Straight answers before you commit
The difficult questions
are the useful ones.
AI telephone ordering should be judged on what happens when a call is unclear, a dependency fails or a request falls outside the approved rules—not just when everything is easy.
Test your own scenario →The short version
Can AI answer my takeaway's phone?
Yes — that is what OrderRing does. It answers the ordering calls your staff cannot get to, takes the order from the menu you have approved, reads it back to the caller and prints it on a printer in your kitchen. It is not a message service: the food order is finished on the call, not passed to somebody to ring back.
What happens to the calls we miss when we are busy?
Without something in place, a caller who hears an engaged tone rings the next shop on the list. With OrderRing those calls divert to it automatically. You keep your existing number and your team still answers first — OrderRing only picks up the ones that would otherwise have gone unanswered, unless you deliberately switch it to answer every call.
Is OrderRing an AI receptionist?
Close, but it is narrower than that on purpose. A receptionist takes messages and handles anything that comes up; OrderRing takes food orders. It can answer approved questions like opening times and delivery areas, and anything outside what you have approved it hands on rather than guessing.
Does OrderRing take a commission on orders, like Just Eat or Deliveroo?
No. Those are marketplaces: they list your shop, take a percentage of each order and own the relationship with the customer. OrderRing is a phone system you rent. You pay a monthly fee — and on one of the three plans a flat 60p per AI-taken order — regardless of what the order is worth. The customer rang you, stays yours, and their details are yours.
How much does AI phone answering cost for a takeaway?
£99 a month plus 60p per AI order taken, or £199 a month with no per-order fee, whichever suits your volume better. There is also Command at £399 a month, which adds 22 hours of voice time, a spare printer couriered next working day if yours fails, and a service visit every quarter. Setup and installation is a one-off £299. The pricing page shows the point at which one becomes cheaper than another, using your own numbers.
Will my customers know they are talking to a computer?
Yes, and they are told in the first sentence. It introduces itself as an AI assistant and will not claim to be a person even if the caller pushes it. That is a fixed rule, not a setting you can turn off — a customer who was tricked into ordering from a machine is a complaint, not a sale.
Can it answer the phone out of hours, when we are closed?
It can answer out of hours, and it can give callers the approved information — when you next open, whether you deliver to them. What it will not do is take an order for food nobody is there to cook: every order is checked against your opening hours before it can be accepted. So a late caller gets a straight answer instead of a ringing tone, and you do not walk in to a ticket nobody made.
Do we have to change our phone number or replace our EPOS?
Neither. Customers keep ringing the number on your menus and your leaflets, and the diversion happens behind that. OrderRing prints to its own supplied printer, so it does not need to be plugged into the till system your staff already know.
The 30-day guarantee
How do you measure the orders OrderRing captured?
Every order OrderRing takes for you is written down in our system as it happens, with what it was worth. The 30-day figure is the sum of those orders — real ones, counted, not an estimate. You can watch the running total in your portal from the first day, so it is not a number produced at day 30 to argue about. Your overall takings are not part of it: the till, the walk-ins and the calls your own staff answer are yours and are never in the sum.
What happens to the printer if I claim?
We collect it, the same way we installed it. It stays OrderRing property throughout, so there is nothing for you to pack or post. If it has been damaged or is missing, it is charged at cost, and we tell you that figure before anything is charged.
How do I claim?
Email hello@orderring.co.uk within seven days of day 30 and say you want to claim. There is no form. We go through the order total together from the same record you have been watching all month, refund your setup fee and first month in full, and arrange a time to collect the equipment.
Calls and customers
Does OrderRing replace the person who normally answers our phone?
Not by default. Your main call continues to ring your existing telephone and your team answers normally. OrderRing starts by answering callers who would otherwise hear an engaged tone. You can deliberately switch to answer-all mode when you want every ordering call handled.
Can it answer several callers at the same time?
Yes. OrderRing is designed to handle concurrent AI calls rather than creating another single-call queue. How many at once your line can safely take is confirmed with you during testing, before you go live.
What if somebody calls with a question instead of an order?
Approved information such as opening times, collection policy and delivery areas can be answered. Anything outside the approved information follows the escalation rule agreed with you; OrderRing should not invent an answer.
What if the caller is difficult to understand?
The system asks for clarification and confirms the complete basket. If it cannot reach the agreed confidence and confirmation checks, it stops or escalates under your rules rather than forcing an uncertain order into the kitchen.
Orders and safety
How are complex orders and changes handled?
Your approved menu defines the available sizes, choices, modifiers and combinations. OrderRing confirms changes naturally and reads the complete order and total back before acceptance.
What happens with allergy questions?
OrderRing uses only allergen information you have reviewed and approved. If the available information is incomplete or the request needs judgement, automation stops safely and follows the agreed escalation path.
Can we mark an item as sold out during service?
The owner controls are designed to let you pause items, change wait times and pause telephone ordering. A change must be reflected in the live ordering rules before the AI offers it to another caller.
What if a customer says the order is wrong?
The order record, confirmed basket and kitchen handoff provide a clear audit trail. Complaints, replacements and refunds remain a business decision for the restaurant under the process agreed at setup.
Payment and printing
Can customers pay by card or cash?
You choose the permitted options. Card customers use a secure hosted payment page rather than reading card details aloud. Cash can be allowed for collection or delivery under the limits and rules you set.
When is the customer told the order is accepted?
Only after the caller has confirmed and the ticket has printed in your kitchen. If the printer or another required step fails, the caller must not receive a false acceptance.
What if the printer goes offline?
OrderRing monitors the printer connection, retries the handoff and raises an alert. The exact fallback behaviour is tested and agreed before launch so an unprinted order is not treated as a normal accepted order.
Do we need to replace our EPOS?
No. The dedicated printer keeps initial installation separate from your EPOS. OrderRing can be introduced without rebuilding the system your staff already use.
Installation and control
How does OrderRing know our menu?
Kevin configures the ordering menu from the information you supply. You approve products, prices, options, delivery charges and relevant allergen information before test calls begin.
What happens if our internet or telephone service fails?
The launch checklist defines the behaviour for each dependency and tests the available fallback. OrderRing cannot make a failed local connection disappear, so the service must report faults clearly and avoid claiming a kitchen handoff that did not happen.
Are calls recorded?
Recording is not assumed. The production policy, lawful basis, caller notice, retention and access controls will be documented before any recording feature is enabled. Operational order records can exist without retaining unnecessary audio.
Who do we contact when something needs changing?
Customers work directly with Kevin Mackay. Menu changes, routing policy and operational support are handled through a named contact who knows the installation.
Bring the awkward example