Take orders directly, without the commission

A restaurant ordering app is your own way to take online orders: an app and a website under your name, where customers order delivery, pickup or food at the table, and pay. Behind it sit the parts customers never see: a kitchen display, a rider app and a panel for each outlet.

What it replaces is the pile of tools most restaurants run today. A tablet for each aggregator on the counter. A phone and a notepad for regulars who call. Printed slips in the kitchen, sorted by whichever printer they came out of. A rider waiting by the door without knowing which bag is his.

We replace that with one system. Orders from every channel arrive in one place, the kitchen works in one order, riders and customers know where each order is, and the restaurant finally knows who its regular customers are.

Direct ordering pays off first with your regulars. People who already love your food don’t need an aggregator to find you; they need a quick way to order from you. Each of their orders placed directly skips the commission and stays in your own records.

Be clear about the costs that remain. Direct orders still carry payment gateway fees, delivery, packaging and the app’s running costs. What disappears is the per-order commission, and with it the aggregator’s hold on your customer.

Most restaurants keep the aggregators for new customers and grow the share of direct orders among regulars. That is the number we watch together: how many of the customers who found you elsewhere now order from you.

An app nobody opens takes no orders, so the launch happens where your regulars already are. QR codes on tables, takeaway bags and bills invite them to order direct next time. A first-order offer or bonus points give them a reason to switch.

The app then has to be quicker than the habit it replaces. Saved addresses, a reorder button for last week’s meal, payment in two taps and an honest delivery time make the direct route the easy one.

After that, loyalty keeps them. Points on every direct order, a birthday offer, a referral reward, and a message to a customer who has gone quiet, with the dish they order most. For the Kochi chain, that knowledge stayed with the chain rather than with an aggregator.

The kitchen display is where a direct ordering system earns its keep on a busy night. Tablets in the kitchen show every order from every channel in one queue: the app, the website, table QR codes, phone orders entered at the counter, and aggregator orders.

Orders are split by station, so the tandoor, curry, biryani and drinks stations each see only their own items, each with a timer. When a station finishes an item, it taps it ready. When the whole order is ready, the counter and the rider know at once, and the customer gets a message.

Aggregator orders can be entered once at the counter, as at our Kochi chain, and then join the same queue. Where an aggregator offers a link to your billing software, they can arrive without anyone typing them.

Delivery runs one of two ways. If you employ riders, they get a rider app that lists their deliveries, guides them to each address and shares their location while they deliver. Customers follow the order on a map, with a message when it is accepted, cooking, out for delivery and delivered. Cash collected at the door is recorded order by order and settled rider by rider at the end of the shift.

If you don’t run riders, each order can book a delivery partner automatically. The startup we back in Jaipur delivers for restaurants and local shops, and its dispatch engine predicts when a restaurant order will actually be ready, so the rider arrives as the food comes out of the kitchen.

Either way, each outlet delivers within its own area, set on a map, so every order goes to the nearest kitchen.

Each outlet runs its own menu. Managers change prices, add festival specials, mark a dish unavailable the moment it runs out, and set opening hours, delivery area and minimum order. The app updates at once, so customers never order a dish the kitchen can’t make.

The menu itself is built for ordering on a phone: dishes grouped the way people order, the most-ordered first, choices such as spice level, portion size and add-ons with their prices, combos and family packs with the saving shown.

The bill carries what the law expects of it. In India that means GST on every bill and your FSSAI licence number; abroad, the local tax and the invoice format your country uses. Refunds for cancelled orders go back the way the customer paid.

We need your menus, your rules and a busy night in your kitchen. Menus mean each outlet’s dishes, prices, choices and photos; a spreadsheet and your current menu card are a fine start, and good food photos make a real difference to orders.

Your rules are the decisions only you can make: delivery areas and charges, minimum orders, whether you take cash on delivery, how long the kitchen needs on a busy night, and what loyalty is worth.

Some accounts stay in your name: the payment gateway, the app store accounts for Android and iPhone, the WhatsApp Business account and the domain. And you need someone who owns the app day to day, usually an operations or outlet manager.

Your ordering app should talk to the billing software you already use at the counter. Direct orders can create bills there, so sales and GST are recorded once, and kitchen order tickets can print where a station still prefers paper.

Online payments are matched to orders, and the day’s sales by outlet and channel go to your accountant or Tally. Order confirmations, delivery updates and offers can go out on WhatsApp, and customer details stay in your own system, ready for the next campaign.

We check what your billing software allows at the start. Some offer a ready link for online orders; others need a small bridge we build, or a simple export at the end of each day. Either way, the kitchen and the accounts see each order once, and nobody types it twice.

Before launch we agree the numbers that matter to you. Usually they are the share of orders that come direct, how many direct customers order again within a month, the time from order to kitchen ready and to the door, cancellations and refunds, and the app’s ratings.

We read them together each month, by outlet. They show what to fix next: a slow station on Friday nights, a delivery area that is too wide, an offer nobody uses, or a dish that sells well on the app but not at the table.

We also show what each direct order costs you: gateway fees, delivery, packaging and messages. That lets you compare a direct order with an aggregator order line by line, and decide how much of the difference to give back to regulars as points.

A restaurant changes every season, and the app has to keep up. Festival menus, new combos, price changes and limited-time dishes are set by your managers in minutes.

We handle what needs a developer: new features, app updates for new phones and app store rules, new outlets switched on with their own menus and delivery areas, and new channels such as table ordering when you are ready. Each month we look at the numbers with you and decide what comes next.