SA’s Dineplan releases innovative, free-to-use ordering platform for restaurants

SA’s Dineplan releases innovative, free-to-use ordering platform for restaurants

SOUTH African reservations management software company Dineplan has just released an innovative,subscription free software to assist SA’s restaurants efficiently manage food orders during lockdown and beyond.

Unlike any food ordering or delivery app currently on the market, ‘Dine In’ bridges the gap where the restaurant wants to do their own deliveries to avoid high commission fees, but still want a system to manage online orders and handle online payment.

Using Dine In, the restaurant can receive online food orders and instant pre-payments through an interactive menu launched straight from their website and Facebook page, as well as from Dineplan’s website and the Dineplan mobile app.

The platform is also fully customisable for restaurants to make only certain times bookable for deliveries or limit the number of orders that can be made per delivery timeslot.Guests can enjoy the convenience of perusing and picking online from the restaurant’s takeaway menu; make immediate online payment to avoid unhygienic cash changing by hand, and receive SMS updates on the status of their order and delivery of their food.

The system also gives the restaurant and guest the option to order for pick-up of food (once permitted by government), removing the logistics and extra cost of delivery.

This exciting platform follows the success of Voucherplan (https:/www.voucherplan.co.za/), or Vouchers by Dineplan, which has generated over R2 million worth in sales of vouchers to aid restaurants and small businesses throughout the country this past month.

Like Voucherplan, Dine In is available for sign-up by absolutely any restaurant or café in SA,’ said Dineplan Director Greg Whitfield.There are no set-up or monthly fees.‘We’ve managed to settle on a transaction cost of only 5% to cover both bank fees and SMS notifications sent to guests to update them on their food orders and deliveries, which is significantly cheaper compared to delivery apps’ commission of 25% - 30%.

‘Being locally developed, restaurants can also depend on reliable and easily accessible support.’

About Dineplan

Dineplan founders Martin Rose and Greg Whitfield started the reservation software company in Cape Town in 2011, developing back-end software for restaurants to use as their electronic reservation book. This would later enable instant bookings for diners via the Dineplan booking widget on restaurant clients’ websites.In 2018, the company launched the now award-winning Dineplan App that enables diners to make instant or request bookings at restaurants from their mobile phones.