Placing orders
Every call-in order taken, right into your POS.
Order calls come in hardest when the line is full and nobody can reach the phone. Your assistant answers every one, takes the order item by item from your live menu, reads it back with the total and places it in your POS, so it prints in the kitchen like any other ticket. The caller gets a pickup or delivery time from the kitchen's current wait and a confirmation by text.
What happens with Zenith
From a ringing phone to a ticket in the kitchen.
- 01
Answered, and the regular known
On the first ring, with the AI disclosure. A regular is recognized from their order history and offered their usual.
- 02
Taken from your live menu
Item by item, with sizes, modifiers and notes such as an allergy, and only what your POS shows as available right now.
- 03
Read back with the total
The whole order and its total read back, and a pickup or delivery time set from the kitchen's current wait.
- 04
Placed in your POS
Sent to Toast as a new order, so it prints in the kitchen and runs like any other ticket.
- 05
Paid and confirmed by text
A payment link from your own processor, or pay at pickup by your rule, then a text with the order and its time.
Your ordering rules
Your ordering rules, set for each location.
Your assistant takes orders inside the rules you set, chosen from options and changed by your team as your menu and your nights change.
- Menu
- Items, prices, sizes and modifiers from your POS, with whatever is marked out removed as it happens.
- Hours and cutoffs
- When phone orders are taken at each location, and the last order before the kitchen closes.
- Order size
- The largest order taken by phone. Anything above it goes to a person.
- Pickup and delivery
- Ready times from the kitchen's current wait, and the delivery area you serve.
- Payment
- A text link from your own processor, or payment at pickup, by location or order size.
One order, one thread
The order and its texts, on one thread.
Every issue on one thread, every customer's issues on one record. An order is one issue.
The call
The order as it was taken and read back, with the caller's notes.
The texts
The payment link, the confirmation and the ready time, on the same thread.
A question about it
"Is it ready?" joins the order's thread and is answered from the order in your POS.
The next order
A new thread, on the same guest's record, beside every order before it.
On its own, and what waits
It takes the order by your rules. A person takes the rest.
On its own
- Answering order calls, and saying it is an AI
- Taking orders from your live menu, with sizes, modifiers and notes
- Placing orders in your POS within your menu, hours, cutoffs and order size limits
- Setting pickup and delivery times from the kitchen's current wait
- Sending the payment link your rule sets, and the confirmation text
Waits for a person
- Large and catering orders: your events lead
- Special requests outside your menu
- Any allergy question beyond your written policy: the kitchen
- Refunds, remakes and complaints: the manager on duty
- A caller who asks for a person, at any point in the order
What it reads and writes
Your records in, the outcome back where it belongs.
Toast stays the record for every order and payment. Zenith connects with Toast through access you grant for your own restaurant group and is not affiliated with or certified by Toast.
Reads
- Toast menuItems, prices, sizes, modifiers and what is marked out of stock.
- Toast order historyEach guest's past orders, so a regular is offered their usual.
- Toast open ordersQuoted times, so a ready time matches the kitchen's current wait.
- Your rulesHours, cutoffs, order size limits and delivery area, by location.
Writes
- ToastThe order, as a new ticket for the kitchen with its notes and ready time.
- The call recordThe call, its summary and the order as it was read back.
- The order's threadThe order and every text about it, on the guest's record.
FAQ
Questions buyers ask about placing orders.
Does it handle modifiers, sizes and allergies?
Yes. It takes each item with the sizes and modifiers your POS offers and adds notes such as an allergy to the order for the kitchen. It answers allergy questions only from your written policy and never promises that a dish is safe.
What happens when an item runs out mid-service?
It stops offering it. Your assistant reads availability from your POS as it takes each order, so an item marked out is never placed, and the caller hears it before the order is read back.
Does the order go straight to the kitchen?
Yes. Once the caller confirms the read-back, the order is placed in Toast as a new order and prints in the kitchen like any other ticket, with its notes and ready time.
Can callers pay over the phone?
They pay by a text link from your own processor, or at pickup, as your rule says. Card numbers are never read out on the call, and Ferrata never holds the money or sees card details.
What about a big catering order?
Orders above the size you set go to your events lead, with the date, headcount and items already taken. Your assistant never places them on its own.
Does it work with my POS?
It places orders in Toast. Ferrata sets up the connection with your instance, maps your menu, modifiers and locations, and checks it with test orders on your own system before your callers ever order through it. For a restaurant group on another POS, Ferrata sets up that connection with you and checks it the same way.
Start with Friday night's order line.
Point your takeout line at Zenith in the private beta and hear every order taken, read back and sent to the kitchen while the line is full.
Pricing is set with each business in the private beta.