DCRS Solutions
Should Your Restaurant Offer Delivery?
Delivery is all the rage these days and not just for pizza.
With technology offering the convenience and ability to have a meal delivered straight to your door, restaurants are teaming up with third-party delivery services or creating their own to reach new customers who now expect restaurant-quality food without ever having to leave their home.
But is offering delivery right for your restaurant?
Delivery Attracts Customers
Sometimes people don’t have time to sit down in a restaurant, yet crave an order of Pad Thai or your famous club sandwich. That’s where offering delivery can help you reach a whole new customer base.
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Whether they know it or not, many customers will prioritize convenience over cost. So if they need that late night order and are willing to pay for not only the meal, but extra for delivery, they often will.
By offering delivery at your restaurant, you are catering to customers who may not otherwise choose to sit down at your restaurant. You can also offer delivery-only promotions like discounts or deals to help sway customers to take advantage of this service.
Know If You Can Afford It
Delivery from your restaurant is a lot more than packing food into a to-go container and driving it to the customer’s door. You have to understand the costs of delivery and if your budget can afford it.
For example, you must take into account costs like driver earnings and training, as well as third-party delivery fees. If you want to use a third-party delivery system like GrubHub or DoorDash, be sure to understand how costs are broken up.
Keep Food Safety In Mind
Much like when offering takeout orders at your restaurant, food safety must be one of your top priorities.
When making food deliveries, ensure that the food is correctly stored and transported. That means keeping hot and cold foods separate and placed in insulated bags to maintain a safe food temperature until they can be placed in the hands of the customer.
Use The Right POS System
Using the right POS system like Toast or MobileBytes that feature native delivery software will be a boon to your restaurant’s delivery. In fact, Toast added improved delivery software in 2017 to benefit those restaurants who currently offer – or wish to offer – delivery.
Cloud POS systems like Toast and MobileBytes allows you to coordinate data across your restaurant, including budget, earnings, inventory and optimization features for employee scheduling to keep up with demand.
Employee Delivery Training
When adding delivery to your restaurant, make sure that delivery drivers and employees are properly trained in customer service, how to keep themselves safe while delivering, and how to handle cash.
With correct training, your delivery drivers will be able to efficiently and safely deliver your food to eager customers.
Create a Take Away Menu
Not all menu items are created equal. Some items like salad don’t travel well and may wilt and get soggy. Others may take too long to make, which defeats the purpose of the quick delivery customers expect.
When selecting your delivery menu, choose items that will ride well and review your menu to ensure that prices and descriptions are correct.
In doing so, you will avoid confusion and upset customers who were given the wrong order or charged incorrectly.