Changes To Delivery Fee Setup In DMS

We all know setting up 'Delivery Fees' in the DMS 2000 software can get frustrating and consume much of a person's time. Every zone for every restaurant must be programmed separately, having to enter data in each box on the grid. The Photo  below is an example of what the grid looks like in DMS 2000. Let's say you have 8 zones in your delivery area. There are 18 columns on the grid, 16 showing below with the 2 web lunch and dinner columns recently added, giving us 144 boxes to enter data into. If an RDS has 20 restaurants that means they must enter data into 2,880 boxes, eating up valuable time. Even though there is a clone feature every time a new restaurant is added the RDS program technician must set up a delivery fee profile for the newly added restaurant.

We realize the involvement in setting up the delivery profile, so we changed some things and added a new module to the restaurant maintenance delivery fee setup called the 'Fee Profile'.

The screen shots below will give a better understanding of the changes made in the DMS 700 Software.

Instead of now following the idea that every Restaurant's delivery fee and availability information must be configured individually, we have introduced the concept that every restaurant can be configured as part of a matching PROFILE.

For example, many restaurants that are in close proximity to each other in your Geographic area also most likely share much (if not all) of the same information.  Instead of configuring completely separate fee setups, you can now configure a fee profile, and link it with the appropriate restaurant.

This gives DMS users the flexibility of making as many profiles as they need or want to configure their restaurants, while allowing an extreme consolidation of the available information, keeping changes as simple as possible.

Matching a Fee Profile to a Restaurant

Comparing this screen shot to the DMS 2000 screen shot above, you will see the real estate in the 'Delivery Fee Tab' has changed considerably. Notice the delivery fee setup grid has been replaced with the 'Fee Profile' categories. To setup a 'Fee Profile' select the restaurant then assign a 'Fee Profile' to each category, using the drop down box.

The 'Fee Profile' consists of 2 main categories with 4 sub-categories in each. They are:

• Internal Orders
  • RDS Delivery Orders
  • Takeout Orders
  • Catering Orders
  • Restaurant Delivery Orders
• Web Orders
  • RDS Delivery Order from Web
  • Takeout Order from the web
  • Catering Order from the web
  • Restaurant Delivery Order from the web

This arrangement allows a Restaurant to have a COMPLETELY SEPARATE set of pricing rules depending upon the type of order taken.  For example, an RDS can have a separate set of delivery fees and price minimums for an order taken over the internet (as a residential order) vs. an order taken over the web (as a catering order).  

Additional slots have also been added for the takeout engine, as well as any RDS's that wish to contract with restaurants that do their own delivery.

Need to make a change to the delivery fee?  In DMS 2000, you had to make the change to EVERY SINGLE restaurant for EVERY SINGLE zone.  In DMS, however, all you have to do is modify the PROFILE the appropriate restaurants use. 

Configuration

In DMS 2000, After the New Restaurant General Information, Financial Information, and Hours of Operation are complete, the next thing you would normally do is setup the individual fees.  In DMS, however, all you have to do is select from the pre-defined list of profiles for your new restaurant.  

(Remember! Before you can assign a Fee Profile to a restaurant, you must first setup your Fee Profiles. Read the paragraph just under photo #3 for more information).

If you are an RDS and setup the RDS Delivery Fee Profile Category, select that for the RDS Delivery Category. If you setup the Takeout Orders Category, select it for the Takeout Orders Category. If you did not setup a Takeout Orders Category then select the same category used for the RDS Delivery Category. Continue setting up each category using the same procedure. When you're finished assigning a 'Fee Profile' to each category, close the window to save your data.

This is a screen shot of the new 'Fee Profile'. This is the window where the RDS sets up their delivery fees AKA ('Fee Profile'), just like they would setup the Delivery Fee Grid in DMS 2000. In photo #2 above notice the 'EDIT' button next to each category drop down box. To open the fee profile grid (the window above) click the 'EDIT' button. 

Depending on the type of service an RDS offers determines the number of profiles that must be setup.  If the RDS charges a different delivery fee for each category shown in photo #2, the RDS would have 8 different fee profiles. If an RDS doesn't take takeout orders, for the restaurant then the RDS won't need a takeout profile. If an RDS charges the same fee for web orders as they do for phone orders, the same profile can be used for both. If the RDS doesn't take orders for the restaurant to deliver, this profile is not needed. However! When setting up the restaurants, every category must have a fee profile entered in the selection box. A 'Fee Profile' can be used for multiple categories.

TIP! If you do not wish to offer take-out services, or offer services in any other of the categories, you may wish to create a 'NO SERVICES' profile that can be 'linked' to that restaurant's category.  

Keep in mind! If you have different delivery fees for the restaurants in the north, south, east and west, you would then need to setup a set of 'Fee Profiles' for each directional area. This may sound difficult, confusing, and may seem like a whole-lot more work, but remember this; once you have your 'Fee Profiles' setup, adding a new restaurant and its delivery fees is quick and easy. All you have to do is select a fee profile from the drop down text box and your done.

Setting Up You Fee Profiles

In the photo above there are 6 profiles setup. Look in the upper left column, it shows the profile by name. Those with the word (Clone) next to them are back up profiles. This particular RDS uses 1 profile for all 8 categories, and has its delivery area cut-up into 6 sections; north, east, south, west, central, and a section set as special.

To create a new profile select 'New Profile'. A window will pop-open asking to assign a name to the new profile. Once the profile is given a name click OK. A second window will pop-open asking you to select an area. This would be the area all your restaurants and zones are in. If your RDS has more than one area, select which area you are setting up from the list of areas. After you select your area and click OK, the new profile is added to the list and the grid setup opens in the bottom half of the window. Here you setup the 'Fee Profile' the exact same way you setup the restaurant fee grid in DMS 2000.

Every zone located in the same area as the restaurant is listed in the grid (see photo above). For each zone fill in the following information:

• In Zone: If this zone is considered to be available for delivery from this restaurant, set this box to yes. If this box is set to no then the out of zone message that you entered in the company setup will be displayed to the operator. Even if the box is set to no the customer can still order from this restaurant for this zone.
• Allow: Even if the restaurant is out of the zone, the CSR can still override the warring message that appears. If you would like to restrict the delivery to this zone, make sure that the 'allow' column is checked. This will prompted the CSR to get an approval from the manager or dispatcher before continuing with the order.
• Lunch Delivery Time: Enter the average amount of time that it takes the driver to deliver the food from this restaurant to this zone during the lunch hour. Only include actual driving time, do not include the preparation time.
• Lunch Fee:  Enter the fee that you charge customers in this zone from this restaurant during lunch hours. There a two fields for each fee: Flat and Percentage. Data entered into the Flat Fee field will cause the delivery fee to be charged. Data entered into the Percentage Fee field will cause the delivery fee to be charged that is equal to that percentage of the food and house total amount. If data is entered into both fields, both delivery fees will be charged.
• Lunch Fee (Member): Enter the fee that you charge to member customers in this zone from this restaurant during lunch hours. There a two fields for each fee: Flat and Percentage. Data entered into the Flat Fee field will cause the delivery fee to be charged. Data entered into the Percentage Fee field will cause the delivery fee to be charged that is equal to that percentage of the food and house total amount. If data is entered into both fields, both delivery fees will be charged.
• Dinner Fee: Enter the fee that you charge customers in this zone from this restaurant during dinner hours. There a two fields for each fee: Flat and Percentage. Data entered into the Flat Fee field will cause the delivery fee to be charged. Data entered into the Percentage Fee field will cause the delivery fee to be charged that is equal to that percentage of the food and house total amount. If data is entered into both fields, both delivery fees will be charged.
• Dinner Fee (Member): Enter the fee that you charge to member customers in this zone from this restaurant during dinner hours. There a two fields for each fee: Flat and Percentage. Data entered into the Flat Fee field will cause the delivery fee to be charged. Data entered into the Percentage Fee field will cause the delivery fee to be charged that is equal to that percentage of the food and house total amount. If data is entered into both fields, both delivery fees will be charged.
• Dinner Delivery Time: Enter the average amount of time that it takes the driver to deliver the food from this restaurant to this zone during the dinner hour. Only include actual driving time, do not include the preparation time.
• Minimum Lunch Order: Enter the minimum Lunch Order you will accept for a customer ordering from this restaurant for delivery to this particular zone.
• Minimum Dinner Order: Enter the minimum Dinner Order you will accept for a customer ordering from this restaurant for delivery to this particular zone.
• Tip Threshold: Enter the dollar threshold before DMS automatically places a tip on the order.
• Tip Amount: Enter the tip percentage put on an order when it crosses the tip threshold.  

Tip! Once you finished setting up your new profile close the profile window to save your work.

Tips & Tricks

DMS 700 Keyboard Shortcuts

First, if you make a mistake, hit CTRL-Z. In most programs, that will undo whatever it was that you just did. Bad thing is that many programs only give you one or two of these undo's. Then you're stuck - or are you?

In DMS there are some keyboard shortcuts that are great time savers. They are:

CTRL-Z - Opens a New Order