Almost every country in the world has some version of the dumpling. In Italy, it’s the ravioli, in Poland, the pierogi, in Japan, the gyoza and in Korea, it’s known as mandu. In 2019, Sarah Williams-Scalise and her husband Nate Williams-Scalise launched Sarah’s Dumps – a Charleston, South Carolina-based Korean dumpling business. Their mission? Share their love of dumplings, and to celebrate child adoption and Sarah’s Korean culture with food-lovers of Charleston.
Today, Sarah’s Dumps does the majority of their business through pop-ups at local breweries, private and public classes, restaurant collaborations, and by selling frozen dumplings direct-to-consumer.
Soon after they started selling their dumplings at local pop-up events, Sarah and Nate discovered that handing-off orders to customers in a noisy crowd could be a real challenge. In order to provide the best customer experience, they asked others in the food and beverage industry for recommendations, did some research and decided to implement new technology. Adding a texting service to their process proved to be a game-changer.
Manual order notification presented several challenges
At their first few pop-up events, Sarah and Nate implemented a customer-oriented delivery process that seemed like it couldn’t fail. Each customer was told their order would be brought out to them and that there was no need to wait nearby. On each ticket, the order-taker would add a customer identifier like “red jacket” or “blue dress”.
But when customers took off their jackets or put on sweaters, the food servers had a difficult time finding them and so delivery times lagged. At later events, other issues impacted their order delivery process, such as limited space to maneuver around people in line.
Others in the industry suggested Sarah and Nate implement a buzzer system or move to a traditional ticketing number system. But buzzers are costly, require chargers and can be a breeding ground for germs. A paper ticketing system would not be much more efficient than the process they were already using and would interfere with live musicians.
That’s when they started to look for a solution everyone can easily use – text messaging.
Their solution: Send a text when the food is ready
Once Sarah and Nate started using a texting service, order delivery became easy. Here’s how it works.
During setup at each pop-up, Sarah logs into her GivBee texting account on a laptop. For every order placed, the customer enters a name and cell number into the texting dashboard.
When these details are submitted, the customer receives an instant text confirmation like, “Thanks, Maggie! We’ll text you when your order is ready.” Then, when the customer’s order is ready for pickup, Sarah taps a button which triggers another text alert, “Hi Maggie, your order is now ready. Please step up to the table to get it!”
Sarah found that her customers don’t hesitate to provide their names and cell numbers when placing their orders. “Our customers think it’s cool that we can send a text when the food is ready. They are able to pick up the dumplings when they’re hot but don’t need to hang out by the table waiting for their order. The whole process is more efficient and everyone is happier!”
The results say it all
Sarah and Nate recommend texting to the owners of businesses like theirs, “Everyone in the pop-up or food truck world needs this. Customers can grab a beer or listen to music while they wait for their food and no longer have to be within earshot to know when their order is ready. Parents with antsy kids can even go outside and play while we make the order. It’s a no brainer for the cost.”
To see how GivBee’s texting system can work for your restaurant or food truck, schedule a live demo.
