How Toast restaurants can take orders from Instagram DMs

What it can do, and what it can't

When a customer DMs your restaurant to order, someone has to answer what's on the menu, what it costs and what comes with it. DM DESK handles that part. Toast still handles the order and the payment.

• It can answer from your real menu, prices and hours, any time of day.
• It can take the whole order, ask for any required choice like a size, and read it back with the total before tax.
• It can send the link to your own Toast ordering page with the order written out, so the customer knows exactly what to add.
• It can reply in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic or Tagalog.
• It can't fill a Toast cart. DM DESK has no connection to Toast's systems, so the customer adds the items on your Toast page.
• It can't put an order into Toast or see whether the customer finished it.
• It can't take payment. The customer pays on your Toast ordering page.
• It can't read your menu from Toast. You add the menu yourself.

What the customer sees

In website chat, the customer taps Order on Toast and your Toast ordering page opens in a new tab. The order stays on screen in the chat as a checklist, so they can tick off each item as they add it on Toast.

In an Instagram DM, the reply holds the link to your Toast ordering page on its own line, with the order written out, like "1x Double Cheeseburger". The customer opens the link, adds those items and pays on Toast.

Either way, DM DESK never tells the customer the order is placed, ready or loaded. Nothing is placed until they pay on Toast.

Setup, in six steps

You can do this yourself from your DM DESK dashboard, or with us on a free 30 minute setup call. We review your setup before it answers customers.

1. Sign up for DM DESK, pick a plan, and choose Toast as your ordering system in Your agent, under Menu and ordering.
2. In Menu and ordering, add the link customers already use to order from you on Toast. It has to be your Toast ordering page itself, not a cart or checkout page.
3. Add your menu: upload a PDF or a photo of it in Menu and ordering, or import it from your own website. DM DESK never reads your Toast pages.
4. Check that every item, size and add on has the same price it has on Toast. A price that differs is a total that differs.
5. Keep it current. Mark sold out items on your menu and set Temporarily closed on Business info, since DM DESK can't see those in Toast.
6. Connect your Instagram account, add the chat to your website, or both. Then send a test order yourself and follow the link to Toast.

What gets handed to a person

Some messages need someone from your team. DM DESK hands these over, with an alert by email and in the app:

• Allergy questions. It says it can't make that call for an allergy and connects the customer with your team. The order stays in the chat for whoever picks it up.
• Complaints, including a problem with an order already placed on Toast.
• Anyone who asks for a person, and sensitive topics.
• Photos and voice notes in a DM. It can't see or hear them, so it asks the customer to type what they need and alerts you.
• Questions you haven't covered, like a catering order for 40.

You or your staff can take over any chat from the inbox. On Square, the link arrives with the order already in it; see how Square restaurants turn DMs into checkout orders.