Takeaway orders with one link: how it works

A takeaway ordering link is one address you put where guests already look for you, such as your Instagram bio and your Google profile. A guest opens it, orders, pays ahead and picks a pickup time, then collects by order number. With Volio the link is for pickup only, because Volio does no delivery.

Volio’s takeaway runs from the venue’s own page, in the browser, with no app for the guest to download.

Where the link goes

The link opens your venue’s page: your hours, the menu, pickup, booking and gift cards at one address. Put it in the Instagram bio and on the Google profile, then on anything printed: the door, the flyer, the card that goes in the takeaway bag.

Keep a list of every place it lives. An old order button left on a forgotten page keeps sending guests to a menu nobody updates, and you find out when someone arrives for an order you never received.

What the guest does

1. Opens the link and reads the menu, with photos and allergens, in their own language.
2. Picks dishes and the choices that go with them: a side, a size, an extra.
3. Chooses a pickup time.
4. Pays on the phone.
5. Gets an order number.

At the counter, the number is how they collect. A pickup screen shows the numbers, so nobody shouts a name over the coffee machine.

The guest does not have to be in the room, or even nearby. A commuter orders from the tram and walks past the queue. QR code ordering for cafés shows how the link, the counter queue and codes on the tables fit together in one small room.

What the team sees

A takeaway order arrives in the system the tables use. It shows on the orders board as new, being made or ready, marked paid. The kitchen gets it on the kitchen display, so nobody watches a second tablet by the till. Since the guest paid ahead, the handover at the counter is a bag and a number.

A guest who walks in and orders at the counter is rung up on the POS, which takes takeaway as well as tables.

The menu behind the link is the one you keep in the back office. A dish that runs out is switched off in one tap, and a menu schedule shows a category only when you serve it, so the link never sells breakfast at four.

One thing software doesn’t settle is who owns the pickup tickets. A full room and a run of pickup orders share one kitchen, and the time a guest chose is a promise with a clock on it. Before the first busy Friday, decide who on the line bags the orders and where the bags wait.

What it costs

Takeaway comes with the first paid plan, next to order and pay at the table: see the plans and prices.

Volio takes a small fee on a bill paid by phone. Guests see it before they pay, or you switch to covering it. The money goes to your own account with the payment provider, then to your bank.

Ask any vendor for three numbers in writing: the monthly plan, the card fee, and any fee per order with who pays it. What a QR ordering system costs explains each line. Check them on your smallest order, a single coffee, not on the average.

Where one link is not enough

Delivery. Volio does none. If delivery pays your bills, you need a product built for it. GloriaFood alternatives was written for venues moving off GloriaFood, and its table sorts ordering products by delivery, pickup and orders from the table, with each one’s published price.

An app with your name on it. Volio’s page opens in the browser, and there is no app. If you want one in the app stores, the same post names products that build it.

Orders from the table as well. That is the same menu behind a code on each table, where guests order and pay at the table. QR code ordering systems compared lists the systems on sale today, the ones built around delivery among them.

What Volio does

Volio gives a venue one link for Instagram and Google. Guests order and pay ahead, choose a pickup time and collect by order number, and the order reaches the kitchen with the orders from the tables. The home page shows what a guest sees.

Volio does not deliver.