After a long day, many people don’t feel like cooking. Sometimes, they just want a warm meal served to them. But if they don’t feel like going out in bad weather or just want to enjoy a meal at home, delivery is the best option. About 60 percent of U.S. consumers order delivery or takeout once a week, and that number is still growing. Is your establishment positioned for success? Whether you’re falling behind the competition or you just want to provide a better customer experience, here’s how you can improve your restaurant’s food delivery service.
Review your delivery zone
After you’ve mapped out a delivery radius around your restaurant you’ll need to keep it updated. To do this, you should regularly review your delivery zone to ensure that you keep up with developments in your area. Make sure that your delivery system is up to date with the newest maps, neighborhoods, roadwork, and routes to ensure that your drivers can do their job effectively. For your system to stay accurate and up to date, it may need to be mapped every few years.
Map out a delivery strategy
Beyond your delivery zone, it’s important to be strategic about your approach to food delivery, especially your food delivery service hours is also key. Plan out delivery hours that make the most sense for your pace of business. To help with this, ask yourself these questions:
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What days and times are busiest?
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Is there a time when deliveries are virtually non-existent?
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Are you staffed effectively for peak hours? What about low periods?
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How do lunch and dinner deliveries compare to one another?
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Do certain days of the week or even of the year see a noticeable increase in deliveries?
Track your drivers
One of the most important parts of an efficient food delivery service is the ability to track delivery drivers who are out on routes, especially right from your point of sale system. Your customers will benefit from an accurate time estimate for food delivery, and as a restaurant owner or manager, you’ll be able to better manage your operation’s speed of service. Being able to track drivers can also help identify bottlenecks in your delivery system and resolve them.
Optimize online ordering
Over the course of the pandemic, delivery orders increased exponentially, and there was a massive increase in online ordering. In order to keep up with demand, you’ll need a strong online ordering system that is capable of handling your delivery orders. A system that is easily accessible and easy to use is key for improving your food delivery service.
Focus on packaging
Packaging is a critical aspect of food delivery that can make or break the customer experience. Nobody wants to receive a cold or messy delivery order, so it’s on you to ensure that your food arrives in great shape. Make sure to package food appropriately to avoid spillage, crushed entrees, broken containers, or soggy menu items (especially fried foods). An order packing station is a great way to improve your food delivery service, as it streamlines the process and puts quality-control measures in place. You can also leverage packaging to establish and improve your restaurant’s branding. To do this, try to find a packaging supplier that will print your logo and name on each of your containers.
Improve your marketing
With so many restaurants for customers to choose from, you need to find ways to set your food delivery service apart from the competition. Effective restaurant marketing can help you increase visibility and boost traffic to your restaurant, so it’s important that you do it right. Make sure you have an appealing, functional website that’s easy to navigate and up to date. And in order to generate traffic online, it’s essential that you pay attention to restaurant SEO.
But beyond your restaurant website, you can improve your delivery service by incentivizing your customers to come back or place bigger orders. Gift cards, loyalty programs, and exclusive offers are a great way to attract new customers and keep existing ones coming back.
Use technology
When it comes to improving your food delivery service, packaging and marketing only go so far — in order to reach your restaurant’s full potential, you should use technology to support and improve your food delivery service. And as your business grows, you need flexible technology that will help you scale.
Choose a restaurant point of sale system that allows you to accept, manage, delegate, and track all of your delivery orders. Among other things, your POS can help you manage all of your orders to streamline your menu and increase restaurant sales across the board.
Leverage integrations
Integrations are one of the most powerful features of any restaurant point of sale system. They ensure that your POS can communicate with all of the other tools that help you run your business, without the need for manual inputs. Food delivery service apps such as Uber Eats and Grub Hub are more popular than ever, so integrating them with RPOWER can help you boost sales and improve your food delivery service altogether.
There are a handful of other powerful integrations that can be used to help improve your delivery operation. For example, a caller ID that links to your ordering software can connect phone numbers to customers in your database, preventing your employees from having to manually input information about customers every time they order. The same information can also be used for customer rewards and loyalty programs that can help you build customer relationships.
Final thoughts
The right restaurant point of sale solution can help you manage your restaurant more efficiently, improve your food delivery service, and increase customer satisfaction. The end result? Higher revenues and a loyal customer base that is eager to support your business. A flexible system with rich features and integrations gives you the most value for your investment.
RPOWER POS is a proven leader in the restaurant POS software industry. Contact us today to book a demo and see how we can help you improve the functionality of your restaurant’s food delivery service.