About - Everything you need to know about Mobile Ordering in Nōwn

Standard Operating Procedure For Mobile Ordering

Background

Mobile Preorder allows customers to place mobile orders using the Nōwn Mobile app to each location. Customers will place orders ahead of time, staff will accept the order and prepare it, then the customer will arrive to pick up the order. This allows for a completely contactless transaction and improved efficiency in your operation. 

POS Set Up

From a POS perspective there are only a few steps required for set up before you are ready for mobile preordering. It is recommended that you do these steps on a computer rather than on the POS itself.

  1. Confirm that store hours are accurate for each location. The hours are set in the POS and they are important because customers won’t be able to order outside of the operating hours. 

Log into Nōwn POS for each location. Select the Set Up icon on the left hand side menu bar

  • Select General Info

  • Move the slider to set your hours for each day.

2. Ensure that the location banner is accurate. This is the image that customers will see for each particular store when they view it in the mobile app. 

  • Select the Setup tab found on the menu bar on the left hand side. Select Mobile Set Up
  • Choose image for location banner and tap on Upload Banner (JPEG or PNG file)
  • Choose a location logo, this is what will show up in the mobile app when someone looks up your store.
  • Tap on Save Mobile Set Up

3. Configure your menu and set your preparation time. Please ensure your menu has a least 1 category created or else your mobile menu will not show up in the application. This is the most important part of the entire set up process. It is critical to set an appropriate length of time that it will take for each order to be prepared. This number can’t be too short so that it’s unrealistic for employees to make the orders but it also shouldn’t be overstated so the customers come and pick up their drinks too late. 

There is no separate mobile order menu, in order to set menu items for mobile ordering all you have to do is turn on a toggle! Note, this can only be done from the Root Account. 

  • Log into the POS and select the Set Up icon on the left hand side menu bar. Then select Products.
  • Click on any item to edit it, when the new module comes up, turn on the toggle that says "Mobile Order" in order for the item to show up in the app. 
  • Once you turn this toggle on you will be asked to input your preparation and total time. The preparation time tells you how long the item is prepped for while the total time is the total actual time it will take you to complete the order from the moment it is accepted. This setting is important because this will be communicated to the customer when they place an order. For example: if your total time is set to 8 minutes the customer will be told their order will be ready 8 minutes after it is accepted.

Bonus: if you have certain items that you only want to appear for mobile ordering but not in store, then while you are on the edit item screen, click on Advanced Options and turn on the toggle for Mobile User Only toggle. 

4. Beautify your Menu

  • When in the Edit Item screen, which can be accessed as described above, the top right hand corner of the screen gives you an option to Choose An Image.
  • Upload the Item Images you wish here. This will make your mobile app storefront seem much more visually appealing as customers will be able to see the item image when they're looking through your menu.

Cashier Instructions

Mobile orders will come when cashiers are on the home screen, outside of a normal transaction. No action is required to “activate” mobile orders for a particular day. The orders will simply come in based on the operating hours set in the POS.

1. All mobile orders will appear on a bar that goes along the bottom of the page on the POS. Orders that have already been accepted will have their images displayed while any new orders will be displayed on the button to the right of the images. 

2. When you tap the button a module will come up with the order due time and the specifics of the order, once you accept the order a ticket will be printed from the POS printer with the order details. The order will show up on every single POS but will only print from the station that accepts the order.

3. Once the preset “preparation time” elapses, the order will automatically be marked as complete. For example, if a Mango Diamond Slush is configured to take 4 minutes to complete, once you accept an order, it will be marked as complete after 4 minutes. However, you can also manually mark an item completed. If you tap on one of the orders that have already been accepted you have the option of mark it as complete ahead of schedule. The customer will then receive a notification and arrive at the store in order to pick up the order. 

Customer Instructions

For best use of the app it is encouraged to add a payment method and photo ahead of time. 

In order to do this:  

  1. Open the Nōwn App, click on the Account option found on the bottom right hand corner of the menu bar. 
  2. Tap on the portrait to add a picture. Tap on Payment Cards to add a method of payment.

To place a mobile order for in store pick up:

  1. Open the Nōwn app, click on the Rewards option found near the bottom right hand corner of the menu bar. Scroll through the list of stores or manually search for the location you want to order from.
  2. When you find the store in question, click on it in order to bring up their menu.

3. Select the items that you wish to order, top them up with your favourite add ons, then place the order when you’re ready to go!

4. When your order is completed, you will be notified and a receipt will be automatically emailed to you. Make sure that you arrive at the store when your order is ready so that you may enjoy the product at its best!

Reports

Sales from mobile ordering are combined with in store sales and show up as one figure in the various different POS reports (sales, overview, sales per hour, etc). To isolate the mobile order sales themselves you can look in two particular places.

  1. Mobile Transaction Report: this report is helpful because it shows all purchases made via mobile devices. However, this is not exclusive to mobile preorders, it also includes purchases made by a customer in person but through the app (ex: scanning their app QR code to pay at the end of a transaction). 

2. End of Shift Report: the end of shift report will show mobile orders only for each particular shift. However, to access these you must ensure that the “show auto created shifts” toggle is on, and you must look for the reports that say “Mobile order only”. This is outlined in the image below. Regular end of shift reports will show mobile orders combined as a part of sales, but it won’t isolate them as is the case in the “Mobile Order Only” report. 

Hardware for Mobile Ordering

For optimum mobile ordering performance we recommend using a Star Micronics Printer. These printers will keep trying to reprint if for some reason the initial print has failed, this is incredibly important to keep your operation running smoothly. 

If you use printers other than these three we cannot guarantee optimum performance. 

The three best printers that we recommend are:

  • Star Micronics TSP100Star 
  • Micronics TSP650
  • Star Micronics MC-Print3