Chat Ordering
No app to download.
Your customers order in the messenger already open on their phone — and their name, number and next order stay with you.
Commission on every order. Forever.
A franchisee joins a delivery platform because they need the volume. The platform takes a substantial percentage of every order — commonly reported in the 25–30% range depending on the agreement — and it never stops. There’s no point at which the relationship becomes cheaper.
Worse, the customer isn’t theirs. No name, no number, no ability to bring them back directly. The platform decides who sees the listing, places it next to competitors, and charges again for visibility. If it deprioritises your brand next year, your franchisee has no channel and no list.
For a franchisor that’s a strategic problem, not just a margin one. Your network’s customer relationships are being accumulated by somebody else.
What FoodChat does
Ordering in chat
Customers scan a QR or tap a link, browse the menu with photos, choose options and pay — inside the messenger already open on their phone. No app to download.
No order commission
One flat monthly fee per store. Money settles into the franchisee’s own account, and the percentage the apps take stays in the till.
The customer list is yours
Every order — delivery, collection or walk-in via a counter QR — adds a real customer with a name, number, order history and opt-in.
Kitchen & driver flow
Orders land on a counter screen and print. One tap dispatches the franchisee’s own driver with address, map pin and tip. Customers get updates automatically.
Loyalty and reviews
Stamps accumulate automatically and rewards issue themselves. Happy customers get nudged toward a Google review; unhappy ones reach the manager privately first.
Marketing to real customers
Tonight’s special to people who have already bought from you, for a small per-message cost — with reach and spend shown before anything is sent.
Rolling it out across a network
Pilot one store
Start with a single site and real orders. See what it does to margin and to repeat business before the network commits.
Set up per store
Menu, prices, choices, payment account, driver rules and loyalty settings configured for each site. Approvals handled on the franchisee’s behalf.
Train the counter
Staff learn the order screen in an afternoon. It’s built to be operated by whoever happens to be on shift, not by a specialist.
Roll out the network
Store by store, with per-store pricing and head-office visibility of what each site is doing.
Keep the apps. Move your regulars.
This isn’t an argument for abandoning delivery platforms. They’re good at discovery — putting your brand in front of people who’ve never heard of it. That’s worth paying for.
What isn’t worth paying for is commission on your regulars. The customer who orders from you every second Friday found you once, likes you, and would order directly if there were an easy way to. Paying a platform a quarter of that order, every time, in perpetuity, for a customer you’ve already won is the part that doesn’t hold up.
Use the apps for discovery. Move the regulars where the margin lives — and build a list your network owns rather than rents.
The system we implement is FoodChat — built by us, running in South African restaurants, and configured store by store as part of your rollout.
What goes with it
Chat ordering runs off your menu and feeds your marketing. Most networks set it up alongside a menu review.
Menu Development ·
Social Media Management ·
Training ·
Store Roll-out ·
See all services →
See what your network would keep.
One free hour to run the numbers on your order volumes and what commission is costing across your stores.
Or call Robin directly on 082 451 1604