Customer Menu Choices: Let Customers Pick Their Own Dishes

A customer says yes to your quote, and then the emails start: which two mains, which salads, did they want the dessert upgrade? Puree’s customer menu choices let them answer all of that themselves. Your customers can choose from two things: packages that offer a choice, or items you’ve made an optional extra. They can do it when they accept your quote, or come back and finish later. Every open package choice is theirs unless you set it to No, and they can change their own picks until your cutoff. Their picks go straight into the quote, you both get an email with the lot, and they can’t change anything else on the quote.

Choices You Hand Over, Dishes You Still Control

Customer choices build on your packages. Each Flexi choice items card has a setting, Customer can choose, and it’s Yes by default, on new and existing cards. Set it to No and you pick, as you always have. One package can mix both: you choose the canapés, they choose the mains and dessert.

They only ever choose from the dishes on the card, up to its number of selections, with the options you’ve set. Each quote keeps the menu it was given, so changing a package later never changes a quote you’ve already sent.

What Your Customer Sees

When they click Accept Quote, a Your selections section opens, laid out like your quote:

• Choose my menu now or I’ll choose later, for customers who need to check with their guests first.
• Each heading’s dishes with a counter, “0 of 2 chosen”, that stops them choosing too many.
• Any dish options, such as a sauce or a gluten-free version, with your defaults already picked and any charge shown: “Gluten-free (+$1.50)”.
• Your Optional Extras, ready to add with a tick, and an I’d like more info box on anything priced on application.
• A line saying what their selections add: “Your selections add $402.50 including GST.” It gives no new total or balance: those are on the quote.

Coming Back, and Changing Their Mind

Plenty of customers can’t decide everything on the day. Once a quote is accepted, a Choose your menu button lets them come back to their link, pick what’s still open, and untick or swap their own picks. They type their name each time they save, so you can see who made the change. When a save raises the total they’re told: “Priced selections are added to your total and balance. Nothing is charged now.” Prefer to finish the choices yourself? Turn off Allow customers to make changes after acceptance, under the main switch: accepted quotes then don’t show the button, and customers who choose later are asked to contact you.

A pick stays theirs until you change its dish, quantity or price, or the kitchen marks it done. Then it’s yours, and they can’t change it. A change can lower the total as well as raise it. Nothing is refunded automatically: if the total falls below what you’ve received, your team’s email tells you the order is overpaid, and by how much.

The Emails You Both Get

The acceptance email now includes their picks: every dish under its heading, the optional extras added with their prices, and any P.O.A extras they’d like to hear about. If they aren’t finished, it lists Selected so far and Still to choose, and tells them the last day they can come back. After that, or with changes after acceptance off, it asks them to contact you to finish.

Each later save sends a Menu selections email, one copy to your team and one to the customer, including anything they removed. It gives no total or balance. Your copy also shows the name they typed, and flags anything to follow up, such as an overpaid order or a supplier to tell.

Your Cutoff

You decide how close to the event customers can make changes. Hide Request changes and Choose your menu [N] days before the event starts at 7 and needs a number while the setting is on. Use 0 to close at the start of the event day. After that, customers are told to contact you directly.

Questions After Acceptance

An accepted quote also shows a Request changes button, so the customer can send you a note without hunting for your email address. It emails your team; nothing on the quote moves until you change it. If the quote has P.O.A items, they can tick the ones they want to ask about. That covers every P.O.A line they can see on the quote, not only extras. With none, there’s just the note.

Everything the customer picked, removed or asked is in the order’s audit trail, in plain words.

Getting Started

1. In Items → Packages, set Customer can choose to No on any choice you want to keep, and check the dishes on the rest.
2. In Settings → Account Details, find the Customer menu choices panel, check your cutoff, read the warning, and turn on Customers make menu choices. The first time, this also opens every open choice on your existing quotes, including accepted ones that haven’t reached the cutoff.
3. Add the package to a quote, leave the customer’s choices open, and send it.

For the details, see Customer Menu Choices. Questions? Email us at email@puree.app.