We are excited to announce the latest feature addition for our on-line ordering customers:  the ability to program custom surveys at the end of every on-line web order.  These surveys are programmed in by the RDS through your Web Admin Pages, and can be a valuable tool in obtaining customer feedback regarding your delivery service.

The option to take an on-line survey appears in the email receipt sent to the customer.  This allows the RDS to ask questions that pertain to the quality of the meal itself, rather than being limited to a survey asked at the time the order is placed.

Here's how to create an on-line survey: 

First, select the 'Online Surveys' option on the left-hand side of your web admin page.  This brings up the survey configuration page, and shows you a summary of current surveys on your system.

From here, select "Add a new survey".  This will take you to the survey creation screen.

This screen will allow you to title your survey (for your reference), as well as select your 'lead in text' (such as "please take a moment to complete our on-line survey!") as well as set a survey date range.  Survey date ranges allow you to automatically begin and end surveys for a particular function/purpose, as well as 'stagger' surveys without having to delete prior survey results.

You can then ask up to 10 questions in your survey, with a variety of answer formats.  These answer formats include a simple "Yes/No", a rating of 1-5, a single line response, or a multiple-line response.

The option to take the survey is placed on the customer's email receipt, allowing you to ask questions about the order after it has been received.  Survey identification is stored on the customer's computer in the form of a cookie, preventing users from answering the same survey more than once.

Survey summary results can then be viewed in the Web Admin Pages under the 'Online Survey' section.

FAQ OF THE MONTH

Oddly enough, many folks called this past month not knowing that they could set separate Order/Print formats in their system. 

Every time you View or Fax an order in DMS, the order information is passed through a "filter", referred to as the "Order/Print Format" in DMS.  You can create as many of these filters as you wish in DMS, by going into Setup --> Order/Print Format. 

Simply create a new template, and select which items you wish to appear on the order on the Layout tab. 

Then, in Setup --> Restaurants --> General Tab, you can specify which filter you wish to use for each restaurant when you View or Fax an order.  This allows you to see different information on an order, depending upon whether you are viewing it in your office, versus faxing it directly to the restaurant.

DID YOU KNOW

DMS has the ability to have alarms set in the dispatch screen?  A variety of thresholds can be set on an order, forcing the order to appear in BRIGHT RED in the screen to alert the dispatcher of a problem.  To use this feature, just go to Setup --> Dispatch Screen --> Dispatch Alarms in your copy of DMS.

Web Services

The process of caring and feeding your own web server on your local network can be an expensive and daunting task.  Not many companies have the financial resources to purchase and maintain the hardware necessary to run a web server our of their office, in addition to the technical savvy necessary to keep it secure from hackers on the internet.

DataWedge has created our On-Line Ordering engine to solve all of these problems.  Your restaurant and menu data is uploaded and hosted securely on our professionally hosted internet server, away from your office internet connection--giving hackers no place to scratch away at your network.

Our system is billed on a "pay-for-what-you-use" system.  This means for as little as $50 a month, you can have a professional web presence available on the internet including restaurant information, menus, and on-line ordering.  Use of our templates and get on the internet in a matter of days!  For an example of a template site, you can click here, or click here.

Do you have an existing web site, but just want to include on-line ordering functionality?  No problem... our On-Line Web engine has the ability to be wrapped inside a frame.  Measuring only 720 pixels wide, you can easily integrate your own web site around an instance of an ordering engine, and have the ability to push DMS data out to the internet, and have orders push directly into your system.  To see examples of companies that have integrated their own web sites with our ordering engines, you can click here, or you can click here.

If you would like more information on our on-line ordering engine, please don't hesitate to contact us at (208) 874-4185.

Meal Monger

Meal Monger represents our aggregated web site, aimed at being the target of national marketing campaigns.  Because DataWedge utilizes a "pay-for-what-you-use" billing system, it's in our best interest to drive as many transactions as we can towards your service. 

We currently employ an aggressive marketing campaign utilizing a "keyword match and click-through" model on Google.  We also have "re-marketing" campaigns designed for customer retention.  These marketing efforts are designed to bring existing customers back to your delivery service, and are typically sent out prior to holidays or major events.  Example mailers can be seen by clicking here, or clicking here.

If you would like more information on being a part of Meal Monger, please contact us at (208) 874-4185.

Credit Card Processing

DataWedge has teamed with Nova - the nation's second-largest credit card processing system - to provide a seamless charge authorization system that accepts a full range of bank and T&E cards.  The DataWedge/Nova partnership offers a number of advantages over other card processing alternatives:

• Low transaction/discount charges resulting from the purchasing power of one master contract for DMS clients
• Elimination of  ICVerify as a card processing gateway.  DMS is certified with the NOVA system for direct data transmission to their system.
• The ease and efficiency of a "seamless" process from order entry to authorization to funds transfer into your account

If you would like to know how much you can save over your existing credit card services, please click here and fill out our request form.

Off-Site Backup

Too many times we have seen a client simply ignore the duties of backing up their system.  Make no mistake:  every single hard drive on the planet will eventually fail... it's only a matter of time.

DataWedge has pre-purchased the internet bandwidth and server capacity on the internet to offer off-site backup services to our clients.  For a small service fee of $35 a month, DMS can now upload an encrypted copy of your DMS Database to our internet server each night during the nightly maintenance routine.

Each morning, our internet server then scans each upload and generates an e-mail notification that is sent back to each customer.  That means for roughly $1 a day, you can arrive at your office each morning and be notified that your data is safe and secure at an outside facility.

If you would like more information on this service, please contact us (208) 874-4185.

Copyright 2005, DataWedge, LLC