Restaurants & Food Delivery

Run the whole kitchen conversation on WhatsApp

Orders arrive on WhatsApp, the phone and three delivery apps at once. The person on shift is answering the same four questions all evening — where is my order, are you open, do you deliver here, what is on today — while the actual orders scroll past above them.

How it runs

  1. 1

    A customer messages the shop number

    It lands in a shared inbox the whole team can see, instead of one manager's personal WhatsApp.

  2. 2

    The first-time questions answer themselves

    An automation replies to a first message with your hours, delivery area and menu link, so nobody types it for the fortieth time.

  3. 3

    The order becomes a record

    The customer is saved as a contact with their history, so the next order starts from what you already know about them.

  4. 4

    Tonight's offer goes out to everyone at once

    An approved template goes to your whole customer list as a broadcast, personalised with each name, with delivery and read counts per recipient.

  5. 5

    Quiet customers get invited back

    A returning-after-silence trigger sends a win-back message when someone who used to order regularly has gone quiet for the number of days you choose.

A UK food-delivery kitchen runs this daily: onboarding courier partners over WhatsApp and sending weekend offers to their customer list as approved templates, with delivery and read tracking per recipient.

What you get

Shared team inbox

WhatsApp, Instagram DMs and Facebook Messenger in one place, so whoever is on shift can pick up any conversation.

Bulk broadcasts on approved templates

Send to your whole customer list with per-recipient personalisation, and see delivered, read and failed for each one.

Automated first replies

Trigger on a first-ever message, a keyword like "menu" or "delivery", or a customer returning after days of silence.

Product catalog

Keep dishes and prices in one place so every person on shift quotes the same number.

Multi-branch

Run more than one kitchen under one account, each with its own team and its own numbers.

Staff time and payroll

Clock-ins, leave records and payroll runs built from what was actually worked — for an industry that runs on shifts.

Questions

Can I message customers who have not messaged me first?

Yes, using an approved WhatsApp template — that is what Meta requires for a business-initiated message. Free-form replies are allowed for 24 hours after a customer writes to you. PingPlug shows the remaining window on every conversation and blocks free-form sends once it closes, so you do not lose messages to a rejected send.

Do I need a separate number for this?

You connect a number to the WhatsApp Business Platform. It cannot be in use on the normal WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app at the same time, so most restaurants connect the shop line and keep personal numbers separate.

Will my promotions get the number banned?

Meta scores each number with a quality rating based on blocks and reports. PingPlug checks that rating hourly and warns you when it falls from green, which is the point where changing what you send still helps.

Can two people answer at once?

Yes. The inbox is shared, conversations can be assigned, and every message records which agent sent it.