News

A POS with a memory for numbers

October 3, 2005

Most every operator has suffered this mistake: You just completed a phone order on your POS and you're ready to hit the Send button to move it to the kitchen, and something pulls you away. You return to the terminal and see the last order still on the screen — an order you're certain you sent to the kitchen — and you hit the Exit button to move forward.

"And just as you're touching Exit, you remember it's the order you took 30 seconds ago, and it's gone," said Leonard White, a Hungry Howie's Pizza franchisee in Scottsdale, Ariz. "Now you know an irate customer is going to be calling in about 40 minutes saying, 'Where in the heck is my pizza?'"

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At least that's what used to happen with Leonard's old POS system. His current Revention system's one-touch caller-ID, however, recalls every phone customer's information instantly, allowing the order-taker to call the customer back.

"I usually remember what they ordered, but I have no idea where it's supposed to go," he said. "But the caller-ID will pull up the address and the customer's name, and all I do is call back, tell the customer I lost the order and ask to confirm it. It has saved my can a couple of times."

According to Laura Gaudin, director of sales for Houston-based Revention, the caller-ID tracker goes much further than just verifying phone numbers. If a customer with a pending order calls to check its status, caller-ID pulls that record to the order-taker's front screen automatically.

"That user can tell the customer the full status of his order, whether it's on the way or still in the kitchen," said Gaudin. "If they're calling to add some breadsticks, you'll know immediately whether that order is gone with the driver or still there."

Even information on customers who don't reach an order-taker is recorded in the caller-ID log. Should someone on hold hang up before placing his or her order, a staffer can call the customer back to fix the problem.

Leonard uses the log to check his staff's phone performance while he's out of the store.

"If the average is eight rings before they pick up, I ask, 'What's the problem?'"

Brian Henry, a Mr. Gatti's operator in Houston, said the caller-ID has bailed him out a couple of times since he opened four months ago.

"We've had people call in and say, 'We'd like to add two more pizzas to our order,' and you know immediately whether that order is still here," said Henry.

Customers calling to find out why their orders haven't arrived aren't always calling to complain. They understand pizzerias have busy nights and get behind, they just want to know when to expect it. Having a feature that provides an accurate arrival time estimate is extremely useful for avoiding ruffled feathers.

"This gives you a chance to say, 'I hear your frustration, and you'll be glad to know it left seven minutes ago."