Has ordering food online ever been more popular - or simpler? If we are talking about three family sized pizzas for delivery on a friday or walking up to your local McDs for a pick up - then, yes, popular and simple.
But let’s talk about corporate hospitality ordering. Now it’s probably a company credit card, or on account, it's not ordered on their mobile phone and it's not their own food being ordered. It’s high value and more complicated - so definitely not simple? But what about frictionless or straightforward? And can it be placed (and processed) with confidence without filling the catering manager's inbox with emails or interrupting with phone messages each time!
Engagement with the Checkout page now becomes as important as the ‘fun part’ of moving through the menu pages selecting from all the mouthwatering options. Frankly, it’s the Checkout which makes or breaks platforms taking these corporate orders.- can all the bases be covered? Spoonfed have poured development time into this area as it recognised the need to enhance the data able to be entered. For instance, if it’s an event, a click of a button lets you enter its name and opens a number of time fields for ‘set up’ through to ‘clear up’. All of a sudden things are clearer for everyone.
Spend control. If ever there was a wrinkle in the process it's the ‘I’ll get back to you once I’ve checked’. Dealing with unnecessary admin is one thing…but what about the ‘necessary’ admin. Here, again, is what marks out a system committed to giving confidence and ease even for more complicated ordering.
Developing an Order Approval feature for the Checkout was key to maintaining the frictionless ordering process. Now there’s the ability to select from a drop down list of pre-selected approvers who, as they are automatically alerted, can use a dashboard to simply approve or not. Meanwhile, the person placing the order has an email to confirm the order status, and the catering team has a note of the pending order on their calendar.
Cost codes and PO validation. Don’t roll your eyes!!! Yes, these are the areas which ordering hospitality must deal with. It can’t be avoided BUT it can be managed efficiently. Spoonfed developed the Checkout page to make it possible to move through this process smoothly and still cover all the necessary requirements?
- Fields for these key details are set as mandatory
- Pre-formatting and validation for codes can be established
- Cost centres can be matched to individuals
- Order authorisations based on pre-set rules.
The outcome…
- The Foodbooker has a swift checkout experience which keeps them right at every turn
- Catering managers can avoid huge amounts of time wasted chasing PO numbers etc and focus on great service
- Finance departments have all the details to deal with invoices simply and swiftly.
Is online ordering of corporate hospitality and events simple? No, it’s often pretty complex. What is required is the tech solutions to make the complex beautifully manageable!
