We really enjoy using Square KDS, but we are wondering if these suggestions have been considered, and if they would help anyone else out.
1. Consider the Expo screen NOT being able to bump the order if it's connected to other screens. The other screens would have to bump their orders first. This may prevent missing items and help reduce inaccuracies. Right now the Expo KDS screen will put dots next to the items if they are bumped from the other screens, so just take it a step further. If there is no dot next to all the items then it can't be bumped from Expo because it's still waiting on something to complete the whole order.
2. Give the Expo screen the ability to sort categories so that's it's easier to find items. For example: Our drinks are missed the most in our orders, because they are blended in with the items on the screen (and sometimes we have a lot of items on the screen). So maybe provide an option where we can customize the settings to that the drinks are always at the top, or always at the bottom or something. Just more flexibility to arrange the display and the ordering of the items when they appear on the Expo screen.
3. The prioritizing option that was just released is great, but not every order needs to be moved to the front of the line. This creates a hard thought process to now prioritize multiple tickets in reverse order, and can be very confusing. Can you give us to option to drag and drop where we want the order to be.
4. The ability to split the screen so that the top displays "in-house" orders for example, and the bottom displays "delivery" for example. Right now on our screens everything is mixed together. The in-house, online, pickup, delivery, shipping, you name it. Everything comes to the screens and it's get crowded. Busy restaurants like ours could benefits with multiple tablets if filtering by fulfillment was an option. There could be one tablet dedicated for Delivery, one dedicated for Shipping orders, or one tablet with the option of splitting the screen with some fulfillments going to the top, while others are going to the bottom.
5. Last but not least (this thought may or may not go over well)... The ability to program times on our items and have the KDS screen automatically put the tickets in order based off some customized settings. For instance: It would take about 60 seconds to warm up 2 cookies for a customer, but it may take 5 minutes for us to warm up 2 cookies and a smoothie. And so on. We program the times for each item. So now picture it being peak time where you have 16+ orders on the screen. Someone who comes in who wants only 2 cookies is going to be at the bottom of the queue and may have to wait a very long time for their order. Not so much because it's busy, but because we can't see those 2 cookies being ordered because it's on page 2, 3, or 4 of the KDS screen. I believe this process would require a two step bump where the first touch signifies "i'm working on this order", and the second bump signifies "complete and remove". Highlighting an order that you are currently working on would prevent this new automated process from inserting a ticket in the first spot.
I hope this helps and hopes that others find some of these options useful for their kitchen. We just have to remember that every restaurant operates differently, so having the options to toggle on/off some these features would be ideal to accommodate everyone.
