When the internet goes down on a Friday night

It's the worst possible time for it to happen, so of course that's when it happens. You're an hour into a busy Friday, the kitchen is full, and the broadband drops. The card machine stops. The tablets stop chiming. The orders that were coming in just aren't anymore, and you can't tell whether that's because it's quiet or because nothing can reach you.

Guy Meurice, who runs Big Boys Burger Co in Folkestone, told the Bite Britain podcast (episode 12, January 2020) what that night costs you. "Last week, our internet went down on a Friday, Friday night," he said. There was a big event in town, they knew they'd be busy, and it kicked off. "I spent six hours during that day rigging up a 3G router so that we wouldn't have to worry about the phone lines going down again." His verdict on it afterwards: "that last Friday cost me a good, a good week of my life span."

You can't stop the internet going down. You can have a plan ready so the night doesn't cost you a week of your life. Here's one you can put in place today.

Have a mobile-data backup ready before you need it

The fix Guy reached for under pressure is the one to set up calmly in advance. Your phone can already share its mobile data as a hotspot, and a cheap 4G or 5G router with its own SIM does the same job more reliably for a few pounds a month. Keep one in a drawer, charged, with the password written on the back.

The thing that matters is practising the switch once, on a quiet afternoon, so you're not learning it at seven on a Friday. Know which devices you'd move onto mobile data first. The card machine and whatever screen your orders come in on are the two that pay for themselves in one saved service.

Know what to pause and how

When you can't take an order properly, the worst outcome is taking it anyway and then letting the customer down. So decide the order of play now.

If card payments are down and you can't get them back quickly, switch to cash only and say so at the counter and on the phone. If you take orders through the delivery apps and your whole line is down, pause your shop on each app from the tablet or the app's manager so you stop accepting orders you can't cook in time. It takes a few taps and you can turn it back on the moment you're up again. The same goes for your own online ordering: if nothing is reaching the kitchen, it's better to close it for an hour than to collect orders nobody can see.

Tell customers before they wonder

A customer who can't get through to you assumes you're ignoring them. A customer who's seen a quick note knows exactly where they stand. Put one line on your social pages. "Our internet's down tonight, so we're cash only and taking orders by phone on [your number] until it's back." Pin it. People are forgiving when you tell them; they're less forgiving of silence.

One screen that keeps running on mobile data

Rowbo's whole idea is that all your orders arrive in one place. The orders from Deliveroo and Uber Eats, and the orders your own customers place for collection, your delivery or the table, land on one screen that rings. Bringing the app orders onto that screen is what we're connecting now, founding shops first.

Two things about that help on a night like Guy's. The orders screen runs on a phone or tablet you already own, so if your shop broadband dies you can put that device on your mobile-data hotspot and keep seeing orders while the router reboots. And a connection indicator, which is coming soon, will show you at a glance whether the screen is online, so you're not left guessing whether it's a quiet night or a dead line. The difference between those two is the difference between a calm hour and six hours with a 3G router.

Your own online orders don't depend on your shop's broadband to be placed, either. A customer orders from their own phone, on their own data. As long as your screen is online, through your wifi or your mobile backup, those orders keep landing with the address typed and, for card orders, the money already taken.

None of this makes the internet more reliable. It just means the night it fails costs you a bad hour instead of a week off your life. See how ordering works, or tell us your business name and we'll show you your own menu on it.