Phone ordering turns on with the AI receptionist. We connect Clover now; until that is switched on for your line, the receptionist takes a message instead.
Setup steps
- Choose Connect on this page or in the app. If it shows Guided setup, Connect opens a short form and our team connects it with you.
- On a short call we install the TimberSwitch app on your Clover account. You sign in to your Clover Merchant Dashboard as the owner and approve the app's permissions: Inventory read, Orders read and write, and optionally Customers read.
- Tell us your Clover region (US or Canada) and which order type phone orders should use, for example Pickup or Phone order. You can create one in Clover under Setup, Order Types.
- Check that your firing device has an order printer set in Clover (Setup, Order Receipts or Printers). That's where phone orders print.
- Pick your base prep time (20 minutes unless you tell us otherwise).
- In TimberSwitch, reading the menu and pricing are on. Turn on sending orders to the kitchen when you're ready.
- Call your number and place a test order, then void it in Clover.
Permissions we ask for, and why
- Inventory: read: So the AI offers only items you sell, with your modifier groups, prices and sold out flags.
- Orders: read: To check whether an order was already created before sending it again, so a retry never makes a duplicate ticket.
- Orders: write: To create the confirmed phone order in Clover and ask Clover to print it on your order printer.
- Customers: read: To greet a returning caller by first name when their number matches exactly one Clover customer. Optional: leave it off and the AI simply won't greet by name.
What the AI receptionist will do
- Searches your Clover items and leaves out anything hidden or marked unavailable.
- Asks for required choices (size, side, temperature) one at a time, using your Clover modifier groups and their minimum and maximum.
- Has Clover price the order with your taxes, then reads back the items, the total and a pickup time.
- After the caller says yes, creates an open, unpaid order in Clover with the caller's name and callback number in the order note, then asks Clover to print it.
- Says the order is in only when Clover created it and accepted the print request. Otherwise it tells the caller honestly that the team will confirm.
- Optionally greets a returning caller by first name when their number matches one Clover customer.
What it can't do, and limits
- Built from Clover's documentation. Your restaurant is among the first connected, so we check the first orders with you.
- Pickup orders only, paid at pickup. No delivery, no tips, no discounts or coupons.
- The AI never takes card numbers on the phone. Clover Hosted Checkout links can't pay for a Clover register order, so we don't send payment links for Clover.
- US and Canada merchants first. Clover's order pricing endpoint is documented for North America only, so Europe and Latin America need checking with Clover before we can offer it.
- Items with an open price or sold by weight are not offered by phone.
- It works through a TimberSwitch app that you install from the Clover App Market. Clover has to approve that app first, so the first restaurants are set up with us one at a time.
- Printing goes to the order printer of your firing device. If none is set, Clover uses that device's built in printer.
- Menu changes reach the AI within about five minutes.
The AI says something is booked or ordered only when Clover confirms it. If Clover doesn't answer in time, the AI takes a message instead and tells the caller someone will follow up.
Troubleshooting
The order didn't print.
The order is still in Clover under Orders, marked as a phone order. Check that your firing device is on and has an order printer set. When printing fails the AI tells the caller the team will confirm, and you get the order on the call summary.
A price or tax was wrong.
Clover prices every order. Fix the item, modifier or tax rate in Clover; the AI picks up menu changes within about five minutes.
The AI says an item isn't available.
It is hidden or marked unavailable in Clover, it has an open price or is sold by weight, or a required choice has no available options. Make it available in Clover and try again after five minutes.
The app shows Reconnect Clover.
Clover refused our sign in, usually because the app was uninstalled or its permissions changed. Reinstall or re-approve the TimberSwitch app in Clover, or contact us.
Can callers pay by phone?
No. The AI never takes card details. Phone orders are paid at pickup on your Clover device.
Disconnecting, and the data we keep
An owner or admin can disconnect at any time from Phone, then Connectors, in the app. Disconnecting stops TimberSwitch using Clover straight away.
- An encrypted Clover access token and refresh token, and your Clover merchant id.
- A short lived copy of your menu (about five minutes) used to answer callers.
- A log of each order: items, totals, the Clover order id and a masked caller number.
- The caller's name and callback number are written into the Clover order note so your staff can call back.
- We don't store Clover customer records. A caller lookup keeps only the first name for the length of the call.
- Disconnecting deletes the tokens straight away.
Still stuck?
Get help: it opens an Integration support ticket. Include the time of the call and what you expected to happen.
Fiserv (Clover) is a trademark of its owner; TimberSwitch is not affiliated.