Toast Mobile Order and Pay® provides your guests with a contactless ordering and payment experience in your restaurant. Guests simply scan a QR code at their table to browse the menu, order, and pay, all from the convenience and safety of their own mobile device.
But we know launching a new workflow in your restaurant can be scary! Knowing when and how to introduce something new is vital to its success and adoption with your guests. So we've consulted our experts and gathered the following suggestions to ensure your Toast Mobile Order and Pay® rollout goes off without a hitch.
Test it Out with Mobile Payments or Digital Menus
With Toast, restaurants can fully customize their mobile dining solutions to fit their operational and guest needs. Whether you’re a guest aiming to pay faster or a full-service restaurant looking to put your guest in control of ordering and the entire dining experience, Toast’s Mobile Dining Solutions (mobile payments, digital menus, and Toast Mobile Order and Pay®) have a solution to fit your needs.
If you are hesitant about committing to Toast Mobile Order and Pay®, mobile payments or digital menus provide your guests with a “lighter” version of the Toast Mobile Order and Pay® experience without guest ordering.
Mobile payments allows guests to scan a QR code on their receipt or at their table and pay for their meal from their mobile device. This feature is included as part of the Core POS subscription and can be turned on right from your Toast account.
Digital menus eliminate the need for a server to bring over a printed copy of the menu and allow your guests to scan a QR code to view the menu digitally and pay directly from their phones.
To learn more about these two features, check out this article.
Toast Mobile Order & Pay® Pre-Authorization is not currently available in Canada, Ireland and the UK. |
Timing Your Toast Mobile Order and Pay Rollout
Want to see if Toast Mobile Order and Pay® is right for you, but don't want to commit to a new tool on a busy weekend? Start by activating Toast Mobile Order and Pay® only a few days a week when guests traffic or staffing is low.
Consider the following schedule:
Timeline
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Toast Mobile Order and Pay® Activation Plan
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Considerations
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Week 1
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Enable during 1 service on Monday and Tuesday.
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Choose one or two of your least busy services/days of the week to try integrating this workflow into your restaurant.
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Week 2
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Enable all day Monday and Tuesday.
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Using what you learned the previous week, encourage guests for each service on your slower days to try your new ordering tool. With less guest traffic, your staff can focus more on how to support guests learning this workflow for the first time.
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Week 3
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Enable Monday-Wednesday and choose 1 busy service on Thursday or Friday.
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Now it's time to ramp things up! Use the additional service day to get more of your staff acclimated to the tool and test it out during a busier time in the restaurant. Whether that's a Thursday evening or a Friday lunch rush, it's important to see how guests will interact with this ordering method when your staff has more traffic to manage on the floor.
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Week 4
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Enable Monday-Thursday and choose 1 busy weekend service on Saturday or Sunday.
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Using what you've learned the previous week, choose another busy service during your restaurant's "peak" time. Whether this is a busy Brunch shift on Sunday or late on a Saturday night, encourage repeat guests who have visited during the week and new guests to try using Toast Mobile Order and Pay™ for faster service.
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Week 5
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Enable Monday-Friday and at least 2 weekend services on Saturday or Sunday.
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At this point, be sure each of your staff members has had a chance to see Toast Mobile Order and Pay™ in action in your restaurant. Seasoned staff can be used to train others on how to interact with your guests and provide top-level hospitality.
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Week 6
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Launch Toast Mobile Order & Pay® as a full-time ordering option for your guests. Including busy weekends and holidays.
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We're on a roll! Now that you've thoroughly tested this ordering method during "peak" times in your restaurant, turn it on, sit back, and relax!
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Keep in mind, it may not work to have Toast Mobile Order & Pay® used for every table in your restaurant. You may find success rolling it out to a certain section of your floor plan like an outdoor seating area or a lounge where guests prefer to self-serve. If this is the case for your restaurant, check out our Partial Rollout Plan in the following section.
Partial Rollout Plan
Want to see if Toast Mobile Order and Pay® is right for you, but don't want it to be an "all or nothing" rollout? It doesn't have to be! Toast Mobile Order and Pay® can be activated in distinct service areas or to a few select tables within your restaurant to accommodate an incremental launch to your guests.
Ordering Table Signs for Select Service Areas or Tables
A great example where you may launch Toast Mobile Order and Pay® initially is outdoor seating. When there are both indoor and outdoor service areas, orders placed outdoors could take longer due to additional steps servers have to take or a wider area to cover. Putting the power to order and pay in the guest's hands will help outdoor diners receive food faster and allow servers to focus on hospitality.
Before you begin, make sure that your restaurant's necessary service areas are created and that your table layout is up to date. Need a refresher on creating service areas in your restaurant? Check out this article for more information.
Navigate to the Toast Mobile Order and Pay® setup page by selecting Front of house > Mobile dining solutions > Toast Mobile Order and Pay®.
At the top of the page, toggle on any configuration settings as needed (Tabs, Preauth, Group Ordering) if you have not done so already.
Under the Design Your Section, scroll down to Table Numbers.
Use the drop-down menu to select the service area(s) where you are going to offer Toast Mobile Order and Pay®. For this example, we are going to select the patio.
Then select the checkboxes to choose desired tables in your service area.
Select Continue with Template and upload a logo, choose a corresponding color, and print your signs. For more detailed instructions on creating new signs, check out this article.
When you receive your signs, place your QR codes on the corresponding patio tables, and you're ready to go.
Solving for Changing Table Layouts
COVID-19 has presented many challenges, restaurant capacity and new regulations being some of them. With regular shifts in your table layout, you might wonder, "how do I make this work when nothing is set in stone?" Not to worry! We're here to help and we recommend choosing one of the following setups for your restaurant.
Set Up Toast Mobile Order and Pay® with Your Existing Table Layout
One way you can account for a constantly changing table layout is to set up Toast Mobile Order and Pay® for all tables in your existing floor plan, even if this spans multiple service areas. By ordering table signs for all tables in your restaurant, you can simply add and remove signs as needed based on how many tables you have set up at a given time. For example, if your restaurant at full capacity only has 10 tables in your dining room, but you only have 5 set up in accordance with COVID guidelines, you can place the corresponding signs on tables for guests to use. As guidelines shift and you are able to use 8 tables in your dining room, you will already have signs ready to use without needing to order more.
Set Up Toast Mobile Order and Pay® with Two Service Areas: Pre & Post COVID Layouts
Another solution for a constantly changing table layout is creating two (or more) separate service areas with potential table layouts. For example, this can be achieved by creating a "Pre-COVID" Dining Room and a "Post-COVID" Dining Room service area and then creating corresponding table layouts for each section.
This setup will require two sets of table signs, one for each layout. Depending on the social distancing guidelines your restaurant has in place, you may alternate between layouts and set out your QR codes as needed. This setup is recommended for restaurants with widely varying service models to accommodate guests, especially those that may not be permanent when COVID restrictions are lifted. For example, your dining room may be closed but you are able to serve guests in your parking lot temporarily.
Set Up Toast Mobile Order and Pay® with Your Socially Distant Layout
A third way you can account for changing table layouts is by initially editing your table layout to your current layout and print your table tents for those tables only. As you add more tables throughout your service area(s), or the guidelines change, you may print out any additional QR codes as needed.
Measuring Impact through Order Source Reporting
Whether you choose to launch Toast Mobile Order and Pay® in your restaurant incrementally or throughout all of your service areas at once, we recommend using order source reporting to evaluate its performance.
Navigate to your Sales Summary by selecting Reports > Sales summary.
Enter the date and time range that you want to see the impact made by Toast Mobile Order and Pay®.
Then select the More drop-down menu in the top row and choose Source.
Then filter by Order & Pay and select Update.
When the filtered version of your report loads, take note of your Net Sales, Avg/Order, and Turn Time. These metrics will give you a baseline of your restaurant's performance using this ordering method. To compare these numbers to other ordering methods in your restaurant:
Return to the Source filter and deselect Order & Pay. Then select another source, such as In Store or Online.
Select Update to review the sales. Ask yourself the following questions:
How does this compare to my Toast Mobile Order and Pay® net sales?
What source produces the highest Avg/Order?
Are there certain times of day when my Toast Mobile Order and Pay® rates are higher or lower?
Are there certain days when Toast Mobile Order and Pay® sales are stronger or weaker?
Is there a certain Revenue Center that has strong Toast Mobile Order and Pay® sales?
What is the Turn Time for your Toast Mobile Order and Pay® sales vs. your In Store sales?
While this is not an exhaustive list of items to consider, it is a great starting point! With this information, you can evaluate how Toast Mobile Order and Pay® is working for you and determine a regular service schedule that best fits your restaurant.
Frequently Asked Rollout Questions
Couldn't I just post my Toast online ordering link instead of setting up Toast Mobile Order and Pay®?
If you share your Toast online ordering link in place or Toast Mobile Order and Pay®, your customers will be able to place an order that they pay for themselves. However, there will be no way to distinguish these orders from other takeout online orders, so your kitchen will not know whether to box up the meal or plate it. Guests will also not be able to keep a running tab, so they will have to re-enter their payment information every time they want to order another drink, for example.
Additionally, when guests place their orders using Toast Mobile Order and Pay™, their orders are tied to a specific table within your service area that makes it easy for staff to deliver their meal. By using Online Ordering, guest's orders will not be tied back to a specific location for your staff to manage.
I'm worried about my staff losing out on tips. How do I make sure they are still able to receive tips using this new order method?
There are two ways to delegate tipped earnings when guests use Toast Mobile Order and Pay®:
Pool Order & Pay Tips - Using a "virtual server" or "ghost employee" assigned to the auto-firing device (if you use Online Ordering, this is the same "virtual server" that is already collecting Online Ordering tips). If you do not use Online Ordering, you will need to create a new "virtual server" by following the instructions below.
Assign Servers to Order & Pay Service Areas - Assign a server to tables at the start of each shift from the POS terminal. During the shift, all Toast Mobile Order and Pay® tips will be allocated to the respective server. If you assign servers to tables at the start of the shift, these assignments will override the assigned "virtual server" from the auto-fire device. Tips from any tables that use Toast Mobile Order and Pay® and are not assigned to a server during the shift will still pool to the virtual server. Learn how to use server assignments below.
For more information on both tip-sharing methods, refer to our Toast Mobile Order & Pay® setup article here.
For additional frequently asked questions, check out our full Toast Mobile Order & Pay® FAQ here.