Past Feature Updates

Data

Guest Extracts Module (including opt-in status)

When guests use our White Label App and Web Ordering products, they have the option to sign up for accounts and as part of that process organisations are able to allow guests to opt in to receive marketing communication.

This new enhancement adds a Guest Extracts module which allows users with access to generate three types of extract:

• 'Delta' extract (including guests signing up or updating their opt in status from the previous day)

• 'All guests' extract (including all guests' current opt in status)

• 'Custom date range' extract (including guests signing up or updating their opt in status within the range specified)

As these extracts will include guest data we have decided to set up a separate permission structure in Support Manager, meaning that Zonal will have to grant users access to the platform.

App Manager

Total Basket Limit for Basket Additions

This feature allows customers the possibility to increase total basket spent for Delivery to Location orders by creating a "Free delivery on orders over £X" proposition. The 'delivery charge' or 'tray charge' basket addition is set by Order mode, site, category and platform so previously it would always apply for that selection. Now however, we have introduced additional logic allowing customers to (if they wish) set a basket value over which the basket addition will no longer apply.

Loyalty

Auto-Enrolment (without Prompt for Association) includes verification

When we added the new loyalty sign up flow through White Label App, a new endpoint was created to support this journey which allows the user to either sign up for a new Loyalty Card or link an existing one via the same journey in the UI. If they are linking an existing card, users are required to verify that card to ensure that the correct user is able to accrue and redeem rewards. If a user is signing up for a new card however, there is no need to verify as this card has never previously been assigned to a user.

As part of testing this feature it was identified that the previous enrolment endpoint (which is still used when Auto-enrolment is switched on but Prompt for Association is switched off) does not verify a user's card, so guests would still have to do this manually in the UI before they can redeem Loyalty rewards.

Security

Updated Password Policy for Platform Users

The password requirements for iOrder Platform users has been updated to enhance security. There will be no steps to force users to change passwords, but new users or users changing password will be required to create one which complies with the following conditions:

• Minimum of 14 characters

• Minimum of 1 upper case character

• Minimum of 1 lower case character

• Minimum of 1 special character

• Minimum of 1 number

• Cannot match any of last 4 passwords used

Security

Mobile Ordering Manager Users

A new module has been added to iOrder platform allowing organisations to manage users for mobile ordering manager, without requests to Zonal.

Users can be added, edited, permissions assigned and deleted from within this module.

In addition a view of active overrides can be viewed showing sites that have turned off order modes.

Menus

Portion Visibility within Menus

Portions displayed within a menu can now have further control to determine which portions should be displayed to a guest when ordering.

A common example where the need to control portions would be a product such as 'White Wine' which has portions of '125ml glass', '250ml glass' & 'Bottle'. Customers would expect to offer all portions on an Order & Pay menu but may want to restrict guests to the 'Bottle' portion on a Pre-Order menu.

The first change is to introduce a 'Control Portion Visibility' toggle, whose default status will be off. This will preserve the existing behaviour when a product is added to a menu i.e. all portions are visible including portions configured after a product is added to a menu.

The second change takes effect when the above toggle is switched on. At that point, the user can determine via tick-boxes which portions should be visible for the product in this menu (as per the screen-shot). The default portion cannot be de-selected, but crucially when this toggle is on, any newly added portions for the product will NOT be visible by default in that menu.

Expanding on the White Wine example above, let us assume the customer added a new portion, '175ml glass', to the product. In the Order & Pay menu, the toggle would be OFF (as the desired behaviour is for all portions to show) and as such, the '175ml glass' portion would show by default. In the Pre-Order menu the toggle would be ON with only the 'Bottle' portion visible. When '175ml glass' is added it would not be visible by default.

Loyalty

Updated Loyalty Sign-Up Journey in White Label App

Improvements to support loyalty sign-up have been made.

The userAddLoyaltyNumber endpoint has now been updated so that:

• When a guest tries to associate a card with Inventory status, as long as the card is not linked to another user then they will be able to register the card in Loyalty and link it to their iOrder account as part of the WLA sign-up flow

• When a guest tries to associate a card with Suspended status, they receive a more appropriate error message advising them why the card cannot be linked

Mobile Ordering Manager

Snooze Capability

This feature introduces a Snooze capability to Mobile Ordering Manager (which can apply to overall site, sales area, order mode or menu category), allowing the user to choose from 3 pre-set time-frames for ordering to be disabled. The snooze can be actively overridden at any time but crucially, once the snooze period has expired ordering availability will revert to normal without the user actively having to re-instate it.

Loyalty

Updated Loyalty Sign-Up Journey in White Label App

One of the main objectives of the Engage Domain is to have seamless integrations between products, and last year an important step was taken to improve the integration between iOrder and Loyalty by allowing users to associate Loyalty cards from multiple programs to the same iOrder brand. However, one key gap that remained after the implementation of the feature was that iOrder users would have to make a choice between association (where users with existing Loyalty accounts could link those to an iOrder account) and auto-enrolment (where new iOrder sign-ups would automatically be given a new loyalty account). This wasn't suitable for many customers with multiple loyalty programs, who want to be able to support both scenarios in parallel.

This release now supports this scenario, by allowing both auto-enrolment and prompt for association to be selected together.

One of the most common use-cases for this would be a customer with two programs as follows:

Program A: Staff program where Customer assigns cards to users after they join the company.

Program B: Guest program where Customer wants guests to be able to enrol at any time.

In this example, staff members who are part of Program A will have the opportunity to associate their loyalty card to their iOrder account after sign-up and guests who want to sign up for an account will be auto-enrolled in Program B

Allergens

Allergen Prompts

As more guests opt to use App or Web Ordering in venues, some customers have shown some concern that guests with food allergies or intolerances who use these tools instead of ordering with a member of staff in the venue may be ordering products unsuitable for them (due to cross-contamination or other unforeseen circumstances).

In order to address these concerns and ensure that any guests with allergies or intolerances this release introduces a new flag in App Manager, allowing customers to decide if an Allergen Prompt should be shown to guests at the start of their ordering journey.Guests without allergies/intolerances may dismiss the prompt and continue to order on App/Web, but those who have allergies will be restricted from ordering online and instead, via a message configurable on iOrder Platform, customers can guide those guests to a member of staff to allow them to order safely.

Images

Add Alt Text to Images

This release represents an important development with regards to allowing customers to make ordering more accessible for all guests with the introduction of support for Alt Text for images surfaced via iOrder.

Alt text serves as a back-up or alternative for images, enhancing accessibility and user experience, especially for those who rely on a screen-reader.

It is now possible to add Alt text to existing images in Media Manager, when uploading new images or when choosing display records to add to products in menus.

App Manager

Show Country Selector Toggle

This release has added the possibility in App Manager to determine whether the country selector will be visible for guests in White Label App. If customers have sites in multiple countries, the country selector is very useful to the App user in allowing them to browse venues and more easily find what they're looking for in the App.

Mobile Ordering Manager

Turn Off Menu Categories

Last year in Release 2.39 Mobile Ordering Manager's functionality was significantly enhanced with the introduction of the ability to enable/disable Order Modes. This gave users more granular control at site level, as previously they were only able to disable/enable all ordering through MOM. However, it was recognised that this improvement didn't cater for some important scenarios, such as when there was an temporary issue in the kitchen meaning that a site was unable to take food orders, but was still able to fulfil drinks orders at the bar. Release 2.46 addresses this, allowing users to enable/disable ordering at menu category level.

Pay My Bill

Email Confirmation Improvements

As part of the ongoing work to enhance the Pay My Bill capabilities, it was recognised that the confirmation email guests receive after settling their balance through PMB was not in line with the equivalent mail used for other Order Modes, and including some syntax that could confuse guests. This has been updated and there is now parity between PMB and the other Order Modes for email confirmations.