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United StatesThe phone rings at the busiest hour. Daan simply picks up.
Friday, ten to six: there is a queue at the counter, the fryers are full and the phone rings. Daan takes the collection order from the full menu, works out the total and reads it back, notes that the sauce goes on the side and puts the ticket in the kitchen. You never have to dry your hands.
Built on our own platform · day and night · on your line in two working days
Answering the phone is the most expensive thing you can do right then
Between five and eight everything arrives at once: the queue inside, the basket that has to come out of the fryer, and a phone that rings seven times. Whoever answers leaves the kitchen standing, and whoever does not answer lets an order walk away. Three things make that uncomfortable.
The order simply walks away
A phone that goes unanswered during the rush is rarely called back. The caller picks the chipper two streets down, because they are hungry and out of patience.
It also concerns the biggest tickets of the day: the Friday-night family order, not the single bag of chips.
Answering costs more than the ticket
Hands on the phone are not hands at the fryer. The queue at the counter stands still, and an order scribbled on a notepad with wet hands is exactly the order that goes into the kitchen wrong.
One wrong ticket costs the margin of three good ones.
It all happens at the same time
The peak lasts two hours and is entirely predictable. That is also precisely the window in which hiring an extra pair of hands does not pay, while a missed call does cost money.
The honest part: he does not deliver, he does not take payment and he does not resolve complaints. He picks up and types the ticket.
The queue is inside and the phone rings
The same two hours, the same order, two different evenings.
Without an order line
- The caller hears
- seven rings
- Who takes the order
- whoever has wet hands
- The ticket
- a scribble on a notepad
- “Sauce on the side, please”
- if anyone remembers
- The total
- only at the counter
- Orders during the peak
- what you manage
With an order line
- The caller hears
- “Daan speaking, what can I get you?”
- Who takes the order
- none of your team
- The ticket
- typed on the kitchen screen
- “Sauce on the side, please”
- a note on the ticket
- The total
- read out over the phone
- Orders during the peak
- all of them
Hear Daan before you decide anything
A voicebot is the one thing we sell that you can judge without talking to us. Call the line (a UK number, at your international call rate) and try to trip him up, because that is exactly what you want to find out before you buy anything.
- An order “Give me a patatje oorlog, a frikandel speciaal and a cola.”
- Sauce on the side “A croquette with curry and mayo on top, and a pot of peanut sauce on the side.”
- A change of mind “Oh wait, make that a Fristi instead of the cola.”
- Not on the menu “Can I add a bear burger?”
What you hear is a built example. The Windmill Takeaway does not exist, the menu and prices are made up, and nothing you order gets fried. What is real: the voice, the understanding, the speed, and the way he asks follow-up questions. That is what to listen for.
You read us your menu, we put a voice on it
“Chips, snacks, rolls, specials and drinks. A pot of sauce on the side is ninety cent, as a topping on a snack fifty. We do not deliver, collection only. For a complaint, take a message.”
You hand over the menu
The menu with prices, the surcharges, the opening hours and the things you do not do. A photo of the board above the counter is enough to get started.
We build, you listen
We set up the flow on our own platform, test it with real orders and listen back to the first calls. You hear him before he goes live on your own number.
He picks up, right when it is busiest
Several callers at once, with no queue. You pass on price changes; you do not edit the menu in the flow yourself, because a wrong price is a wrong ticket.
Where the line is drawn: Daan takes the order, works out the total and passes kitchen notes on. He does not deliver, does not process payment and does not handle complaints. Those he takes as a message, so you call back yourself.
Six things the order line handles today
All of it in one conversation, with no keypad menu and no queue. This is what the demo on +44 333 057 6595 (a UK number, at your international call rate) can do today.
Orders from the full menu
Snacks, chips, sandwiches, specials and drinks. What is not on the menu is not invented: a bear burger gets a polite “we do not have that” and a suggestion that is on the menu.
Sauces on the side or as a topping
A pot of peanut sauce next to the order, or curry and mayo on the croquette. He says the price difference out loud, so there is no discussion at the counter.
The total in spoken pounds
At the end he reads the full amount out, “fourteen pounds eighty”, so the customer knows what to bring.
Kitchen notes for special requests
“Extra crispy”, “no onion”, “sauce on the side”, “peanut allergy”. It goes on the ticket as a separate line instead of someone having to remember it.
Order status by order number
When someone calls back about an order in progress, he looks it up by order number and says where it stands. No “let me check” that nobody has time for.
Politely declining delivery
If you do collection only, he says so straight away and offers collection, instead of letting the customer hope and then disappointing them.
Not every call to a takeaway is an order
The calls that suit an order line share a shape, and so do the calls that ruin it.
Build it
Automate the conversation that runs the same way every time. Someone says what they want, you add it up, you say when it will be ready. There is no craft in that: it is data entry that happens to arrive by phone, and that is why it now costs you the most expensive two hours of the day.
And look at where the ticket lands. An order that arrives as an email in an inbox nobody opens during the rush is no improvement. The gain is that the ticket is in the kitchen before the caller has hung up.
Leave it alone
The call that needs judgement. A customer who rings because their last order was cold does not want brisk handling. They want a person who is sorry.
Daan takes a message for that and makes sure you call back. He does not try to fix it himself.
What takeaways want to know first
Often, yes, and that is intended. Daan does not pretend to be behind the counter. He sounds natural and does not interrupt, but he does not pose as someone who is not there. That falls apart sooner or later, and then you have lost trust instead of an order.
The ticket appears on the kitchen screen as soon as the call ends, with the items, the surcharges, the collection time and the kitchen notes as separate lines. In the demo that is a screen in the shop; for your own order line it can be your till system or the order screen you already use.
The demo runs on a made-up menu; your own order line works with your menu and your prices. There is no list of systems we do and do not support. Your till, your order screen or whatever else you use: we build the connection to fit. What is possible depends on what your system offers on the other side, and we find that out before we start.
Processing and storage take place within the EU, under a data processing agreement. We do not use call content to train models, and that is set down in the contract. Recordings are kept for thirty days at most.
Then he says so, and takes the name, number and question instead of making something up. A line that guesses to seem helpful costs you more than a line that takes a message.
That depends on the size of your menu and the number of calls during the peak. You get a price in the first conversation, before anything is built.
No. The Windmill Takeaway is a built example with a made-up menu and made-up prices, orders and customer details. What you hear is exactly what your own order line does.
Yes. The demo is built around natural English order calls, including dishes from the menu, sauces and toppings, changes during the call and reading out the total in pounds.
The demo uses made-up data, but the same workflow can be connected to your own menu, your till system or the order screen in your kitchen.
Daan only works with what is on the menu. If a customer asks for something else, he says so and carries on with the dishes you do sell. Try it yourself with a bear burger.
No. The takeaway in the demo does collection only. Daan politely turns down a delivery request and offers collection instead, so the customer can still place the order.
Yes. The same structure can be adapted for pizzerias, chippers, takeaway restaurants, cafés and other businesses that take orders by phone.
