Olo Releases Curbside Arrival Notifications, Dine-In, Virtual Restaurant Support, and Other Enhancements
Olo, the leading cloud-based e-commerce platform for the restaurant industry today announced a series of features designed to help brands improve operations and guest safety as digital ordering and delivery volume grow.
Curbside Arrival Notifications
Stores using Expo and Curbside as a handoff mode are now able to be notified when a customer arrives, allowing staff to run orders at just the right time.
Upon arrival, customers check in using an “I’m here” button on the ordering page or within their confirmation email. The restaurant receives a notification on their Expo device with the customer’s vehicle information and runs the order out to them. This new functionality saves time for both the restaurant and the customer and eliminates the need for lag time or a phone call as part of the order handoff.
Brands using Olo’s white-label platform can set this up immediately or develop into their custom site and apps using our API. Learn more about Customer Arrival Notifications >>
Dine-In Support
Olo has new functionality available for restaurant locations that are configured for guests to order ahead and dine at the restaurant. Olo now offers Dine-In as a handoff mode to support this use case, providing options to improve the operational flow and the customer experience.
Dine-In is another way for brands to move toward contactless operations, minimizing touchpoints between guests and staff. For example, Dine-In can be used in conjunction with QR codes that point to the online ordering site where the guest will choose their handoff method. The new feature can also reduce packaging costs and waste for orders that are intended to be consumed on-premise.
Brands can leverage custom fields in conjunction with Dine-In, such as adding a table number so that food can be brought out to the guest. As with all Olo handoff modes, Dine-In orders are configurable by menu item and can be used for loyalty reward earning and redemption where integrated. Get support for adding Dine-In >>
Enhancements Across the Platform
Many additional enhancements have been added across the platform in recent months, including:
- Virtual restaurant support for adding new concepts through direct or indirect channels
- Contactless delivery options
- Dispatch Canada support
- More self-service Rails features to improve order health
- Loyalty support (e.g. Givex gift cards, Paytronix comp cards, etc.)
- Improved reporting functionality in Dashboard
“Our new releases are part of our ongoing commitment to invest in all aspects of our platform on behalf of our customers,” said Marty Hahnfeld, Chief Customer Officer at Olo. “Every new feature we’ve released will help improve operations as restaurants deal with changing circumstances and the broader off-premise shift.”
All features are available today for all Olo customers at no added cost. Subscribe to our release notes for weekly updates.