1. The phone rings
Your team picks up what it can. Calls you divert, when the line is busy or nobody answers, go to HungerCall. Customers keep ringing your usual number.
Takeaway phone ordering
Phone orders for your takeaway, taken while you’re busy
HungerCall takes phone orders for UK takeaways when the team can’t get to the phone. It takes collection and delivery orders from the calls you divert to it, prices them from your own menu, texts a payment link and prints the kitchen ticket, and online orders only reach the kitchen once payment is confirmed. Each accepted order up to £100 costs £2.00, on top of £49 a month.
At a glance
- Order types
- Collection and delivery, as soon as possible or for a set time, and pre-orders from 8am
- Pricing the order
- From your own price list, worked out by HungerCall’s system, not by the AI
- Payment
- Pay online by a texted payment link, pay at collection, or pay the driver
- Paid before cooking
- Online orders reach the kitchen only after the payment provider confirms payment
- Kitchen ticket
- For 80mm thermal printers, with a PAID or NOT PAID box and a kitchen note for allergies and requests
- Customer texts
- Payment link, one reminder, ‘being prepared’, then ready for collection or out for delivery
- In a rush
- A one-tap pause for new phone orders, and Normal, Busy or Very busy to change the ready time quoted
- Order fee
- £2.00 per accepted order up to £100, plus 5% of the part above £100. No order fee for calls that don’t become an order.
Start to finish
A takeaway phone order, step by step
2. The order is taken
Items, dish notes, collection or delivery and the time wanted, one question at a time. Allergies the caller mentions go on the ticket.
3. The total is worked out
From your own price list. The caller chooses to pay online, at collection or to the driver.
4. A payment link is texted
The customer pays on a secure payment page, with every charge itemised. Unpaid orders get one reminder after 5 minutes.
5. The ticket prints
Online orders print once payment is confirmed. Orders paid at collection print straight away, marked NOT PAID.
6. The customer is kept posted
Tap Ready for collection or Out for delivery on the tablet and the customer gets a text saying so.
For a busy kitchen
Controls for Friday night
Pause phone orders
One tap stops new phone orders. The assistant still takes table bookings and answers menu questions.
Quote realistic times
Set the kitchen to Normal, Busy or Very busy to change the ready time the assistant quotes and the earliest time it accepts.
Dish run out?
Mark it out of stock on the tablet, or change a price, and the next order uses the change.
Printer off?
The ticket waits and is retried every 15 seconds for up to an hour. You can reprint any ticket from the order.
What it costs
The fee on a phone order
On top of £49 a month. Only accepted orders are charged; calls that don’t become an order carry no order fee.
A £25 order: £2.00
The flat fee for any accepted order up to £100.
A £100 order: £2.00
The flat fee for any accepted order up to £100.
A £150 order: £4.50
£2.00 plus 5% of the £50 above £100.
FAQ
Questions restaurants ask
How can a takeaway take phone orders when nobody is free to answer?
Divert the calls your team can’t get to, when the line is busy or nobody answers, to HungerCall. It takes the order, prices it from your own menu, texts the customer a payment link and prints the kitchen ticket, so your team only has to cook it.
Calls your team does pick up stay with you, and customers keep ringing the number they already know.
Takeaway phone orderingLink to this answerHow do customers pay?
The customer chooses on the call. To pay online they get a text with a payment link and pay on a secure payment page. Otherwise they pay when they collect, or pay the driver on delivery.
The assistant is set up never to take card or bank details over the phone, and payment details are entered on the payment provider’s secure page, not on ours.
Link to this answerDoes the kitchen start before the customer has paid?
Not for online orders. Those only reach your kitchen once the payment provider confirms the payment, and that confirmation never depends on the customer’s browser.
If a customer doesn’t finish paying, they get one reminder text after 5 minutes. By default the order is given up after 15 minutes: it is not sent to the kitchen and is flagged on the dashboard so your team can call the customer, though a payment that arrives late still starts it. Orders paid at collection go straight to the kitchen, marked NOT PAID on the ticket.
Link to this answerWhat’s on the kitchen ticket?
Each ticket shows whether it’s collection or delivery, the order number, the items, the totals and a PAID or NOT PAID box. A kitchen-note box carries any allergy or special request, including one made about a single dish, and the customer’s name and phone number are printed too.
Delivery tickets add the address and a driver note; collection tickets carry a code to ask for before handing the order over. Pre-booked orders are headed SCHEDULED, with the time wanted in large type.
Link to this answerWhich printers work?
Tickets are laid out for 80mm thermal receipt printers, connected by WiFi or network cable, or by USB to an Android tablet. Ordinary printers can be used through the Windows printer driver.
A small program on a PC or Raspberry Pi that stays switched on collects the tickets and prints them, or the Android app can print them itself over USB or WiFi. Not every printer will work, so ask us about yours before you buy: sales@hungercall.uk.
Link to this answerAm I charged for calls that don’t become orders?
No order fee is charged for a call that doesn’t end in an accepted order. General enquiries use the 120 minutes included each month; once those are used, extra minutes are 20p each.
The first 5 minutes of an order call never use your allowance, and table-booking calls never do.
Link to this answerHear it take a takeaway order
Book a demo and we’ll show you a phone order going from the call to the payment link to the kitchen ticket.