Venue FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome to our FAQ page for venues! We hope this page answers any questions you might have about our services, but if not feel free to contact us here and also make sure you have read our venue overview page here which includes details of costs.

Also check out our venue support portal, where you will find a number of articles about setting up and running your online store as well as our community page to ask questions and make suggestions about using Who’s Round. Find it here.

Venues that Who's Round is made for

Benefits of using Who's Round

Support from Who's Round

Covid 19

Venues that Who's Round is made for

What type of venue is Who’s Round suitable for

The platform is designed for venues that currently, or wish to, offer Table Service to your customers for food or drink. However, it can also be used to accept orders for collection, including pre-order, if you have a suitable collection point and wish to offer this. You can offer either Table Service or Collection in your venue, and importantly amend this from the Who’s Round Admin Area at any time if, for example, your become too busy to manage online orders or only want to offer the service at certain times. You can also use our platform purely for listing without taking any online orders. This will allow you to display details of your venue and menu to potential customers searching for locations in your area.

What type of leisure operator is suited for Who’s Round

Our platform is available for singe site or multi venue operators. Upon sign up you will be directed toward the Who’s Round Admin Panel where you can create any number of venues, all of which you can view and operate but venues will be fully independent of each other with their own webpage and unique online store. If you are a single site operator this dashboard will meet all your needs. If you have multiple venues, you can create separate users for specific venues, so that user will have access to the Who’s Round Admin Panel only for the stores they have been authorised to operate.

What can venues use Who’s Round for

At its simplest, your venue can use Who’s Round as a pure listing service with our Directory service, free of charge. This will display key details of your venue online to appear in local search results and give your venue a web page on our site you can direct customers to; we will show details about your venue and menu but not accept orders. You can also use our Fulfilment service to accept orders to be paid for in cash or card directly between your venue and your venues customer, free of charge. Your venue can choose to offer delivery to your customers table or for your customer to collect, and this can be changed at any time instantly from the Who’s Round Admin Area. Finally, by using our Settlement service your venue can accept payments for orders directly to your venues own account, by connecting a Stripe account to Who’s Round (Stripe are a leader in online payments – see www.stripe.com ).

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Benefits of using Who's Round

What are some of the advantages of using Who’s Round

As frequent users of venues, we have found that there is not a reliable, up to date tool to search local venues that helps customers in choosing destination. Our platform aims to do this and more, bringing venues to new and existing customers who search locally for restaurants and bars and find details that are up to date and with content delivered by venue operators, validated by your customers through ratings. We believe our platforms traffic combined with your own content will lead to greater footfall for venues, while also making the experience of customers ordering and payments more efficient and customer user friendly. We do appreciate this is a bold statement for a new platform, but please do bear with us with this; our platform is built by customers for a great customer experience!

Will Who’s Round make a venue more efficient

This is our aim, while also making the customer experience more fulfilling! If you consider the current order process of seating a customer, taking an order, fulfilling an order and taking payment, it is intense for any venue and at times frustrating for customers. Who’s Round greatly reduces this burden, so a venue just needs to prepare and deliver an order.

Will Who’s Round reduce labour costs

Our platform does eliminate a significant part of the ordering and fulfilment process, so whilst it is tempting to assume a reduction in labour costs could follow this is not the objective or promise of Who’s Round. Our platform is designed to enhance a customer’s experience both inside and outside of a venue; we hope the adoption of technology will lead to venues serving more customers, generating increased revenue needing more people! There is a great deal of evidence from other industries, including home delivery, that ordering online does result in higher average order values so overall, we hope and believe that our platform will have a positive financial impact whilst also enhancing your customer experience.

Who are the Who’s Round users

We will run a number of marketing initiatives though social media to direct users to the Who’s Round, which will in turn lead to users viewing your venue and hopefully becoming your customers! Our platform is configured for Search Engine Optimisation, allowing you to add key words about a venue page that will help users find your online page through a google search.

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Joining us and Set up

How to sign up and how much does it cost

Sign up is online and can be done in minutes, a venue just needs to agree to our terms and conditions. There is no fixed contract duration or binding commitment on a venue to remain on Who’s Round. Our platform recognises and encourages the need for technological advancements within the “in venue” market, but also respects the needs of venue operators to manage costs, which is why we offer a pay as you use platform. It is free to create a store using our Listing Service and accept orders for cash settlement with our Fulfilment service. We charge a small fee of 1% of the order for processing electronic payments with our Settlement service. In the event that our services do not meet your needs, you can downgrade your services or delete your venue at any time without notification, so there is no risk to signing up!

How easy is Who’s Round to set up.

Setting up a store is just like setting up a store on Ebay or similar platforms, so can be done in minutes and no technical IT skills are required. The overall length of time to set up depends on factors such as how many menu items, the details of your venue you wish to display and if you elect to sign up for other services such as accepting online payments, but in summary we would expect your venues store can be fully functional in under a few hours.

What do I need to offer Who’s Round in a venue?

Its preferable to have access to a computer (some functionality is limited on mobile devices) for the initial set up and to manage some changes to your menu, although you can do some changes via our app. Whilst you can receive orders directly to the Who’s Round Admin Panel online, we recommend also having a (or a number of) mobile or tablet devices running IOS or Android, so you can download and use our Who’s Round Venue Manager application to receive and manage your incoming orders. A good internet connection for you and your customers is also critical!

What is provided to a venue

When you sign up and create an online store for your venue, a venue will get access to our Who’s Round Admin Area, where you can manage any venue; this is all managed online so there is no requirement to download software onto your systems. Venues are advised to download our Venue Application to a mobile or tablet, to also receive online orders.Venues will also benefit from a unique web address with a name of the venues choosing, for example www.whos-round.com/yourvenue. This address will send customers directly to a store, so you may wish to add this to your table menu, website, chalkboard or wherever you wish in order to encourage customers to visit your online store. Finally, from the Who’s Round Support Portal we have included some point of sale marketing materials that you may wish to use in conjunction with your own print work in order to help your customers find your online store.

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Using Who's Round

How do venues receive orders

The simplest method is to download and use the Who’s Round Venue Manager App, where you will receive push notifications of new orders. You will also receive new orders to your Who’s Round Admin Area and will receive an email to an address to a of your choosing (you may want to consider setting up a separate email account for orders). It is also possible to print orders directly to some compatible GPRS printers, and it’s also possible for your emailed orders to be directly printed out upon receipt using your own existing software.

How do customers find a venues online store

Our platform is optimised for mobile devices and so can be accessed through our App or through a browser. Users select a location, and all registered venues will then appear in the search results, with the nearest venue to the user being at the top of the results. Also included is a web address to your online store, for example, www.whos-round.com/yourvenue, which can be used by a user to go directly to your stores site and place an order.

What else can I show on Who’s Round

In addition to your menus, you can add an “About Us” section, opening times and images of your venue and menu items. We will also display the location on a map and past reviews from your customers.

Does Who’s Round verify users age

At this stage we do not, and as indicated in our Terms and Conditions it remains the responsibility of your venue to ensuring compliance with any licencing or other regulatory responsibility’s your venues must abide by.

What data on your customer will your venue receive

Protecting customer data is vital to the integrity of our platform, as such we will provide only details necessary to fulfil an order; this will be a name and how they would like the order to be fulfilled (table number or time of collection). A contact number is available in case of need, but as your customer is likely to be in your venue, we encourage you to speak with them directly. We have taken great efforts to protect your customers information, which is vital to the integrity of our services as well as the privacy of your customers. Your venue is not permitted to use any customer information gained through our platform for any purposes other than fulfilling an order; this would be a breach of our terms and conditions and more so is not authorised by your customer

Will orders display on your existing EPOS systems?

We do not offer this at this stage, but do have the ability to send information on orders automatically to 3rd parties via Webhooks. We would suggest speaking to your provider on this. We would not charge you for this.

Will you send customer receipts

We will send your customer an email receipt for their order. The receipt will be sent from Who’s Round but will be showing your venues details.

Reviews

User reviews are a great way of highlighting your venues popularity with your customers but can both help attract and serve to distract customers from your venue. We strive for a reviews system that is open, accurate and not misleading but also fair to the venue, in particular at an early stage when our user base is growing. We therefore offer a review function that is only available on completed orders in a venue. When an order is marked complete on the Who’s Round Dashboard we providel your customer with a link to provide a review. A venue will not be able to comment, remove or contact the reviewer. If a venue feels the content is unfair, please contact us and we will try to mediate between your venue and the user to find an agreement but can offer no assurances here.

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Product Listings

What products can a venue add to the menu

Anything your venue currently offers can be added. We also offer individual product options, such as different sizes, ingredients and preferences; these can also be used for package deals and cross sales recommendations. You can also have multiple menus to display at different times of the day, for example separate breakfast, lunch and dinner menus and products can be withdrawn at any time if, for example, the product is sold out (it can be added again later just as conveniently).

Are venues obliged to advertise a full menu

This is entity at the discretion of the venue, you can choose to add everything or just selected items. We would encourage you to offer the fullest menu possible, as this is the best way to promote what your venue can offer, and we think it’s what customers want to see.

Are venues required to keep the same prices as in the venue

While the pricing you chose to apply is at the discretion of the venue, we strongly encourage you to be open, transparent and fair in your pricing and would hope you would offer the same prices online as you do in venue; ultimately either ordering online or in person, the order is in your venue!

Service Charges and Minimum orders

Venues will be able to set a Service Charge, as a percentage of the total order, and also so a minimum order value. These will appear on your venues listing so such charges are easily visible to your customers.

What about staff tips

A user can add tips to their order upon checkout and if processing with a card payment though Who’s Round we will not charge any fees on this part of the payment; this will though still be subject to fees by Stripe, in the same way as physical payments are charged.

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Online Payments & Fees

How do venues receive online payments

Our platform integrates with Stripe, the global leader in online payments technology – please visit www.Stripe.com for more information, but it’s safe to say you have probably used stipe without knowing! To accept payments through our platform a venue will need to have, or create, a Stripe account which is simple to set up, though there will be some legal checks to comply with Anti Money Laundering regulations. It is important to point out this will be the venues Stripe account, so any transaction is between the venue and the venues customer not with Who’s Round.Through the Who’s Round Admin Area, a venue will be able to connect a Stripe account to Who’s Round (you will also find a link to set up a new account if you do not have one). By connecting a Stripe account, we are able to take a payment from your customer on behalf of the venue. As its the venue’s Stripe Account, all due funds are deposited in a chosen account and the venue will appear on your customers bank statement.

Processing refunds

It is a venues responsibility to manage any refund due. Refunds can be processed on the Who’s Round Admin Area for individual orders. Venues will also be able to process refunds directly with Stripe. If any refunds are processed, any associated Who’s Round processing fees will also be refunded to your Venue.

What fees are payable on online payments.

In the same way a venue pays fees per transactions on physical card payments, so it also will for online payments with Stripe. The fees payable to Stripe are agreed between a venue and Stripe, though for illustration Stipes standard fees are 20p plus 1.4% for European Cards and 2.9% for non-European cards; if a venue processes significant volume, discounts with Stripe might be available.For each electronic payment made through Who’s Round we will debit a processing fee of 1% of the transaction value, excluding the value of any tip added to the payment. We will do this automatically on each transaction, so a venue will not need to settle fees with Who’s Round separately. Therefore on each online payment your venues account will be credited with the value of the payment less fees from Stripe and Who’s Round.

Will you increase fees in the future

We are a new business, and this is an untested service so the future is quite uncertain. However based on how we think people will interact with Who’s Round we think our current processing fee of 1% per transaction is sufficient to meet our costs – we don’t have a large head office, our service is self-service to keep costs low and and we expect that to remain the case. We believe our service works only where there is a truly aligned and symbiotic relationship between Who’s Round as a service provider and our partners as venue operators; we want to coexist and share the benefits of our services in a proportionate way without taking unfair amounts of your margin. In the interests of being transparent, it is though undeniable that we need to manage costs and the cost to provide this service is the same if your customer places an order of £1 or £100. In the event that we cannot meet those costs, the likely direction of travel as we see it would be:

a) removal of the Fulfilment Service so that customer can only settle via card payments, which provides us with fees

b) introduction of a minimum fee per order that will ensure our costs per order are covered – like how physical card payments work

Only after implementing these two points, which we feel should be sufficient, would we have to consider increasing the processing fees we charge.

Is VAT payable on Who’s Round charges and will you issue a invoice.

We are UK registered but at present VAT is not payable. Our fees payable on transactions are not subject to VAT as our service acts as an intermediary to a transaction between your venue and your customer, where full VAT is applied.

Details of your payments to Who’s Round will show as Application Fees from Stripe. We can prepare separate invoices for your venue if you contact us.

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Support from Who's Round

What support will Who’s Round provide

We aim to provide a great customer experience for you and your customers and have designed our platform to be simple and cost effective but also to enable venues to own, open and operate an online store independently.

We have a self-service portal full of articles to help you set up and manage your Who's Round venue that you can find here . We hope that this will be sufficient, but if not you can also raise a ticket in the portal and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Serving your customers

Our platform is a means to interact between a venue and it’s customer, Who’s Round are unable to resolve any issues between a venue and customer. When ordering, a customer will receive an email and push notification of their order, and it will contain your venues contact details. We cannot mediate in any dispute between you and your customer.

Are discounts available for larger chains

We value both chains and independent venues and hope to see adoption of technology across all. It is our view though that for widespread adoption to occur, and customer experience to be improved, our platform should treat all as equal and as such we do not offer discounts on our fees for chains or independent operators.

Can Who’s Round handle the capacity of my venue’s orders

In short, yes. We have employed the services of a well-established and professional service provider that has extensive experience in this sector. Whilst we have adapted their software to meet our requirements, the core infrastructure is more than sufficient; it has many customers that already transact more than 50k orders per day. Our services are also hosted via Amazon Web Services so are both secure, high performance and scalable so there are limited capacity issues. If we are getting paid, and we pay can them, both the software and infrastructure is more than sufficient to meet any levels of demand.

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Covid 19 Tools

Who’s Round was not designed because of or as a result of COVID-19, however there are obvious benefits in using our services. You can allow your customers to view your menu, order and pay directly from their table on their smartphone therefore minimising the amount of contact between your staff and customers.

We think there are other benefits to, such as making your venues available and known to a wider customer base, better distribution of your products and services and we hope to add further functions later as we grow together with your own business.

We don’t directly offer a service to enable you to capture customer details who are in your venue. By default, on receipt of an order you will receive your customers name and phone number, but not their email address or other members of the group. However, there is a potential workaround using some features on our platform, operational measure implemented by your venue and with the cooperation of your customers. We have put together a small guide here

Please keep in view this is not a perfect solution, and in fact it is only at best a workaround, so we are encouraging you to consider alternatives. It also relies upon your customers sharing information – this is not Who’s Round providing data, it is your venue using Who’s Round to communicate and exchange information through our platform. It may have implications for data security and privacy which you need to consider.

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Cookies & Privacy