Fresh KDS & Online Store

[TheRealChipA]

Greetings,

I have my Online Store set up and ready to turn on.  But I have an operational issue that I hope can be addressed.  If not, then I will just have to abandon my desire to have online ordering.

I use FreshKDS for my kitchen & bar displays.  I don’t use Square’s KDS because FreshKDS has a great feature — the ability to send messages from the KDS to guests when we start/finish their orders!

When Square Online sends an order to those “printers” it sends the order source (consisting of “Square Online” plus the order number) as the ticket name.

The problem with this is that FreshKDS interprets the order number as a phone number, which we use to send a message to the guest to let them know we are starting their order and that they should proceed to our pickup window.

My request is that Square give me the option to create my own ticket name consisting of the customer name and their 10-digit phone number (no hyphens).  When we take orders at our POS, that is what we do — have the customer enter their first name and phone number as the ticket name.

I’m attaching a screen shot showing what Square Online is sending to the printer/KDS currently.  Circled in red is the ticket name in question.

Like I said at the beginning, if this can’t happen then there is no way we can use Square Online ordering.  It would be too crazy when we are busy to have two ways to message customers — on my POS and on my KDS — depending on the source of the order.

Alternatively, if Square KDS would add a customer messaging feature, I’d abandon FreshKDS and switch.  But one of these things is a non-negotiable must for me to even consider online/tableside ordering.

Thanks,

Chip

[alexandriak]

@isabelle do you know of anyone you could tag to help with this?

[BernadetteA]

Thanks for posting, @TheRealChipA 😊

It is not possible to edit the order "name" that displays when an order is placed through Square Online. This would be considered a feature request, but I can check with the team to see if there's any known work arounds. 

I'm not super familiar with KDS, but can you confirm if the blue order source name you have circled is a clickable/actionable link? Is this what you mean when you say you are able to contact the customers? 

[TheRealChipA]

That is not what I mean.  Let me try to clarify.  That screen shot I sent was from the transaction screen in my Square Dashboard.

I’ll start with how I use Square POS/Fresh KDS to communicate with customers.

After a guest places an order at the window, we ask them for their first name and phone number.  They key those items as the check name after we hit the Charge button.  This information is passed on to FreshKDS, which parses out the phone number and uses it to send text messages to the guest.

That same field (check name) is used by Square online to send the information I circled (in blue) to Fresh KDS.  Since the order number is also a ten-digit number, Fresh KDS thinks it is a phone number, which it is not.

In the case of online orders, Square does have the customer’s phone number, and I would prefer that it be sent instead of the order number, which is basically a useless placeholder for us.

So, instead of Square Online sending a check name of “Square Online (ticket number)” I’d like to be able to have a setting telling online to set the check name to “(customer name) (customer phone number)”

[BernadetteA]

Thank you for clarifying. The definitely makes sense. Unfortunately, this is not something that can be edited at this time. 

I will let you know a soon as I head back from the team, though. Perhaps there is a setting somewhere that is being overlooked that would sync the phone number to KDS and allow you to make your communications.

One more thing, can you confirm what type of orders these are? i.e. pickup, delivery, or dine-in? Thanks in advance!

[TheRealChipA]

I own an ice cream shop with an outdoor bar.  All orders would be pickup, or table-side orders, which would also be picked up at either our ice cream window, or at the bar.

Thanks for checking on this.  When you talk to the team, please be sure to stress one thing.  Right now, FreshKDS can ONLY parse the phone number from the check name field.  It looks for a 10-digit number there, and uses that.  That is the only way to pass on a phone number to them at this time.

[BernadetteA]

Hello again, @TheRealChipA 👋

I followed up with the team regarding your inquiry. They advised that this feature should already be available for Square KDS. Steps to do this are found here. This feature will work for Square Online orders, but does not (yet) work for POS orders.

They are also looking into the order/phone number confusion on Fresh KDS, and I will let you know when I hear more updates regarding this. 

[TheRealChipA]

@BernadetteA A question about the Square KDS functionality.  The help text says that it will automatically let “third-party delivery services” know when an order is ready.  Am I to assume that, for online orders placed by individual customers, the customer will receive a message just like third-party delivery services do?  

If that is the case, and if Square can make something like it happen for POS orders, then I won’t waste any time switching my KDS to Square.  I just need something that works in all cases, and all order sources.

For now, online ordering and table side ordering would be a small part of my business.  So I am fine delaying the roll out of my online/table side ordering.  If the fix for Fresh KDS is quicker and easier, I can do that, too.  But once Square has it working with their KDS I’m on board to get rid of another third-party.

Thanks!

[BernadetteA]

Yes, an alert would be sent for individual orders placed by a customer.😊 I'm not sure of the timeline for 1) alerts for POS orders, or 2) a fix for the Fresh KDS oder/phone number issue, but I will definitely let you know when I hear of an update for either request. 

[TheRealChipA]

@BernadetteA Sorry, but I forgot that I have one more question — about Square KDS.  Would it be possible for us to be able to customize the outgoing message?  In my case, we are making ice cream.  So we want to send a message (“We are starting to make your Piper’s order now.  Please come to the window.”) when we are ready to start making theirs.  That way we can hand out each item as it is made.  For us, the message “your order is ready” or “your order is complete” is not correct.

Thanks,

Chip

[BernadetteA]

I believe this would be a feature request, but I will get confirmation from the team. 😊

[TheRealChipA]

@BernadetteA I’m circling back around to this and wondering if there is any movement on either of the options we discussed above.  Thanks!

[BernadetteA]

Hey there! 👋 

I'm still trying to get confirmation, but I will ping the team again to see if there's any updates. 

[TheRealChipA]

@BernadetteA It’s your friendly neighborhood Square vendor pest again.  About a month ago, you were pinging the team to see if there were any updates.  Since then, silence.  You were going to look into one or two options for resolution — either fixing what is sent to FreshKDS for online orders to match what is sent for in-person orders, or upgrading Square’s KDS to have similar functionality to FreshKDS.

Thanks,

Chip

[BernadetteA]

Hey @TheRealChipA! I apologize for the delay. I have been out of office for some time on leave, but I'm following back up with the KDS teams to see if anything has changed since we last spoke with them. 

This is at the top of my list for follow-ups, and I'll be back to post an update as soon as possible! 😊