Over the past few years, many restaurants have started offering delivery as a way to boost sales and to meet the demand for more convenient food options. However, there are still many restaurant operators who have held off and stayed firm to their dine-in culture. But once the pandemic hit, and social distancing has become a key part of preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus, it’s forced their hand. If your restaurant, bar, or cafe has had to start delivering, we’re here to help. Here are a few things you can do to set yourself up for success.
Reduce The Size of Your Menu
The first step toward staying competitive is to improve efficiency and reduce costs. You can do this by reducing the size of your menu. Maintaining a full menu during this challenging time will only increase your food cost at a time when you need to save. Charlie Jeffers of Ordermark suggested asking yourself: What are the items that are easy to produce and get out the door quickly?
“What they need to do is trim down their menu, look at the items that are easy to procure and produce, so they can make a menu and put it up online and make easy items they can get out that are going to travel well,” Jeffers told the Spoon.
As you work on reducing your menu offerings, try to keep in mind which items travel well. Pizza, for example, travels well. Items like steaks and seafood will be more of a challenge. That doesn’t mean you’re in trouble if you own a steak and seafood restaurant, it just means that you’ll want to put your focus on fewer items so you can deliver the best experience.
Include New Offerings Where It Makes Sense
Although we just discussed reducing the number of items on your menu, you may want to consider adding a few items that tailor specifically to people that are bound to their homes. Because home quarantine includes entire families, it makes sense to offer complete meal options and larger family-style servings for those who have several mouths to feed.
A lack of dine-in customers also means a lack of alcohol sales which can put a big dent in your profits. Consider offering beer and wine options for those who still want to enjoy a drink or two with their meal but don’t want to (or can’t) make a trip to the liquor store.
Offer Meal Kits
During a time when families are looking for ways to stay occupied in their homes, offering meal kits can be a win-win for both your restaurant and your customers. You can choose a few of your most popular dishes, making sure to include one or two that are “kid-friendly”. For each meal kit that is ordered, provide all of the ingredients needed to make that dish and a list of simple instructions to go along with it. Not only will your customers be getting a delicious meal, it will provide a fun activity that the whole family can share in. For more information on this, and other ideas like it, check out this article from QSR magazine.
Do It Faster and Better
For restaurants and many other businesses, delivery is a must right now. This means you are now competing with many others who may have more experience with delivery, but you can still come out on top by doing it better and faster. Our delivery software allows you to automatically turn orders into delivery jobs, dispatch to drivers, and optimize routes. Not only will it help you conquer delivery, but it can also help you improve customer service and actually grow your business with options like real-time delivery tracking and the ability to communicate with your customers throughout each step of the process.
The world is changing, especially for those in the restaurant business — but that doesn’t mean you can’t still come out on top. Contact a member of our team to learn how GetSwift can help.
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