Feature request: Pause Online Orders if Certain Number of Orders is Reached Within a Set Timeframe

[phillynook]

Square allows the ability to temporarily pause online orders, and also allows staggering of orders, but customers seem to ignore the assigned pick up time and show up right away anyway-- and then have to wait, while staff has to rush to try to get a blitz of online orders done-- along with fulfilling orders placed by customers in person.

Another solution that Square offers is to allow online pickups within preassigned time frames, but we need a smarter more proactive solution that pauses acceptance of online orders after a preassigned threshold is met. 

Again, staggering orders means nothing if the customers don't pay attention to the assigned time.

We need a smarter solution (as outlined above).

Thank you!

[phillynook]

@backyard I hear you.  As suggested by a reply from another Square user on our initial post, by clicking on the stopwatch icon, we’ve been pausing orders when the combined volume of in-store and online orders gets too be too much, then resuming when one or both sources of orders calms down.

I still agree and wish that we could set a value, i.e. 5 or more online orders placed within 15 minutes and the system would automatically pause online orders— perhaps with a notification and option to resume with one button push.  

During a rush, we don’t have time to mark orders as “in progress” or “ready”, so we don’t want to set the expectation that we ever mark their orders as “in progress” or “ready”, so we simply don’t mark orders until we get a lull, and then we go through and mark all picked-up orders as “picked-up”, and thus completed, clearing our screen.  Nobody has ever raised this as an issue.

 I’ll note again that the only exception to this protocol is shipped online orders, in which the order fulfillment time is much longer (1-2 days), so we want the customer to know when we start working on their order, and then they get another automatic notification with tracking info when their package ships.  

back to online orders for more immediate pickups, as stated previously, a toggle to allow automatic order pausing @ preset thresholds would also be nice for another reason: many customers still place orders and show up 10 minutes after placing their orders, even though they are given an estimated pick-up time of 20-30 minutes when they place their order.  We subtly call attention to the pick-up time when this happens by circling or underlining the pickup time with a sharpie on their pickup ticket.  Additionally, if we see a frequent customer arriving early, we’ll usually say hello and let them know their drink is still in the works. 

Overall, the system works pretty well.  We can always strive for improvement though! 

[MAXSDELI]

I very much like this idea @backyard