During the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants have had a majority of their business moved to mobile and online ordering.
This puts a lot of strain on both the restaurant and the ordering platform. At Hazlnut, we make sure that your ordering platform holds up during these high-volume situations. While most providers have run into bugs as a result of the increased volume, Hazlnut has three key features to help restaurants cruise through COVID-19 and avoid any online ordering issues.
1) Forming a Digital Lineup ? – Order Limits on Timeslots
For in-store transactions, lines have been a way to help manage the number of orders being taken. This helps the kitchen to keep track of orders coming in without being overwhelmed. During COVID-19, restaurants have learned that online ordering lends itself to many customers ordering for the exact same timeslot or placing orders at the same time. This can quickly lead to a lot of unhappy customers because the demand can’t be met by the business.
Hazlnut saw this issue and implemented a new feature to fix the problem: Limiting the number of orders that can be placed for each timeslot. For example, if a restaurant can only handle three orders in a five-minute period, the 1PM timeslot would disappear after a third order is placed, leaving 1:05PM as the next available time. At Hazlnut we understand that each business is unique, so the number of orders each timeslot can handle is completely customizable. Whether that’s 3, 5, 7, or even just 1, Hazlnut has you covered.
2) Added Time that Makes Large Orders a Breeze ? – Order Lockout
Most online ordering platforms work off of an average prep time, listing earliest available pickup time based on the average time a restaurant needs to prepare an order. This works well in most situations, but not all. A small taco shack can’t be expected to prepare a $200 order in the same 10-minute window they use for a regular order. So what if an unusually large order comes through?
Hazlnut thought this through and created Order Lockout (Dollar based lockout), which adds additional prep time based on dollar amount. The default setting for this feature is that for every $50, 10 minutes gets added to the prep time, but again, each business is different, so those numbers are completely customizable. In our taco shop example, a $200 order would add 40 minutes of prep time, giving them 50 minutes to get everything ready, preparing the kitchen staff and the customer with a more realistic timeframe. Still need more time? Of course, these parameters are also customizable.
3) Volume Balance for During Peak Times ? – Volume Lockout
There is one other common scenario where average prep time falls short: an unusual increase in volume. Whether it’s a holiday or there’s a sporting event letting out, sometimes overall volume increases to unforeseen levels. While most online ordering platforms cannot account for this, Hazlnut’s system looks at total volume (online and in-store) from Clover and pushes back prep time incrementally based on how busy the restaurant is.
This feature is called “Volume Lockout” and it looks at how busy a restaurant is compared to their typical volume. If it notices an unusual spike in volume, it will add additional prep time to give the restaurant more time to get orders ready until such a time that volume returns to normal.
These three features are just a few examples of how Hazlnut is helping restaurants navigate and cruise through COVID-19 with online ordering solutions. Want to learn more? Schedule a demo today!
