Delivery Options For Your Restaurant

 

Delivery Options For Your Restaurant

Delivery Options For Your Restaurant

In the face of the Coronavirus outbreak, many people are having to adapt to a new way of living. We have been tasked with social distancing, a term we all hear daily now from our local and federal government. Six feet apart, people! We are encouraged, if not enforced, to work from home if possible. And, many businesses that aren’t considered essential have been forced to close for an unforeseen amount of time.

As for the restaurant industry, all dining rooms have been closed to the public. But, since restaurants are considered essential, they are allowed to remain open for business. After all, studies show that 45% of diners eat out multiple times a week, with another 20% going out to eat once a week. With that many people relying on restaurants for their meals, it’s no wonder they have been considered essential. So, how do you serve your customers without the ability to allow them in your doors? The answer is delivery. Never thought about how to implement this type of service with your restaurant? Don’t worry. We’re here to help you cultivate the best delivery team and keep your sales soaring.

Staff Rearrangements

If you are a typical sit-down restaurant with waiters and waitresses, you are probably wondering how to utilize their skills without having to let go of your hard-working staff. How about switching their role to delivery drivers? While this may not be an ideal job for some, it will allow you to keep some people on your payroll that you may not have if you didn’t add delivery. If you go this route, you will have to work out the logistics of paying mileage and gas, determine if their hourly pay change, provide training on how to handle payments outside of the restaurant, and how to stay socially distance from the customers to keep your employees and customers healthy.

Partner with a Food Delivery Service

If you don’t have the staff available to use as drivers, you may consider partnering with a trending food delivery service to provide delivery for your customers. Food delivery services have been on the rise in the past few years and they seemed to take off in 2019. If you haven’t heard about GrubHub or DoorDash, we’re going to assume you’ve been living off the grid lately. To find the best service for your restaurant, do some initial research to see which food service delivery apps are popular in your area. Then, compare the costs associated with each service to determine the best one to become a partner with as part of your delivery options for your restaurant.

Delivery Logistics

Now that you have determined who is going to be delivering your food, you need to nail down the logistics of setting up your restaurant to be delivery-friendly. Here’s what we mean.

  1. Create a system for keeping orders together. Having multiple, large to-go orders running at the same time can get chaotic quickly when you have 10 white Styrofoam containers all sitting on the same counter with no labels. Train your staff to label each container with the meal inside to reduce the number of times someone has to open a container to see what’s inside.
  2. Order carryout supplies. Now that everything is going out the door, you’ll need to stock up on to-go containers. And, you will also want to add in to-go utensils, condiments, cups, and plenty of napkins to your supply order. Don’t forget insulated food carriers as well.
  3. Alter your menu if you need to. It may be beneficial to you and your delivery operation if you edit your menu to be more delivery-friendly. Do you only have a few hot foods on your menu and the rest are cold? Maybe you should reduce to just the cold items to keep things simpler. Or, take the daily special off the menu for a while and focus on your regular items instead. Also, think about how the meal will travel together. Can it all be placed in one box with dividers, or will it require multiple containers? Finding meals that require fewer supplies will be a cost saver.
  4. Determine a delivery fee. As you can see from the above, running a delivery service isn’t cheap. From the added employee’s expenses to the supplies needed to deliver the food, it all adds up quickly. Adding a delivery fee will allow you to offset these new expenses and keep your restaurant running for a profit.

Thinking through all of these delivery options for your restaurant will allow you to get your delivery service up and running while everyone continues to adapt to our new, short-term norm of the quarantined lifestyle. We want to see your restaurant to continue to be successful during this time, so don’t give up. Keep fighting for your business, your employees, and your family. We’re all in this together. If you have questions about adapting your restaurant to be delivery-friendly, let us know! Our loan officers are based in cities all across the U.S. and know lots of vendors you can partner with to help keep your restaurant open for business.