Optimizing Restaurant Delivery & Take-Out Operations for Success
As more customers opt to have their meals delivered, restaurant managers are looking for new ways to tighten up delivery operations. But to improve your delivery service, you have to evaluate your delivery and identify areas for growth.
There are three key metrics to consider when measuring the efficiency of your restaurant delivery strategy:
Timeliness
Keep an eye on how much time it takes between a customer placing an order and when it arrives. Talabat and Deliveroo dashboards & devices enables you to track accurate delivery estimates to customers as well as update them if there are any delays. In most cases customers should be able to track their orders once driver collects order from restaurant.
Order Accuracy
Do your best to double-check orders by encouraging both your dispatcher and delivery driver to check the order before it goes out the door. Usually third-party drivers will only be responsible for only collecting and delivering orders on time, in this case it will be the sole responsibility of the dispatcher to ensure order is packed and dispatched properly.
Food Quality
Meal delivery optimization minimizes time between a meal being ready and it’s delivery to the customer. The dispatcher should ensure driver’s efficiency and food quality by factoring driving estimated time of arrival, food prep time and customer expectations. Through optimized matching of drivers to deliveries, dispatcher should make order ready before it’s fired up from kitchen, at the same time dispatcher should ensure driver doesn’t wait long to collect orders as this reflects on your restaurant KPIs. Shift managers should ensure deliveries are completed within set parameters to help them grow their transactions and business.
Let’s explore how to optimize your restaurant delivery and takeout strategy for success.
How to optimize delivery and takeout at each step of the ordering process
Running a successful restaurant delivery operation requires checking your efficiency each step of the way. Here are some things to consider as you get your orders out the door:
What you should do before accepting delivery or takeout orders
Creating an efficient delivery process begins before you even accept an order. Partnering with a third-party delivery service like TalabatGo, Deliveroo, Armada or Flick can allow you to organize your restaurant delivery operations. Here are five tips for getting your delivery program off to the right start.
Train Your Staff
Make sure your team is trained on your delivery process and how to use your delivery partner platforms, such as TalabatGo & Deliveroo for Restaurants, Armada & Flick for assigning drivers. Make it clear to your in-house employees who are in charge of bagging orders and having them ready to go for drivers.
Organize Orders
Designate a clear spot for delivery and Pick-up orders to be collected. You can update any special instructions for TGO / Deliveroo drivers by having them register their phone number in case of any customer special request.
Optimize Your Menu
Reduce special requests from customers by listing all possible menu add-on options, if you require any special request you can always address to delivery admin to update your request from backend.
Check Your Boundaries
It is important that the delivery boundaries you set for your restaurant can reach the most customers without sacrificing food quality or delivery speed. Your delivery support team can adjust timing of certain areas from the backend dashboard, managers should communicate their request for such updates.
Stacking
This usually occurs during busy times or when there are shortages of drivers in certain parameter or area, delivery aggregators force drivers to pickup two or more deliveries with staggered pickup and drop-off times. Usually if this occurs with TalabatGo or Deliveroo there’s nothing you can do about except for prepping & dispatching orders in a fast paced manner. If it’s related to Armada / Flick you can switch among both platforms and request drivers as needed to avoid “stacked delivery”. Your dispatchers should be trained on how to handle such situations during busy time.
How to prepare your delivery and takeout orders
Once your cooks are done prepping up an order, provide a status on the ticket online so that a driver can be assigned and the customer can be updated on the estimated delivery time. To avoid such delays always assign a rider before order departs kitchen.
Before you send the order off, re-read the full ticket to catch any add-ons or special instructions. Finally, label each item by attaching delivery order / ticket to the bag, it’s also advisable to tick every item on the ticket while bagging to ensure everything on the ticket is included in bag.
Packing orders for delivery and pick-up
All takeout and delivery orders should be packaged together in easy-to-carry bags. Make sure you mark each item by ticking on the ticket after placing it in the bag. As you package up an order, be mindful of best practices.
Pack hot and cold items separately
Hot items that tend to cool faster should be in tight, insulated boxes and transported with insulated delivery bags. Ensure drivers are carrying insulated delivery bags. Milkshakes should be preserved in ice-sealed bags.
Label correctly
Attach the ticket to customer’s bag and label all bags with the customer’s order. Code each order with a number to avoid distraction or confusion during busy time.
Choose the right packaging
Your food delivery containers should be durable and the right size for each portion. Be intentional about what material packaging you use for certain items.
Seal bags securely
Make sure all containers are sealed properly, and apply delivery sticker on bag to ensure all items are secure for transportation.
Handing off delivery and takeout orders
The final step is to get the order ready for pickup, either by the customer or delivery driver. Make sure you designate a specific area in your restaurant that delivery drivers and to-go customers can easily find their orders. It can help to have an employee watch over the to-go order area to ensure the orders are going to the right person.
Successful delivery and takeout operations serve happy customers
We know restaurant crew work tirelessly to feed their hungry customers, but sometimes it can be challenging to understand what exactly your customers want and need. Running a smooth delivery operation for your business requires you to understand your customers and dynamics of low / high paced shifts.