AI Phone Ordering Overview

Maple's AI phone ordering system allows your restaurant to automatically take customer orders over the phone — without tying up staff. When a customer calls your restaurant, the AI voice agent greets them, walks them through your menu, handles modifications and special requests, collects payment, and routes the completed order to your kitchen. This article explains how the entire process works, from the customer's first words to the order appearing on your screen.

How It Works

Maple's phone ordering system has three main components working together:

1. AI Voice Agent — The conversational AI that answers calls, understands customer requests, and guides them through the ordering process.

2. Menu Data — Your menu items, modifiers, descriptions, and pricing synced from your POS system, which the AI uses to understand and fulfill orders.

3. Order Routing — The workflow that sends completed orders to your POS system or tablet for kitchen preparation.

When a customer calls, the AI picks up, greets them, and listens for what they'd like to order. The agent matches spoken requests against your synced menu data, asks clarifying questions when needed (e.g., "Would you like a single, double, or triple?"), suggests available options, and confirms the full order before processing payment.

What the Customer Experience Looks Like

Here's what a typical phone ordering interaction looks like from the customer's perspective:

1. Customer calls your restaurant number — The AI agent answers with your configured greeting.

2. Customer states their order — They say something like "I'd like to order a C8" or "Can I get a cheeseburger with no onions?"

3. AI asks clarifying questions — If the item has variants, sizes, or required modifiers, the AI prompts the customer to specify (e.g., "What size would you like?" or "Would you like to add a side or a drink?").

4. AI confirms the order — The agent reads back the complete order with pricing for confirmation.

5. Payment is collected — The AI sends a secure payment link via text message, or the order is processed according to your payment settings.

6. Order is routed to your kitchen — Once payment is confirmed, the order is sent to your POS system or tablet for preparation.

Tips for Customer Success

• Customers get the best results when they speak clearly and specifically — including size, type, and modifications.

• If the AI mishears something, customers can simply repeat or rephrase their request.

• The AI can answer menu questions like "What comes in the combo?" or "Do you have frozen drinks?" based on your menu data and knowledge base.

Enabling Phone Ordering

To activate AI phone ordering on your account:

1. Log in to the Maple portal.

2. Click the bell icon in the upper right corner to enable the ordering module.

3. Navigate to your account settings and click Enable Orders.

4. Configure your payment settings (see the Payment Collection section below).

5. Set up call forwarding to your Maple number — this is required for orders to integrate with your POS system.

6. Publish your changes so they take effect.

Important: Orders from the AI system only integrate with your POS when call forwarding is enabled. Without call forwarding configured, orders won't automatically flow to your POS.

Menu Sync and Data

The AI relies on your menu data to understand what customers are ordering. Maple syncs your menu from your connected POS system (Toast, Square, Clover, Lighthouse, and others), pulling in:

• Menu items and descriptions

• Modifier groups and options

• Pricing (set at the menu group level)

• Item availability

How the AI Uses Menu Data

When a customer places an order, the AI follows this priority:

1. Menu data first — The AI searches your synced menu items and descriptions to match the customer's request. Item names and descriptions are the primary source of truth.

2. Knowledge base second — If the information isn't found in menu data, the AI consults your knowledge base for answers.

This means keeping your menu item names and descriptions accurate and detailed directly improves order accuracy.

Keeping Your Menu Current

• Automatic sync runs on a scheduled basis to pull updates from your POS.

• Manual sync is available with two clicks in the Maple platform if you need changes reflected immediately.

• After making changes to item availability or menu visibility in Maple, you must click Publish for changes to take effect.

Controlling What's Available for Phone Ordering

You have granular control over which items the AI can offer:

• Menu-level visibility — Hide entire menu categories (e.g., beverages, liquor) from the AI.

• Item-level visibility — Disable the Maple channel in an individual item's channel visibility settings.

• In-store only items — Items marked as in-store only in your POS are excluded from phone ordering.

Payment Collection

Maple currently supports payment links (card payments) for phone orders. Here's how it works:

1. After the customer confirms their order, the AI sends a secure payment link via text message.

2. The customer completes payment on their phone.

3. Once payment is confirmed, the order is routed to your kitchen.

Prepayment Thresholds

When "Pay by Link" is enabled, you can set a minimum order amount threshold. Orders at or above this amount require prepayment via the payment link before the order is sent to your POS.

Cash Payments

Maple does not currently support cash payments directly through the phone ordering system. If a customer indicates they want to pay with cash, the AI can transfer them to your restaurant so staff can handle the transaction manually.

A Note on "Send Ordering Link"

If you have a POS integration (such as Toast) that enables in-call ordering — where the AI takes the order during the phone conversation — you should not also activate the "Send Ordering Link" action button. These two features conflict with each other. Use one or the other based on your setup.

Order Routing

How orders reach your kitchen depends on your integration setup:

Order Types Supported

Pickup / Takeout

The standard phone ordering flow. Customers call, place their order, pay, and pick up at your location.

Delivery

If you enable delivery in your settings, the AI can take delivery orders. It will:

• Collect the customer's delivery address

• Verify the address is within your configured delivery zone

• Inform the customer if delivery is not available to their location

Advance / Scheduled Orders

Customers can place orders for later pickup. For example, if your kitchen opens at 11 a.m. and a customer calls earlier, the AI can confirm your opening time and schedule the order accordingly.

Business Hours and Off-Hours Behavior

The AI's behavior changes based on your configured hours:

• During business hours — Full ordering capability is available.

• Kitchen closed but location open — The AI informs callers that the kitchen is closed and can offer to transfer them to the store. Online ordering remains available.

• After hours — The AI can still answer general menu inquiries (e.g., "What's on your menu?" or "How much does the crawfish cost?") but cannot process orders.

Managing Busy Periods

When your kitchen is overwhelmed and you need to temporarily pause phone orders, don't simply disable the menu or mark yourself as closed. Instead, configure the AI to:

• Inform customers that the store is temporarily busy

• Provide an estimated wait time (e.g., 30–40 minutes)

• Suggest trying again in 10–15 minutes

• Offer your online ordering link as an alternative

• Let customers decide if they'd like to proceed

Modifications and Special Requests

Maple's ordering system is built from the ground up to handle complex food and beverage modifications. The AI can manage:

• Size and variant selections

• Add-ons and extras

• Removal of ingredients ("no onions")

• Combo and meal configurations

• Beverage customizations

When modifiers are configured as required in your menu setup, the AI will automatically prompt customers for those selections before moving on.

Testing Your Setup

Before going live, you can test your AI ordering system:

1. Call your test phone number (provided during onboarding).

2. Respond to the AI greeting.

3. Place a sample order by saying the item name.

4. Test menu questions by asking things like "What comes in the combo?" or "What sides do you have?"

5. Walk through the full payment flow.

We recommend having your staff test the system as well so they understand how orders and payments flow through before customers interact with it.

Key Settings Summary

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Phone Ordering

• Keep menu descriptions detailed and accurate — The AI relies on them to understand customer requests and suggest the right items.

• Use your knowledge base for common questions that go beyond menu data (e.g., "Do you partner with delivery apps?" or "Do you have parking?").

• Review call transcripts regularly to identify where customers struggle or hang up, then refine your menu descriptions or knowledge base accordingly.

• Publish changes promptly — Any menu edits won't take effect until you explicitly publish them.

• Train your staff on how the system works so they can assist customers who have questions about the phone ordering experience.