Adding To Your Marketing Possibilities: The On-Line Web Engine

As mentioned on last month’s newsletter, this month we are going to talk about some of the items contained on our new web engine…

GROUP ORDERING, DELIVERY DIRECT LINKS…

We’ve been tweaking and testing our new “Group Ordering” engine. In addition, another nifty feature has been added, allowing you to expand your marketing endeavors even further: “Direct Delivery Links”.

The group ordering module allows customers to create LARGE OFFICE orders by inviting others to join via an email invite, and allowing them to add their own items to the order.

In a group order, an administrator (initiator) of the order can create a LARGE OFFICE ORDER through their colleague lists … Here is a detailed summary of how it works…

(Group ordering is an optional feature of the web engine that can only be activated by DataWedge. Any RDS wanting to use this feature must call the support department at 208-874-4185 to have it turned on).

How It Works

Once a user logs into the engine with a valid user account, the option to create a group order appears on the right hand side, with the other ordering options once it is activated.

When a Group Order is selected by the RDS customer (i.e. an office administrator, owner of a company, a team leader or anyone in a group of colleagues) that person can then set up a colleague list, and begin the group order…

Once the colleague list is created, the manager must then select each colleague they want to invite to lunch from that list.

The manager can then select a restaurant, the date and time of delivery and their own menu items just like a normal order is done. During this time, an "ORDER THRESHOLD" time is also established as a cut-off deadline for colleagues adding items to the order. (More on “order threshold” later...)

Once the manager selects his or her items, a payment method must be setup. Included in the payment method is a “Dollar Amount Limit Per Person”, allowing an administrator to establish a set budget per person. (Sometimes a person buying food for a group may want to place a limit that each person is allowed to spend).

In the “Payment Distributor section there are 2 choices: (1) Pay for all items together, (2) Each person will pay for their own.

The “Pay With” choices are typical of a regular order: (Credit Card, Cash, Check, House Account, Gift Card and Other) determined by the RDS setup.

Once a group order is placed the DataWedge server begins sending out invitations, and creating a placeholder for the group order.

An order conformation (shown in image #5) is then displayed on the manager’s screen, showing the restaurant name, date and time of delivery, including an “Edit Order” and “New Order” option.

Each selected colleague will receive an email with a link to the order waiting on the web server, inviting them to add their individual items to the order.

Image #6 above is a copy of an email sent to each selected colleague so they can add their individual menu items. Included in the email are; instructions on ordering, the deadline date and time and the restaurant’s menu which is sent along as an attachment.

Each colleague logging into the order engine with a valid user account will see a screen shown above. Pay particular attention to the “Current Group Orders…” information on the right. Each invited colleague must select the “EDIT ORDER” button to add their menu items to the order.

Enter menu items just like you were placing a regular order. Depending on how the group order was setup by the manager, each participating colleague may or may not see a payment method. If the manager is paying and a limit per person is set, the payment method will not be an option unless a colleague has gone over their limit. To complete the order select the “Complete” button.

Each participating colleague will receive a conformation email generated by the DataWedge server, shown above.

Once the last person completes placing their ordered, or the order deadline arrives, the web server will submit the order to your copy of DMS for processing. Each item is then marked with each individual person's name on the order (if they included their names), just as if you had taken the group order in DMS.

Image #10 above more-less speaks for itself. As the “Group Order Manager” you have full control of the order. You may: cancel the order, invite more colleagues, remove colleagues, resend an email notice to a colleague, change the delivery date and time, change the per person limit, change the payment method, view the restaurant menu and total details, and/or you can lock & finalize the order.

Below is an image of your DMS Admin User Settings.

This image reflects how the RDS administrator has their “Group Order Settings” set. These setting determine a deadline for placing group orders.

Notice: The "Group Order Deadline" specifies how far in advance of the delivery time that the group order is sent to DMS from the web.

The "Second Tier Threshold" and the "Second Tier Deadline" is an additional level of lead time; if a group order has at least as many people as is listed in the "threshold", then the "Second Tier Deadline" lead time is used instead. This gives an opportunity for the RDS to have more advanced notice for larger group orders; i.e., if you set a threshold of 15 people and a second tier deadline of 1440, then any group order of 15 or more people will need to be completed and sent to DMS 24 hours ahead of the requested delivery time.

For more information on “Group Ordering”, or to have your account activated, please call our office.

Direct Delivery Links

Throughout the course of a conversation with CSRs, Dispatchers, and even RDS Owners, direct links always seems to come up. Restaurants would like a direct link to JUST their menu that they can place on their web site.

We are now able to create a link pointing to a single menu shared by multiple restaurants or point to multiple restaurants sharing the same menu. Sound confusing? Take a look at the image below. As a space saver these links are shown side by side, but in DMS Online Management they are vertical, (one below the other).

There are two types of links; “Links By Restaurant” and “Links By Menu”.

In the “By Restaurant” column there are links to every “Active Restaurant” that is set to “Available Online” and has a valid “Fee Profile” set in your copy of DMS.

In the “By Menu” column there are links to every menu assigned to a restaurant that is set to “Available Online” in your copy of DMS and is also uploaded to the DataWedge servers.

Placing Links

For Restaurants that do not share a menu it really doesn’t matter which link you place on their web site, however using a “By Restaurant” link will show that restaurant’s address when displayed, making it a little less confusing for the customer. See the image above.

Once a customer selects their zip code or zone, the “Deliver Now” button or the “Choose Date” button will be displayed, (depending on what time the order is placed) shown below in the bottom part of Image #14.

For Restaurants sharing a menu the best link to place on a restaurant’s web site should be determined by the type of web site that restaurant has.

“By Menu” Links

If the RDS has multiple restaurants sharing a menu and they are; (A) a Corporate Bunch, (B) a Small Chain, or (C) a Franchise all sharing one web site, the best link to use would be the “By Menu” link.

The logic: when a customer clicks on the “By Menu” link on a restaurant’s web site, the only information displayed about that restaurant is its name and logo, (shown above in the top part of image #14).

Next step is to select destination zone. Once a zone is selected the restaurant and/or restaurants (if there are multiple restaurants sharing a menu) delivering to that zone will display showing the name, address and logo for each restaurant. On the left either the “Deliver Now” button or the “Choose Date” button is displayed, (shown above in the bottom part of image #14).

This solution allows you to have a SINGLE link to be used for MULTIPLE RESTAURANT LOCATIONS, allowing the “By Menu” link to be used on Franchise web sites, or in e-mail advertising that promotes the restaurant NAME, not a single location.

 “By Restaurant” Links

In some cases, you may wish to specifically ISOLATE a single restaurant from the list, even if it’s a part of a larger collection. In this case, you would use a “BY RESTAURANT” link.

Once a customer clicks on the “By Restaurant” link, that restaurant’s name, logo and its ADDRESS are all displayed, (shown above in image #13). On the left either the “Deliver Now” button or the “Choose Date” button is displayed, (depending on what time the order is placed) shown above in the bottom part of image #14.

The “By Restaurant” link shows a single restaurant throughout the entire order process. These links are nice to use when the RDS is featuring a single restaurant in their marketing campaign. They can link a restaurant’s logo to a restaurant and can be used for linking coupons to particular restaurants. Besides they become (when used right) a very strong selling point for the RDS.

Remember to visit the discussion forums at http://forums.datawedge.com and discover how others are marketing their “Delivery Direct” links!

Tips & Tricks

Shortcuts for a Microsoft natural keyboard

Windows Logo+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box)
Windows Logo+D (Display the desktop)
Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows)
Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows)
Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer)
Windows Logo+F (Search for a file or a folder)
CTRL+Windows Logo+F (Search for computers)
Windows Logo+F1 (Display Windows Help)
Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard)
Windows Logo+R (Open the Run dialog box)
Windows Logo+U (Open Utility Manager)

These keyboard shortcuts are used with Windows Explorer

END (Display the bottom of the active window)
HOME (Display the top of the active window)
NUM LOCK+Asterisk sign (*) (Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder)
NUM LOCK+Plus sign (+) (Display the contents of the selected folder)
NUM LOCK+Minus sign (-) (Collapse the selected folder)
LEFT ARROW (Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder)
RIGHT ARROW (Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder)