This article outlines:
An introduction to Olo Connect, our value-based partner program
A detailed breakdown of our new product features delivered in Q1 2023
How restaurant brands benefit from our latest innovations
Last quarter, we grew our product suite and enhanced our partner ecosystem to enable our customers to do more with less and make every guest feel like a regular. Scroll to learn about our all-new partner program and latest product enhancements—plus, how restaurant brands directly benefit.
Introducing our Spring Release:
Olo Connect
Value-based partner program to accelerate innovation
Restaurant Benefit: Easily find the best solutions to scale your brandOlo Connect is now live! Our new, tiered partner program was designed to help brands identify the best solutions to execute their goals and make it easier for developers to build on our platform. With support from over 300 technology partners, our ecosystem is an agile and flexible way for brands to adopt new and existing technology, without the hassle of building in-house or settling for a siloed technology stack.
Open Check
Guests can order multiple times—with a single check
Restaurant Benefit: Higher check average and more guest dataWith Open Check, guests can order at the table using their mobile device, order multiple times throughout their dining experience while keeping the check open, and pay from their device. The guest and the server can add menu items to the same check. All items ordered will show up on the guest's mobile device, allowing them to tip, make one final payment, and close the check—without waiting on a server.
Pay at Table
Guests pay and tip from their mobile device
Restaurant Benefit: Fewer table touches and more guest dataGuests can now order through a server, then pay and tip digitally by scanning a QR code with their mobile device. Pay at Table offers guests the traditional hospitality experience of interacting with a restaurant team member but eliminates the time spent waiting on the check after the meal. The server can then confirm the check is paid in the POS system.
GDP for All
“Try Before You Buy” demo for our Guest Data Platform
Restaurant Benefit: Discover the possibilities with GDP—using your actual guest data
Olo Ordering customers can now experience the power of our Guest Data Platform firsthand. With our new “Try Before You Buy” demo you can view your brand’s unified guest profiles and timelines, segment creation and reporting, targeting and marketing use cases, and more to better understand how GDP enables you to collect, analyze, and act on your data.
Fraud Prevention
Additional risk signals and fraud reporting
Restaurant Benefit: More fraud reduction and visibility into blocked transactions
Olo Pay customers can now score and filter orders when deciding whether to approve a transaction, which improves targeting and identifying fraud patterns. In addition, fraud reporting insights provide more visibility into why specific orders are getting blocked.
Orders-in-Progress Throttling
Better kitchen capacity management
Restaurant Benefit: Manage kitchen throughput more precisely
Our new capacity management feature allows restaurants to cap the number of Olo orders that can be in progress at any given time. This enables brands to manage kitchen capacity beyond traditional methods such as orders-per-window and make-minutes-per-period.
Rails Self-Delivery
A new way to control the off-premise guest experience
Restaurant Benefit: Eliminate commission and delivery fees on large orders
Brands can now assign their own courier staff to self-deliver large, high-touch Rails orders, including catering. This flexibility enables you to maintain profitability and control the guest experience—communication, on-time delivery, placement, and set-up—when it matters most.
Fixed-Price Coupons
Simplified coupon creation
Restaurant Benefit: Increase orders and save time
Fixed-Price Coupons make implementing targeted discounts simpler than ever. Empower guests to order direct with compelling discounts that match on-premise offerings—without having to change menu pricing for all guests. Just set the special price for an item, group of items, or multiple categories of items; no manual calculations or complex workarounds are required.
Disable and Re-enable Ordering
Digital order management made easier
Restaurant Benefit: In a pinch, easily disable and re-enable online ordering
If there is an unanticipated surge in demand or an unfortunate kitchen malfunction, sometimes store operators need to temporarily disable incoming digital orders to provide a great guest experience. When those unexpected moments arise, authorized users can now easily disable and re-enable online ordering with just a few taps in Expo.
Onboarding
Real-time tracking and automated email notifications
Restaurant Benefit: Streamlined onboarding management
Managing onboarding is now more streamlined thanks to enhanced tracking via our new onboarding table and automated email notifications. The table displays real-time information for each store, allowing onboarding liaisons and franchisees to quickly view settings and see if critical information, like store hours, is missing. Onboarding email notifications let brands know when an update has occurred and eliminate the need for liaisons to constantly check tracker tables.
Looking Ahead
Ideas for new features come directly from listening to the needs of our customers. We’re proud to lead the industry’s efforts to optimize operations, drive revenue across channels, combat fraud, and harness the power of guest data, and will continue to innovate on behalf of restaurants in Q2 and beyond.
If you’re already an Olo customer, reach out to your Customer Success Manager to learn more about these features. If you’re not using Olo yet, contact our team to continue the conversation.
