While the National Restaurant Association's 2024 State of the Restaurant Industry projects the industry will add 200,000 jobs in 2024, 45% of operators said they need more employees to meet customer demand. A Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) study also found that new hires are 50% more productive in companies with a standard onboarding process. As you develop your onboarding process, it is important to include training on how to use DoorDash, including how to handle order processing, tackle common issues, and follow best practices for DoorDash restaurants.
What do they need to learn?
Overall, there are two types of tasks your employees will likely need to complete:
Operation tasks: Running your business, reviewing sales data, bookkeeping, etc. which will mainly happen in the Merchant Portal.
Order management tasks: Accepting and fulfilling orders, which will occur on your Point-of-Sale (POS) system, Tablet, or on the Business Manager App.
This first distinction is key to determine what tech your employee needs to learn how to use. To learn more about when to use these different types of tech, check out How to Operate and Manage Your Store on DoorDash.
How can my operational team set up and update my store?
Before you can start accepting orders on DoorDash, you and/or your operational team needs to learn how to access the Merchant Portal and set up your restaurant. Here are steps on how to get started:
Set up your team: Create an account in the Merchant Portal, log in, and add and adjust user permissions.
Navigate the Merchant Portal: Where to find the different sections you’ll need to manage your store using the DoorDash dashboard.
Input your store details: Setting your account and store up, navigating the Merchant Portal and how to get support.
Add your menu: Add, edit, and sort items, photos, categories, and modifiers, and remove unavailable items.
Configure your financials: Activating daily payouts, getting paid for canceled orders, and downloading your monthly statement.
Once these steps are complete, you can head over to store management for more ways to keep your store running smoothly.
How can my team accept orders?
There are multiple ways for your staff to accept and process orders. This will depend on the order protocol you selected during the sign-up process. The different types of order protocols include:
DoorDash Tablet: Instantly accept and track all incoming orders with a DoorDash Merchant tablet, freeing your team’s time to prepare meals and focus on the customer experience.
Point-of-sale (POS) integration: Digital point-of-sale systems can simplify the ordering process while you and your team monitor sales, cash flow, and inventory in real-time.
Email or fax: You can also manage and receive orders via email or fax. In this case, you’ll want to designate a team member to monitor incoming orders. When an order is received, this team member will either:
Manually input the order into your POS system
Write a ticket for the kitchen staff
If you would like to know more, head over to How to Operate and Manage Your Store.
How can my on-premise team manage and fulfill orders?
You’re all set up to receive orders, now what? Here are some tips on how your team can:
Receive orders: Manually or automatically receive orders through your tablet.
Manage orders: Updating your pickup instructions, fulfilling an order, and canceling a live order.
Adjust orders: Adjust the pickup time,contact a customer or Dasher, resolve an issue with an out-of-stock item.
Want more tips? Head over to managing orders.
What if we are getting too many orders to manage?
There are a few ways you can help your team manage when the kitchen gets extra busy:
Set accurate prep times: Adjust prep times for each order based on current capacity and order size. That way, your team has more prep time and customers and Dashers have a more accurate idea of when an order will be ready.
Set your kitchen as Busy: If you’re using a tablet and want to automatically add additional prep time to every order, set your kitchen status as Busy.
Update menu items in real-time: Mark out-of-stock items as unavailable as soon as you can. Accurate menus help reduce troubleshooting and the bottlenecks that can happen when customers inadvertently order out-of-stock items.
Pause your store: You can temporarily stop orders by pausing your store through the Merchant Portal or your tablet. We recommend only using this sparingly because frequent or prolonged pauses can affect your operations ratings, eligibility for our Most Loved program, and sales.
If you use a POS system, you will need to pause orders or adjust your prep times through their system.
How to prepare in advance for busy times
Now that you know what to do when things get busy unexpectedly, here are a few ways to prepare in advance for busy days.
First, learn which are the busiest days for restaurant food delivery so you can staff accordingly. You can also check out our guide on restaurant holidays, which includes 270+ national, food, and social media holidays. If you’re looking to maximize order volume on busy days, these are all good opportunities to set up marketing campaigns that help drive volume.
Why does this matter?
To ensure a positive experience for all customers, we’ve created measures to consistently deliver the best service. Providing great service helps you:
Minimize temporary deactivations, which can affect performance and sales
Qualify for our Most Loved program that rewards top-performing merchants with more in-app visibility, recognition, and other exclusive perks
Raise your Optimization Score, which measures your store’s sales potential
What are best practices for my team?
Your business does best when your customers are satisfied. Here are some tips you can share with your team to help them improve and maintain customer satisfaction:
Ensure your hours are correct: Make sure your DoorDash hours match your actual store hours and add Special Hours for any events or holidays.
Confirm orders quickly: Accept orders as soon as you can, so customers know their order has been received and is being prepared. This leads to fewer cancellations.
Quote accurate prep times: Late orders are one of the biggest reasons customers give poor ratings, so selecting an accurate pickup time helps manage expectations.
Label orders: Label orders clearly to ensure Dashers pick up the correct order.
Check for modifications and special requests: Avoid order errors and low customer ratings by paying special attention to modifications and special requests.
Updated Dasher instructions. Set parking and pickup tips in the Merchant Portal if your store is hard to locate or can be easily missed by Dashers.
Team Training FAQ
How should they fix an order error?
If you run out of an item or forget to include a modifier, your team can adjust the order or contact a Dasher or customer via the Merchant Portal or Tablet. Here are some common restaurant issues:
Mark an item out of stock: If your staff member discovers an item is out of stock when preparing an existing order, they should follow these instructions for the Merchant Portal, as well as here’s how on your tablet.
Get extra time: If your kitchen is too busy to keep up with order volume and your staff needs some extra time or to pause orders, you have a few options.
Adjust pickup time: When an order is running late, follow these instructions to adjust pickup time.
What are some ways my operations team can grow my sales?
After your store is set up, you can use all our suggestions on ways to grow for ideas on how to maximize your sales on DoorDash.
My team is completely lost, how can they contact support?
First, guide them to the Learning Center to find walk-throughs, tutorials, videos, and more. If they still can’t find what they’re looking for, feel free to reach out to support.
Ready to add your team to the Merchant Portal? Here’s how to add a user.
