising. Toast customers who were upgraded to the next generation of Toast Online Ordering earlier this year with the new Order Processing Fee saw a 13% average increase in the percentage of guests placing orders via Toast Online Ordering.* 

*Based on conversion rates for approx. 450 US-based Toast customers of orders placed using Toast Online Ordering during four 21-day periods from August through November 2022 to the same cohort’s orders placed using the upgraded Toast Online Ordering during a 21 day period in March, 2023 (does not account for variables such as seasonality or unknown influences).