Contactless and cashless ordering seemed to have become the expectation almost overnight. Being immersed in this space every day, our team has been busy working with any and all locations imaginable to help them safely re-open: schools, stadiums, events, hotels, malls, airports…where there’s people, there’s a need for touch-free ordering.
With 6+ years of implementing online and mobile ordering across dozens of markets and business types, we’ve summarized 10 things businesses and venues need to consider before choosing the right mobile ordering partner. We highly recommend reading through this blog to have all the bases covered in your decision-making process.
And as always, if you have additional questions about digital ordering in general, or FanFood specifically, don’t hesitate to reach out by filling out this form, or email marketing@fanfoodapp.com.
You also want a quick and easy onboarding process to go live as soon as possible. Onboarding typically involves setting up your menu and configuring your digital storefront on the app, customizing menu images and pricing info, and other services if necessary. Over the past few months, our team has helped many partners onboard within as few as two days — and we handle all the menu upload and initial store configuration.
That’s why as much as possible, choose a mobile ordering partner that can integrate into your existing workflow and make your operations seamless. Here are 3 examples of how FanFood has been doing integration with our partners:
POS Integration
FanFood integrates into most POS systems out there through our partnership with Chowly. That means your staff only need one screen to see orders coming from multiple channels, and fulfill orders from there. Read how Rizzo’s Bar & Inn uses FanFood+Toast Integration to create a contactless dine-in experience for their cutomers, while saving on labor cost.
App Integration
If you have a website, an existing app for your team / business, or a browser-based app, you can easily integrate FanFood into your website or app in two ways: 1. directly URL linked to our browser-based web app, or 2. API integration into our downloadable native app.
Either way, we don’t want to add extra friction for you customers and have them download too many apps. Because – come on, we’ve all been there.
Printer Integration
You can choose to order a receipt printer from us, which will automatically print out a receipt whenever a FanFood order is received. This helps with accurate communication between kitchen and front of house, and with helping customers identify their order when doing contactless pickup.
FanFood is all about empowering each partner to use our platform and showcase their own brand. You can customize your digital storefront with your own logos, photography of your business or venue, as well as your own menu images. Our onboarding team will help you touch up the images if necessary.
For those looking for an enterprise, white-labeled solution, FanFood can seamless integrate into existing apps through API and completely adopt the design of your app. For example, below is our white-labeled “Gourmet To Go” ordering capability integrated into the Dubai Mall app. As you can see, while the technology is powered by FanFood, the look and feel of the ordering experience is entirely consistent with the Dubai Mall app’s design.
With 6+ years of implementing online and mobile ordering across dozens of markets and business types, we’ve summarized 10 things businesses and venues need to consider before choosing the right mobile ordering partner. We highly recommend reading through this blog to have all the bases covered in your decision-making process.
And as always, if you have additional questions about digital ordering in general, or FanFood specifically, don’t hesitate to reach out by filling out this form, or email marketing@fanfoodapp.com.
1. Ease of Use
Businesses and venues are in a time crunch to get contactless ordering started and running — the faster you can start offering this service, the sooner you can start capturing those digital orders. Therefore you need something that your foodservice team can pick up on within minutes, and feel comfortable using right away. FanFood’s Manager Portal is designed for foodservice teams of all sizes and experience levels. It only requires a few taps to grab, prepare and fulfill an order, which we’ve found anybody can learn to do. It takes just a minute to become a master of the Manager Portal (seriously, the tutorial is only one minute), and as our partners repeatedly told us: “I don’t know computers and tech at all, but this system is incredibly easy to use.”
You also want a quick and easy onboarding process to go live as soon as possible. Onboarding typically involves setting up your menu and configuring your digital storefront on the app, customizing menu images and pricing info, and other services if necessary. Over the past few months, our team has helped many partners onboard within as few as two days — and we handle all the menu upload and initial store configuration.
2. Budget
Of course, the dreaded question — how much does it cost? Especially when you’re looking to implement soon, it’s difficult to spare some extra cash for a new tool. Many foodservice operations are already operating with a thin margin, and rising ingredient cost combined with reduced traffic due to the pandemic isn’t helping. On top of that, some third-party apps have been found to charge an exorbitant revenue share. It’s only natural that you’d be hesitant to commit to another ordering platform. Since COVID-19 hit, our team has been experimenting with different initiatives to help foodservice operations survive this time. Just recently, we’ve announced that FanFood is waiving all setup fee and monthly licensing fee if you sign up now, and there’s no commission-fee (aka nothing coming out of your pocket at all!) to use the platform. How do we make money then? We only charge a small convenience fee on the app users, which we’ve learned everyone’s more than happy to take in for the convenience and premium service you’re able to offer 😊3. Integration
This is really important if you have an existing POS system, an existing app, or other hardware that play a part in your overall foodservice operation. The last thing you need is an additional operating system that runs parallel to your existing system, and confusing your staff with different screens and protocols that only add to the chaos.
That’s why as much as possible, choose a mobile ordering partner that can integrate into your existing workflow and make your operations seamless. Here are 3 examples of how FanFood has been doing integration with our partners:
POS Integration
FanFood integrates into most POS systems out there through our partnership with Chowly. That means your staff only need one screen to see orders coming from multiple channels, and fulfill orders from there. Read how Rizzo’s Bar & Inn uses FanFood+Toast Integration to create a contactless dine-in experience for their cutomers, while saving on labor cost.
App Integration
If you have a website, an existing app for your team / business, or a browser-based app, you can easily integrate FanFood into your website or app in two ways: 1. directly URL linked to our browser-based web app, or 2. API integration into our downloadable native app.
Either way, we don’t want to add extra friction for you customers and have them download too many apps. Because – come on, we’ve all been there.
Printer Integration
You can choose to order a receipt printer from us, which will automatically print out a receipt whenever a FanFood order is received. This helps with accurate communication between kitchen and front of house, and with helping customers identify their order when doing contactless pickup.
4. Services to offer
Depending on your location type, you might want to offer different services to best suit your customers’ needs. For example, a stadium might want to offer both contactless pickup and in-seat delivery, a hotel will want to offer room service and poolside delivery, and a restaurant might want to offer curbside pickup or home delivery. You need to make sure that the digital ordering platform you use can satisfy all those needs. On FanFood, any business can choose a combination of the following services to offer:- Express pickup
- Curbside pickup
- Contactless dine-in
- Delivery to home
- Delivery to seat / car / table / any designated location within your property
The FanFood Runner/Server App
5. Hardware
Whichever mobile ordering partner you decide on — what are some hardware needs to successfully implement it? Some POS systems require a hardware portal for your staff to operate from, while other platforms like FanFood can be accessed from any devices. The FanFood Manager Portal is just a website that you can securely log into on any mobile devices, be it your own laptop, iPad or tablet. However, if you prefer, you can also rent tablets from us to operate the Manager Portal on. Our tablets also come with full data plan so you don’t have to worry about WiFi connectivity issues at your location.6. Staffing
Depending on the services you offer — especially you want to roll out delivery — you might want to think about who you’d assign as runners and who you’d assign as the operator of the Manager Portal. Good news is, using a digital ordering systems actually helps you cut down the number of people needed for order-taking and transaction-handling. And since you can integrate FanFood into a receipt printer or a Kitchen Display System (KDS), you also don’t need someone dedicated to communicating orders between front of the house and the kitchen.
Runners delivering food to customers in-seat at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
If you don’t want to pay hefty commission fees to delivery apps like UberEats and DoorDash, definitely be sure to have enough staff to handle the delivery orders. If necessary, FanFood also provides staffing solution to both operate the Manager Portal and fulfill delivery orders (which we did for our partner University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill during busy seasons).7. Branding
Are you looking to let your customers use an external app (much like the third-party delivery apps with their own separate apps and brands), or are you just looking for a technology solution to power your own brand?
FanFood is all about empowering each partner to use our platform and showcase their own brand. You can customize your digital storefront with your own logos, photography of your business or venue, as well as your own menu images. Our onboarding team will help you touch up the images if necessary.
For those looking for an enterprise, white-labeled solution, FanFood can seamless integrate into existing apps through API and completely adopt the design of your app. For example, below is our white-labeled “Gourmet To Go” ordering capability integrated into the Dubai Mall app. As you can see, while the technology is powered by FanFood, the look and feel of the ordering experience is entirely consistent with the Dubai Mall app’s design.
8. Support
When choosing a mobile ordering partner, make sure it’s a partner who sees through your rollout success even post purchase, instead of only providing a technological platform without much support on the operations, tech and marketing side. What we’ve learned over the years is that successful rollout of digital ordering requires more than just technology. It’s down to the details such as who do you have running the Manager Portal; what’s the configuration of your pickup window; what marketing are you doing to get your customers on board; how do you dive into your sales data… You need an experienced partner to be by your side every step of the way. At FanFood, we’ve invested heavily in customer success — not only to offer text/email support 24/7, but also to be the strategist you need to keep getting better results. We will schedule kick-off strategy calls and regular touch-base calls to make sure you have all your questions answered.9. Marketing
Getting the platform going is one thing, getting your customer to use it is another. Good news is since COVID-19, people are more receptive to ordering on their phones, if not expecting it. Still, you’d need a combination of digital marketing and physical signage to make people aware of the new amenity you’re providing. FanFood offers complete marketing support, including a step-by-step checklist to help you launch successfully, as well as a full catalogue of physical signage for you to order from. Customization is also available if you want the signage to comply with your branding, or feature your sponsors. All partners will receive complimentary customized QR codes for customers to scan and access the digital storefront instantly.10. Sponsor Relations
If sponsorship is a big piece of your business operations, then FanFood is the perfect partner for it. Our in-app placements and physical signage are perfect sponsorship inventory for you. For more information around the benefits of mobile sponsorship activation, please refer to our blog here. All sponsorship assets, both digital and physical assets, are available for purchase upon signing with FanFood. Design support is also available if you don’t have an in-house design team.
