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

[dave]

Rob,

Replying here because I can't locate the other response. The value adds you listed are "order with google", SEO through Online Ordering Pro, & Chargeback protection. Let me respond to these points individually.

1. Order with Google: This system is completely broken for us. One of our concepts is a frozen cocktail chain who does significant revenue through online ordering. If we flag an item as "contains alcohol" within toast (as required for integrations with Doordash and other legalities) that item is automatically hidden from Google. So if we follow proper legal protocols, 95% of our menu is hidden from Google. Zero value.
2. SEO through OOP - I volunteered our concepts as beta testers for the early launch of OOP. I have been using it for months. I was promised features we have never seen. Order & Pay (QR) integration  was promised in Q2, now they say "likely not this calendar year". We also signed up with the promise of a 50% discount on the monthly rate of $50 for the module. So why are we paying for a module you say will be funded by this service fee? Where is the roadmap? As far as SEO goes, we have seen ZERO change in our analytics. All we have gotten is a mild coat of paint with little additional flexibility (can we PLEASE get access to some custom CSS? 2 font choices and a couple colors isn't worth all of this) and no continuity across all of our digital experiences (Online & QR).
3. Chargeback Protection - Chargebacks are part of the game. We fight them, we lose them. VERY minor cost. Where is the option to forfeit this unwanted "insurance" to reduce costs to our customers? We don't need this. At all.

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@Rob wrote:

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.* 

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I would like to see more data on this. We have been using OOP since earlier this year and our growth has been on a very linear trajectory for 12 months... AND we didn't have the service fee. Certainly not a 13% boost in online sales. I can guarantee tacking $.99 will only move the needle in the other direction.

I still have yet to see any compelling information other than Toast needs to juice their financials and this is where they think they can milk some additional revenue.

[Rob]

Community managers assist with forum management and moderating discussions; we convey feedback, concerns, and community suggestions. We also create and analyze the content here on community and much more, but this is a brief overview of what we do. 

[dave]

Echoing other users, discuss the last minute $.99 order processing fee.

"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."

This is not an acceptable answer. Our customers will be paying ~$50,000 in "service fees" with no added value to either us or them. I would bet a months fees (an already not-small number not counting CC fees) that on the next investor call Chris will be touting all of the additional revenue being generated.

What is Toast going to be doing for us to justify the loss in tips? An informal survey we've conducted shows customers conflating a service charge as a method to cover tips, regardless of the veracity of this opinion that is what the customers believe. General complaints (see Ticketmaster)? The overall bilking of customers for nothing beyond boosting quarterly revenues?

The hunt for new POS system is on, unless something in this AMA can convince us that this is a warranted that is hundreds of thousands of dollars in subscription and processing fees that we will be migrating away from Toast.

[Anonymous]

• I’d LOVE to see Toast Payroll/Toast Tax ACTUALLY resolve my ongoing Tax issue with the GDOL. It’s been over 6 + months and I’m still dealing with the same issue and I’ve explained said issue to 6876545 different Toast “employees” who’ve done absolutely nothing to help resolve the case and continue to pass off the issue to someone else who 1) was inadequately trained 2) doesn’t care 3) can’t do anything about the issue. 

[EV_SEA]

SAME!