Majahua Now Takes Your Order Before You Walk Over

Majahua is a Mexican food truck in Albany, Oregon. It sits at The Barn at Hickory Station, with a few other trucks.

The food is the real thing. This isn't Taco Bell. This isn't fast food. It's made with heart and soul, and it's good. I've been there plenty of times. I usually get the birria quesadilla, and I love it.

I've also stood in that line.

There are several medical offices nearby. When the staff break for lunch, they head to the barn. Then they wait. I've watched it eat most of a lunch hour. By the time the food shows up, the break is almost over.

What they had

Majahua didn't have a website. They had a little social media, but it wasn't doing much for them.

Social is fine for showing off the food. It's bad at taking an order. The menu was hard to read on a phone, and it changes all the time. You can't order from a picture of last week's menu.

So I didn't think more posting would fix it. I thought a website would.

What we built

A site with online ordering. It's live, and it's tested.

You order from your desk. When the order is done, you get an email that says it's ready. Text messages are on the way too, once the approval comes through.

Now picture the walk over. The food is ready when you get there. No standing around. That's the whole idea.

This isn't really a post about saving time. It's about what you do with it. Good food, and a full hour of lunch.

Most of the time I see the staff walk over together. Now they get to sit down and talk. They eat, and then they take a little walk back, full and happy.

The part owners don't see

We also built a back end, so the owners can change the menu themselves. Prices, descriptions, specials. One easy place.

That matters because a lot of food trucks run on Square. Square is great at taking payments. It's not great when the line is long and you're typing in a price and moving on.

When items get entered in a hurry, the data gets muddy. A "quesadilla" ends up as a vague description, or an item with no name that makes sense. Then you can't tell what's really selling.

Online orders don't have that problem. Every one comes in with the item's real name, the same way every time.

Enter every item clearly, and the numbers start talking. For example, say tacos sell the most on Tuesdays around three. That's your cue to run a taco special on Tuesday. You can't find that if nobody can tell what was sold.

A menu that's easy to update is a menu that gets updated.

See it for yourself

Order from majahualocal.com. Then walk over, grab your food, and sit down.

Then take the long way back.