Delivery Feature

[thecafeguy]

How detailed is the delivery side for the customer's perspective?

Does the system allow for order tracking (is there a page for them to track their order?)

I think as part of building convenience and efficiency is to have an application which allows seamless communication with the customer from ordering, prepare, cooking, packing and delivery and then arrival. I'm not sure exactly if the system allows this as our business is still in the before-opening stage so I want to know what does Square do at the moment with this?

[Sam_400º]

One of the more frustrating bits is trying to see the customers perspective on the online store! 

I tried a test order (for collection) when the text updates option came in - I got one & then nothing else.... 

One I did through another square store (more recently) for a local coffee shop sent me a link to see my order - but the status never updated. Not sure if this was from the square side or because they just don’t use the order status stuff though? 


(I know this is no help, but at least you know someone else shares your frustration 😂)

[tranguyen]

Hi @thecafeguy and @Sam_400º, thank you for reaching out!

If you have ticked the option to allow customer to get text alerts for orders, the system will send out a SMS with an order tracking page. Every time you change the status of the order (from New > In Progress > Read > Complete), it'll send out a SMS alert and update on the tracking page.

When the order is ready for delivery, customer should also get an email notification. 

From testing on my end, it looks like at the moment, alerts are only being pushed through if statuses are updated from the Square Online Store and not from Dashboard. I'm going to take a further look into this to make sure so I'll circle back when I have a confirmation for you both!

[thecafeguy]

Thanks for that but I want to know if there will be any further development on the communication with customers. As said in my thread I want to be able to tell them that it's been accepted, then through to the cooking stage then packed and on its way etc. similar to the Domino's Pizza Tracker or what UberEats provides.

It's essentially giving our customers more transparency which obviously is what they love because of how it's in real-time almost.

[Sam_400º]

@thecafeguy 


‘In Progress’ - cooking

’ready’ - erm, ready?

‘Complete’ - collected/out for delivery. 

I think these are the 3 stages where it updates the customers.

[thecafeguy]

That's all swell but obviously I'm looking for more specific statuses with the inbetween messages rather than just 'In Progress -> Ready -> Complete'. Specifically for the Restaurant side we need Out for Delivery and then Completed to avoid confusion. It would be nice if we could have the option to input our custom messages etc.

Also with RTD/RTI, real time information/delivery, if we're using our own drivers would it be too much for Square to handle an in-house tracking system for own drivers or would it be worth outsourcing software that can do this. I only ask because we don't intend on using UberEats/JustEat/Deliveroo for our delivery needs, so it would be nice if there's any 3rd party apps that integrate with Square that offer this for us.

[Sam_400º]

@thecafeguy - this is just another users opinion, but I think your use case is pretty specific (although i can see it being widely useful) that it would probably need 3rd party integration/subscriptions.

 Like so many of the ‘that would be awesome’ ideas it’s probably one of those that’s just too big & surprisingly complex for Square to

develop compared to stuff that would be used by more of the users. 

[thecafeguy]

Very true, I knew it would come to the brick wall eventually.

Ideally if they implemented all the feature requests we suggest I'm sure they'd have a system that would dominate the market. There'd be no need for JustEat etc.

I think another useful tool would be an App publishing feature for the iOS/Play Store since the store's mobile version does have a few UI issues. Again, user preference and forever dream 😛

Thinking too far ahead, especially as the US market is so far ahead from us and if anything were to come new it would be there first I suppose.

[Sam_400º]

Totally agree! 

There seem to be more & more developers popping up using the Square API so at least there are options out there. 

While this is great & means getting paid quickly I love the web & pos working together that I’ve not been able to get anywhere else. 

The price point also helps - like you I’ve avoided just eat & all those as locally my brand is strong enough to not want to end up paying 25% when all the fees are added up 😱

[Sam_400º]

@tranguyen this isn't working for any test I do.... 

I've turned the feature off now as customers were expecting messages & never got them. 

---

@tranguyen wrote:

Every time you change the status of the order (from New > In Progress > Read > Complete), it'll send out a SMS alert and update on the tracking page.

---

I still just get one text when the order is placed & nothing with any updates. The order status page does update when it's marked as complete - but this doesn't really help. 

[thecafeguy]

It doesn't send out a text on each step though. It's either incredibly laggy (slow at updating the page once switching each stage of the order) and it misses out steps.

I'd get a text all the time saying your order will be ready on XXXX date/time...

Then I'd sometimes get a text on orders where it'll say your order is being prepared...

And finally it'll say it will be delivered or ready for pickup.

It's definitely not consistent and certainly not responsive that's for sure.

[Helen]

I'm really sorry that this feature isn't functioning as expected @Sam_400º @thecafeguy and thank you for letting us know. 

As @tranguyen mentioned when you change the status of an order it doesn't trigger a text message if you're updating the order from the Orders section of Dashboard, but it should trigger a text if you change the status of an order from the Square Online (where you manage your website). Or are you already updating orders from the latter? 

[Sam_400º]

@Helen I'm using the Square/Resturant apps to manage orders. 

While it's nice that you can manage them online - the text updates seem to be perfect for the service industry that will only be using the apps not managing the orders via the online dash. 

[Helen]

Yes, I hear you. I was surprised myself! I can't share a timeline but it's definitely on the Square Online team's radar. Sorry again for the confusing experience for your customers. 

[thecafeguy]

Just to clarify, do you mean that if I'm going to be using the Square POS app to update orders through the Online Store; customers won't be receiving texts after I update the steps of the order?

[tranguyen]

Hi @thecafeguy, I've tested this a few more times on my end just to be sure but yes, if you are updating orders through the app, it won't generate text update. Texts would only be sent if the order was update via the Online site dashboard.

However, customers will still receive email updates and they can also see the order's progress using the tracking link they received when they first made the order. 

[otagogardens]

I would like to know how to amend the type of alert customers get? I don't want to use texts I want emails to be sent? 

Thank, 

Liam

[tranguyen]

Hi @otagogardens, thanks for your post! By default, the customer should always get an email alert whenever you took an action on the order (making it as in progress, ready or shipped). They would only get text alerts if they have provided their phone number and opt in to do so. You can make the phone number field optional for customer so they can skip this field and stop getting text messages. This can be edit in your Checkout settings.