Phone ordering turns on with the AI receptionist. We connect Restaurant phone ordering now; until that is switched on for your line, the receptionist takes a message instead.
Setup steps
- Choose Connect, or open Restaurant setup in the app and fill in your profile: hours, pickup or delivery, prep time, menu, and what you use today.
- Tell us your POS (Square, Clover, Toast or none), your kitchen printer model, whether you use a kitchen screen, and any order device you work from.
- Choose where each order goes: printer, kitchen screen, Square, manager text, email or a webhook to Zapier, Make, n8n or your order device.
- Submitting the profile opens a setup ticket. Our team finishes your printers, screens and order flow with you.
- Review the order-taker rules proposed from your menu, approve the ones you want, and place test orders with us before callers rely on it.
Permissions we ask for, and why
- Your menu in TimberSwitch: Uploaded as a PDF or photo, read from your menu page, or imported from Square. The AI only offers items and prices from it, and you review every change before it goes live.
- Where orders go: Your kitchen printer, kitchen screen, POS, manager texts, email or your own webhook. You choose which, and we test each one with you.
What the AI receptionist will do
- Will take pickup orders from your menu, asking every required choice, such as size or side, before reading the order back.
- Will follow the rules you approve for your menu: what to ask about, what you call things, which one add-on it may suggest, and which items a person takes.
- Will read back the items and a total computed by TimberSwitch, and place the order only after the caller says yes.
- Will tell the caller the order is confirmed only after your kitchen printer, screen, POS or manager text has it, and ring your staff otherwise.
- Will hand every allergy or ingredient question to a person. It never promises what is in a dish.
What it can't do, and limits
- Guided setup: our team finishes setup with you and tests it before callers rely on it.
- Pickup orders only. Card numbers are never taken by phone; payment is at pickup or by a secure text link from your own Square or Stripe account.
- Printers: Star CloudPRNT and Epson Server Direct Print models. We confirm your exact model during setup.
- Orders reach your POS only where your POS allows outside orders (Square with a payment link today). Otherwise they print, show on the kitchen screen or arrive by text and email.
- Large orders and anything over the limits you set go to a person.
The AI says something is booked or ordered only when Restaurant phone ordering confirms it. If Restaurant phone ordering doesn't answer in time, the AI takes a message instead and tells the caller someone will follow up.
Troubleshooting
The order taker didn't ask about something we always ask about.
Leave feedback on that order, such as "should have asked about sauce". It becomes a proposed rule, and it changes the order taker only after you approve it.
The caller was told the order was sent to staff instead of confirmed.
None of your kitchen channels accepted the order: the printer was offline, the kitchen screen was closed or the manager text failed. The order history shows which channel said what.
A caller asked about allergies.
Allergy and ingredient questions always go to a person at the restaurant. The order taker never answers them.
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 Restaurant phone ordering straight away.
- Your menu and its change history, your restaurant profile, and the rules you approved for the order taker.
- Each order: items, choices, notes, total, and the caller's name and number, plus the AI transcript for phone orders.
- Your feedback on orders and which channels accepted each order.
Still stuck?
Get help: it opens an Integration support ticket. Include the time of the call and what you expected to happen.
TimberSwitch is a trademark of its owner; TimberSwitch is not affiliated.