WhatsApp ordering on your own number.
Customers already message restaurants on WhatsApp. With Fresh those messages become real orders, in the same system as everything else, instead of living in someone’s phone.
The flow, from chat to kitchen
Six steps, and the customer never leaves WhatsApp. Here is the whole order, and an example of what the customer sees.
Customer
Says hello
They message your restaurant’s WhatsApp number. Fresh answers with a welcome and your menu categories, as a WhatsApp list.
Customer
Picks dishes
Tapping through WhatsApp’s own lists and buttons: a category, a dish, any required choices, how many. Only items that are on and not sold out are offered.
Customer
Checks and confirms
They add a note if they like, then see Please check your order with Place order, Edit cart and Cancel. The cart is re-checked against your menu at that moment, so nobody orders what they were not shown.
Your team
Accepts it
The order chimes on the POS under Waiting to accept, with a reference, their name and number, the dishes and a ready-in time you set. Accept or reject.
Kitchen
Cooks it
Accepting builds a real Fresh order with tax worked out by the POS, and sends it to the kitchen display like any other.
Customer
Gets told, then collects
WhatsApp messages them when it is accepted (or rejected) and again when the kitchen marks it ready. They pay when they collect, or order through your order link to pay by card.
Hi
Welcome to The Restaurant! What would you like to order?See the menu
Burgers → Smash Burger
How many would you like?
2
Please check your order
2 × Smash Burger
Subtotal $22.00Place orderEdit cartCancel
Place order
Thanks! We’ll message you here as soon as the restaurant accepts it.
a few minutes later
Your order W1001-001 is accepted. Ready in about 20 minutes.
Your order W1001-001 is ready to collect!
An example. Your menu, currency and wording come from your own settings.
Always in step with your menu
The bot reads your menu straight from Fresh, the same one you edit in the Menu Manager, so a change shows up within about 30 seconds. Prices, descriptions and emoji match the point of sale. Items that are switched off or sold out are never offered, and required choices (a size, a sauce) cannot be skipped.
The customer sees a subtotal. Tax is worked out by Fresh when your team accepts the order, and the bot says so when your business charges tax.
Made for hungry people, not typists
Customers tap WhatsApp’s own lists and buttons instead of typing the menu out. They can still type menu, cart, cancel or help at any time, add a note for the kitchen, and pick up where they left off for 30 minutes. Someone who types stop is opted out of campaigns, and is still never refused an order.
Your number, your customers
Each restaurant connects its own WhatsApp Business number from Settings, through Meta’s sign-up flow. Which restaurant a message is for is decided by the number it was sent to, nothing a customer types. Messages to your customers only ever go out from your number, and a restaurant with no working number sends nothing.
Rules you set
Everything a restaurant might want different is a setting: switching WhatsApp ordering on or off, your opening hours (including hours that run past midnight), a minimum order, which order type these orders become, whether staff are notified, and a chime for new orders.
Nothing lost, nothing sent twice
Each customer message (accepted, rejected, ready) is sent once. If WhatsApp does not accept it, Fresh retries, and shows staff a clear failed state with a Send again button.
Accepted on the POS, with everything else
A new WhatsApp order chimes on the POS and waits under Waiting to accept beside your tables, together with orders from the customer app. Open it, check it, set the ready-in time and accept it into the kitchen, or reject it. There is no second screen to watch.
Delivery and card payments: send an order link
A customer who wants delivery, or to pay by card, gets a one-use link that opens your menu in the customer app already signed in. They can ask for it in the chat, or the cashier sends it from the POS with Send order link. See delivery.
Win back regulars on WhatsApp too
The same connection can send campaigns to customers from the customer CRM. Campaigns are sent once, only to people who have not opted out.
Questions
Can I use my own WhatsApp number?
Yes. You connect your restaurant’s own number from Settings, and messages to your customers only ever go out from it.
Do customers need to install anything?
No. They use WhatsApp, which they already have.
Does every WhatsApp order go straight to the kitchen?
No. Orders wait on the POS under Waiting to accept until staff accept them, so you stay in control of what the kitchen can really do.
What if a dish sells out while the customer is ordering?
Before the order is placed, the cart is checked against your menu as it is at that moment. A sold-out item is taken out, a changed price is shown, and the customer confirms again.
When do customers pay?
An order placed in the chat is paid when they collect, at the till like any other order. A customer who wants to pay by card, or to have it delivered, orders through the link to the customer app instead.
How long does the customer wait to hear back?
You set the ready-in time when you accept. The customer is messaged straight away when you accept or reject, and again when the kitchen marks the order ready.
Can I stop orders outside opening hours?
Yes. Opening hours, time zone and a minimum order are settings, and are checked again when an order is placed.