Getting Started: What do I do first?

This discussion is for restaurant owners and operators who have just signed up for an eHungry.com restaurant account. If you are an ordering customer looking for help on how to use our system to place an order, please go here instead.

So, you have a brand new account and you are not sure where to start? This discussion should help to point you in the right direction.

Usernames, Permissions, Logging In

In our system, you need to be logged in to do some things. Without logging in, you can browse your menu, see what it looks like to other people, but you cannot make any changes or access any of you private account data. Logging in is simple. Just find the "Login" link and click. Then, enter your eHungry.com account ID, which you chose or received when you created your account. Then enter your password. Upon logging in, probably the first page you will see is your account dashboard.

Your Account Dashboard

The account dashboard provides a broad overview of your account activity. It shows you the orders that were placed today, those that were placed for tomorrow, and any recent orders. It also shows you your top customers and any upcoming activities that are scheduled for your restaurant locations.

Once you are logged in as an account manager, at the top of each page you will find the main navigation for your control panel. In order from left to right, you will see:

• My Account - this is your dashboard, which we just discussed.
• Calendar - this is a general purposes calendar, which shows all of your orders, activities, and custom events that you or your customers have created.
• My Customers - this is your mini "CRM" application. CRM stands for "Customer Relationship Management" and this tool allows you to view and edit all of the information about your customers that our system is capable of storing.
• Online Ordering - this is where you menu is. Ordering customers also have access to these pages, which allow both you and them to browse your menu, select items for purchase, and checkout.
• Restaurant Manager - this is where you setup your restaurant location(s), menu(s), and configure your preferences for how you want your online ordering site to work. We will be talking a lot of about this in this discussion.
• Reports - You can produce exportable versions of much of your account data, including order data, customer lists, fax/phone activity reports, sales reports, etc.
• Survey - you may or may not see this tab in your main navigation. If the survey module is enabled for your account, you can use this tool to create and publish simple polls that you can make available to your customers. The results of these surveys are stored in your account and sent to you by email.

We are going to start by discussing your Restaurant Manager, since as a brand new account, probably the most important thing for you to do is to setup your restaurant locations(s) and menu(s).

The Restaurant Manager

These tools are the heart of your online ordering application. Without using them, you have no menu for your customers to use.

The basic tasks you can perform in the Restaurant Manager are as follows:

• Add, Edit or Remove Restaurant Locations - By default, every eHungry.com account starts out with one location. But, nothing stops you from creating more, or deactivating your default location if you don't want people to be able to access it yet. When you signed up, we used the information you gave use to create your default location, including things like the name of your restaurant, your address, phone number, fax number, email address.
  
  However, that is not all there is to it! You need to complete the setup of your default location by providing additional information. When you click into the "Add, Edit, or Remove Restaurant Locations" page, you will see a page with several tabs at the top. These forms should be reviewed and completed. A completely setup location requires that you tell the system at least the following things:
  • Hours & Payment - This tab lets you specify when your online restaurant is open, as well as payment options for your customers, the types of orders you want to accept (delivery, dine-in and carryout), and a few other small details.
    
    When you specify your store hours, you should keep in mind that customers can place orders on your website at any time of the day or night. Our system will ask them before they check out when they want the order ready and if that time is outside of your stated hours, the order will not be allowed.
  • Order Times - Since most orders requires at least a little time to prepare, the eHungry.com system allows you to sepcify the amount of time you want to require between when an order is sent to you and when it needs to be ready for pick-up or delivery. You can specify this separately for pick-up/dine-in orders and for delivery orders, since delivery orders usually take a little extra time.
  • Delivery & Minimums - Here you can specify minimums for delivery orders, delivery charges, and charges for other orders.
  • Phone & SMS - Our system can call you and tell you whenever you receive a new order. It can also send you a text message when orders are placed. This helps you stay aware of orders that are received.
  • File & Uploads - If you want to upload a PDF copy of your menu in addition to having it in our system, you can do that here. Please note though, that customers cannot place orders directly from the PDF menu. You still need to create your menu in our system if you want people to be able to place orders.
  • Generate Links - If you want to link to your menus from another website, this page will give you the correct URLs to do so.