Whether restaurants like it or not, third-party delivery has become a valuable tool for attracting customers and serving them food during the pandemic.
And as with any partnership—especially one as operationally complex as delivery—there are things restaurants can do to make the process work better for themselves and their customers.
“It’s definitely a relationship that you have to work at and kind of cultivate,” said Leah Arp, off-premise marketing manager for pizza chain Your Pie. “It’s not something you can just turn on and it’s going to work flawlessly.”
With that in mind, here are five tips from restaurants about how to optimize third-party delivery.
Appoint a delivery ‘puppet master’
Athens, Ga.-based Your Pie has had listings on third-party apps for years, but did not put a real emphasis on the service until last year, when it pushed to get all of its franchisees signed up.
Because the chain is almost entirely franchised, Arp took on the role of delivery point person for its various operators. She helps manage the relationships with the delivery providers and serves as a go-between for franchisees if they have issues.
Your Pie also learned that it needed a similarly delivery-focused person at the restaurant level—someone whose main job is to coordinate and prioritize third-party orders, like a “puppet master,” Arp said.
That includes keeping an eye on metrics like driver wait time as well as making sure orders are complete before they’re handed off to the driver. It can be easy to forget things like sides and sauces when the customer isn’t there to check, she said.
In general, delivery orders should be given the same importance as walk-in guests.
“You can’t let that digital [customer] not have that presence,” Arp said.
Your Pie is still testing this model and making sure franchisees see the value in using labor that way. Arp acknowledged that it might not make sense to have a dedicated delivery person in every store.
Cut down on driver wait time
Delivery providers measure restaurants based on a number of metrics including total order time and driver wait time, and this can affect how restaurants are promoted within the apps, said Mike Speck, CEO of Ohio-based sushi chain Fusian.
Fusian pushed its delivery partners to share that data every week so that it could improve its numbers, focusing on driver wait time in particular. The extra visibility allowed the chain to identify bottlenecks and work on fixing them, Speck said.
DoorDash’s benchmark for driver wait time—the time from when the driver arrives at the restaurant to when they get back in the car with the food—is six minutes, he said; Fusian’s average on a recent week was four minutes and 50 seconds.
“We had to dig and push and we got [the data] and we fixed it,” he said. “We’ve been told since then that we’re as good as it comes in terms of driver wait time.”
Rate your drivers, and treat them well
DoorDash allows restaurants to rate individual drivers in its merchant portal, and Arp recommended doing that.
“It really just helps you cultivate drivers that you want coming into the restaurant,” she said.
It’s also a chance to give drivers positive reinforcement, which could incentivize them to accept orders from you. That’s especially important now as delivery companies face driver shortages: There are fewer drivers on the road, so the ones that are working can afford to be more choosy.
In that same vein, restaurants have been known to give drivers a free drink or food item when they pick up an order. Arp endorsed that, and encouraged operators to treat drivers as they would any other customer by learning their names and getting to know them.
Invest in an order aggregator
Companies like Olo, ItsaCheckmate, Chowly and others can help streamline the delivery process by routing all third-party orders directly into a restaurant’s POS system.
Firehouse Subs began using Novadine in late 2019 to do just that, said Risa Rappaport, director of operations for the Jacksonville, Fla.-based chain. It has allowed the chain to eliminate dedicated tablets for each delivery partner and improved order flow. It’s also helped with staffing because an employee no longer has to take the step of entering those orders into the POS.
“It has really improved the overall functioning of the line,” Rappaport said.
Use the tools they give you
Rappaport also urged Firehouse franchisees to make use of the merchant portals set up by each delivery provider, where they can do things like request tech support, give driver feedback and set up marketing campaigns.
“I think it’s just a resource for folks that are using delivery service providers that maybe they don’t take full advantage of,” she said.
She also recommended that operators establish a good line of communication with their delivery rep, another resource she said sometimes goes overlooked.
“That sales partner has a vested interest, and they want your restaurant to be doing well because they certainly will do well and see the results of sales increases,” she said.
While restaurants and delivery companies have at times been at odds, Rappaport and others said it’s an important channel that restaurants need to pay attention to.
“As the industry is shifting for a variety of reasons, this is something that we have to embrace and figure out the best way for it to work as far as execution and profit and how can we drive sales and establish a relationship with the drivers,” she said.