Orders in five pockets
Monday morning, the owner scrolls back through WhatsApp to find what the Crown wanted. The drayman has a text from a bar manager asking for two firkins of the stout and 'the usual'. There is a voicemail from a bottle shop, an email from a wholesaler with a spreadsheet attached, and a note on the taproom bar saying someone rang. Somebody has to turn all of that into orders before the dray is loaded.
Every so often one gets missed. The pub rings on Thursday wondering where the beer is, and you find the message under forty others about something else.
Why every pub orders differently
Landlords order the way they talk to you, and small breweries have built relationships person to person. Asking every account to log into a trade portal sounds tidy and gets ignored by the ones who order most. So orders arrive on personal phones that are also used for suppliers, family and the band's practice times.
- Messages go to whoever the landlord knows, not to an order address.
- 'The usual' means something different for each account.
- Beer names get abbreviated or misremembered.
- Nobody confirms back, so the pub does not know the order was seen.
- Keying into the brewery system happens late, in a batch.
What the missed orders cost
A missed order is a lost sale and an unhappy landlord, and on a guest line it can be a line you do not get back. Errors cost as much: the wrong beer, the wrong container size, cask instead of keg. The owner's evenings go on reading messages. And because orders are keyed late, stock and packaging plans are always a few days behind reality.
One order queue for every channel
- A business WhatsApp number and a shared order email, which you give to accounts gradually. Texts and voicemails to the office line are captured too.
- Each incoming message is matched to a trade account by phone number or email address.
- A language model reads the message and drafts an order: beers, container types, quantities, delivery day. 'The usual' is filled from that account's recent orders.
- Anything uncertain, such as a beer name it cannot match or a quantity that looks odd, is highlighted for a person to check.
- Once approved, the order goes into Breww, your brewery system or your spreadsheet, and a confirmation goes back to the pub on the same channel.
- Messages that are not orders, like a complaint about a line or a request for a pump clip, are routed to the right person instead.
| Channel | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp to the owner | Scrolled through on Monday | Drafted into the queue |
| Text to the drayman | Remembered, maybe | Drafted into the queue |
| Voicemail | Written on a pad | Transcribed and drafted |
| Email with spreadsheet | Retyped | Read and drafted |
| Confirmation to the pub | Rare | Sent on approval |
Monday morning, sorted
The owner opens one queue, checks the highlighted items and approves the rest. The drayman stops being an order-taker. Pubs get a confirmation, which cuts the 'did you get my order' calls. Orders are in the system the day they arrive, so the packaging plan sees them in time.
Is this how your orders arrive?
- Orders come in on personal phones as well as email.
- Someone spends a morning each week turning messages into orders.
- You have missed an order that was sitting in a chat.
- Pubs rarely get a confirmation.
- Your team knows what 'the usual' means only from memory.