Reclaiming Delivery Guidance for Owning & Operationalizing Delivery Channels
A Companion Guide to RTN’s Native Delivery TCO Calculator, with best practices and checklists for: • System Requirements • Operations, People & Management • Customer Awareness & Marketing
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RECLAIMING DELIVERY
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Staff
Introduction
ABBY LORDEN
With the rapid shift to off-premises dining, restaurants have become increasingly concerned about relinquishing razor-slim margins to thirdparty delivery companies. Restaurants are seeking viable alternatives to outsourced delivery in the form of native or owned delivery models. This workgroup brought restaurants and suppliers together to prescribe best practices for reclaiming the last-mile delivery customer experience — allowing restaurants to take control of their most valuable assets: employees, customers, food quality/safety and business-sustaining margin. From this workgroup, RTN published the industry’s first Native Delivery TCO Calculator, a smart spreadsheet packed with precise formulas for evaluating Native Delivery vs. Delivery as a Service (Daas) vs. Third-Party Delivery. While not allencompassing, RTN’s Native Delivery Best Practices and TCO Calculator are meant to be downloaded and utilized by restaurants as beginning-stages tools on the way to evaluating and embracing a variety of delivery models.
ANGELA DIFFLY Co-Founder, RTN 404.550.7789 angela@restauranttechnologynetwork.com
PATRICK DUNPHY CIO, HTNG & RTN 312.690.5039 patrick@restauranttechnologynetwork.com
ROBERT FIRPO-CAPPIELLO Editor in Chief, HT 917.208.7393 rfirpo-cappiello@ensembleiq.com
ANNA WOLFE Senior Editor, HT 207.773.1154 awolfe@ensembleiq.com
MICHAL CHRISTINE ESCOBAR Senior Editor, HT 224.632.8204 mescobar@ensembleiq.com
KATHERINE WARE
RTN Mission
Senior Account Executive, HT & RTN 785.424.7392 kware@ensembleiq.com
The Restaurant Technology Network (RTN) is a membership community solely dedicated to the restaurant technology industry. Through access to valuable benefits and powerful connections, our members shape industry standards and share technical guidance to help restaurateurs run successful businesses and better serve their customers.
RESTAURANT TECHNOLOGY NETWORK
VP and Brand Director, HT Co-Founder, RTN 973.607.1358 alorden@ensembleiq.com
NOELL DIMMIG Account Executive, HT & RTN 973.607.1370 ndimmig@ensembleiq.com
LEAH SEGARRA Senior Account Executive, HT & RTN 973.610.8391 lsegarra@ensembleiq.com
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Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 2 Delivery: Third-Party & Native Delivery Considerations.........................................4 Native Delivery: System Requirements ........................................................................6 Native Delivery: Operations, People & Management...............................................8 Native Delivery: Customer Awareness & Marketing...............................................10 Customer Feedback .......................................................................................................... 12
Key Contributors
SKIP KIMPEL
CIO 4 Rivers Restaurant Group
RYAN PERSHAD Global Operations Manager GetSwift
CHRISTOPHER SEBES Partner Results Thru Strategy
ZACK OATES Founder & CEO Ovation
Additional Contributions
Copyright 2020 Restaurant Technology Network (RTN). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or information storage and retrieval systems, without express written permission from the publisher. RTN is a wholly owned subsidiary of EnsembleIQ, with principal headquarters at 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60631.
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RECLAIMING DELIVERY
DELIVERY: Third-Party and Native Delivery Considerations Take Orders via Multiple Channels
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Ensure that all orders run through the POS to track revenues properly and receive payments.
STEP
Send Directly to Kitchen Automated or manual ticket process.
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Prep & Packing Use the empty dining room to layout orders efficiently. Separate self-deliver orders from aggregator orders.
STEP
Track assets (human and physical capital) in real time. This allows you to communicate with customers in an automated fashion so they know when orders are coming, allowing you to stop fielding calls about order location and focus on bringing in orders.
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4
Delivery Management
STEP
Owned Delivery Primer Bringing delivery in-house has benefits and challenges. Here are several key considerations as you evaluate owned delivery for your brand. LIABILITY: Restaurants can accept liability and find the right provider to help, or provide a waiver and pass liability to staff as a condition of accepting the position. SAFETY: To minimize your exposure as a business, ensure your facilities are prepped to handle sanitary requirements and provide PPE to all your employees per federal and state guidelines. TRANSPORTATION: Restaurants will either need to provide a vehicle, which will factor into your overall cost, or more commonly employees will use their own. STAFFING: Try to understand your volumes during various times of day. Ensure you have enough drivers available during peak times. This assessment should also factor in fulfillment staff who act as inbetweens kitchen and drivers. PACKAGING: Look at packaging as a way to market your brand and create a positive user experience. Look into custom-branded packaging and driver uniforms. Make sure that your food travels well. Experiment to see if you need special packaging to fit your dishes. Look for a way to expand your in-restaurant experience to your customer’s front door. ECONOMICS: An assessment is recommended to ensure your owned delivery channel is profitable. Create a minimum for orders, if necessary. With high volumes, delivery fees can be waived to add to the customer experience.
Marketing Your Delivery Service • If you are promoting third-party delivery companies, you are relinquishing the customer and paying hefty commissions on your own customer. • Market your app and website. Use signage to promote your owned channels when dine-in returns, and encourage employee and customer referrals to your owned channels. If you have the budget, explore digital marketing for additional exposure. • Emphasize the cost savings, build a loyalty program that rewards consumers for ordering multiple times. • Create signage, promote on social and customer channels, and strive for word-of-mouth referrals.
Third-Party Delivery If you’re considering using delivery providers, here are several key considerations.
• If someone calls, tell them about your digital products.
TECHNOLOGY: Requires integration via API for custom solutions or native integration with online ordering providers integrated with logistical delivery providers. PACKAGING: Look at packaging as a way to market your brand and create a positive user experience. What will this experience be like for the consumer? ECONOMIC IMPACT: For consumers, delivery fees will be higher than marketplace orders. How do restaurants subsidize fees to make it appealing? Tips collected for online order and delivery are generally attributed to the driver with contract language stating minimums.
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• Interact directly with your customers, and create a database you can market to. • Reorders = compound growth, even if it is a small percentage monthover-month.
RECLAIMING DELIVERY
System Requirements Online Ordering • Transaction fees, ability to negotiate • Consistency with menu mapping • Stand up website and apps
POS • Tablet consolidation • Some level integration for all software components • For example, delivery management could go to directly to POS or to POS via Online Ordering Platform • Single source of truth
Delivery Management
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• Ability to throttle orders, ultimately understanding what your capacity is.
• Lighted car signs
• Designate a pickup area
• Staff management
• Consider a second make line
• Tip management
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• Real-time status updates for customers apps, SMS
Loyalty • Big: Earn burn, and collect/utilize rewards • Small: Direct communications, customer identity (SMS blasts, email lists)
Guest Communications & Feedback • Feedback on Order • Direct to brand: Not via Yelp or Google, will foster better communication with customers. • Timeliness: Real-time, or next day depending on sentiment and how the organization wants to respond. • Collateral on Direct Ordering • Consider cost per acquisition, transition customers from marketplace to websites and direct restaurants apps. Offer discounts for direct orders.
Security (coverage across all platforms) • Network Security (Overarching) • Privacy Compliance for your Vendors (CCPA, GDPR, LPGA, ADA) • Wi-Fi, WAPs: Enough power, cellular failover for uptime. Ability to operate offline. This is critical with off-premise technology. • SIEM and Network for work from home/corporate monitoring: Threat detection and response • PCI: Make sure vendors have certs, increase oversight with more orders going online into cloud-based solutions.
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RECLAIMING DELIVERY
Operations, People & Management SOURCING DRIVERS
SPEED OF SERVICE BEST PRACTICES
• Utilizing your own staff — get more staff back to work
Software efficiencies • Kitchen order management: Lead time accuracy
• Utilizing third-party delivery, even if you have produced the order through your own channels
• Fleet management and routing: Fast delivery and management
• Hiring former drivers from services directly
• POS Integration: Ability to measure speed of service. Tracking order in times versus when it actually leaves the building.
• Hire direct, referral bonuses, postings, word of mouth
Scheduling: Ensure sufficient staff to execute for projected volume. • Capacity assessment: Based on past metrics, what is your true capacity? Assess days of the week and hours of the day for peaks and troughs of volume.
INCENTIVES • Dedicated shifts
• Make sure to properly quote for each segment: Dine-In, Delivery, Takeout.
• Bonus potential • Efficiency bonus
• With dining rooms reopen, factor carryout, dine-in, and delivery. Ensure fair delivery windows and prioritize when necessary (for example, delivery over curbside).
• Customer feedback/secret shopper bonuses
MANAGING LIABILITY • Accept liability and factor into cost of employee • Waive via contractual obligations, if employee is willing • 1099 Route - Contractor
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MENU AVAILABILITY & ADJUSTMENTS
TRAINING - AREAS TO TARGET (EXPANSION OF YOUR EXISTING BEST PRACTICES)
Limit menu based on
Train managers to become subject matter experts
• What travels well • What can be stored/prepped
• Support proliferation of managers knowledge via training channels: Youtube, third-party platforms, etc.
Delivery might have limitations according to special menu items. Rely on core menu items, limit changes/customizations.
Food Handling
Offer different menus for different times of the day (day-parting).
Hospitality Training • Guest Interaction
• Consider platforms to automate, driving sales and lightening loads for staff and inventory.
• Presentation • Contactless Protocols • Safety and Security • To ensure an end-to-end safe experience, consider prepay and/or limiting cash Driver Training • Physical driving safety Branding • How to behave in the course of delivery • Uniforms and vehicle branding
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RECLAIMING DELIVERY
Customer Awareness & Marketing SOCIAL Create accounts on various social media platforms. (Facebook and Instagram are considered highly effective)
WEBSITE/APP Leverage first- or thirdparty online ordering platforms in order to build and maintain an online presence • Update Google My Business with this channel • Connect to your other technologies (POS, Delivery Management) • Advertise as you would 3PD (Stickers, Signs, Word of Mouth)
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THIRD-PARTY DELIVERY WIN-BACKS Let customers know that you offer delivery and provide where to order • QR Codes • Printed Flyers • Be careful with third-party delivery company policy, as it attributes to marketing in this way • Branding on your website • Push Notifications from your App
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• Promotion and removal of third-party delivery fcb128 references • Guide customers to your websites and apps • Create incentives for customers by providing discounts for ordering directly from your brand
SMS
• Frequency: Low (2X/month)
• Frequency: High (4X/month)
• Similar Marketing Strategies to SMS
• Expensive: Using keywords to a short-code
• If once a month, try newsletter style.
• Less Expensive: Local number or toll-free number
• Fit Delivery into this as a section, explain how it is cheaper for the customer.
• Set Up SMS Marketing Program • Send out offers for the delivery program to get customers to order directly • Hallmark Holidays: Promotions “Stay Home, Hangout, Leave the food to us”
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RECLAIMING DELIVERY
Customer Feedback Now more than ever, it is critical to know what your customers are feeling. Do they feel safe, is the food up to quality, was the service as they expect? With 97% of people having issues with online ordering* (Source: Ovationup.com), it is especially important to give customers an avenue for feedback when owning delivery channels.
Measuring Customer Sentiment LEVEL 0
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 3
Do nothing. Not only will you be flying blind as to how you are doing in the new normal, but your online reviews will suffer.
Include email / phone number for text response in a bag stuffer.
Use a free QR code generator and a free survey tool with a bag stuffer and a simple survey
Automate the survey, collect customer data and permission to contact them.
On average, online reviews that mention delivery have 1.5 fewer stars than those that don’t (Source: SMG).
PRO TIP: Use a free Google voice number: “If there is any issue with your order, text us here!”
PRO TIP: 85% of people will only take a survey with fewer than 5 questions. (Source: Ovationup.com)
(Also consider a bag stuffer, providing multiple ways for your customer to connect if there are any issues).
Engaging With Customers: Your Checklist Respond to feedback. There are tools that can help you automate or simplify the time it takes to respond to customers.
Data shows that for every customer complaint, there are 26 other unhappy customers who have remained silent (Source: Lee Resource).
The No. 1 thing that complaining customers want to feel when they give feedback is HEARD. Make sure they know you heard them.
Look for tools that help you find patterns, to quickly solve problems before they result in significant lost business.
Speed matters! People are willing to spend $20 more with a business that responds within 5 minutes (Source: Harvard Business Review).
Customer Board of Advisors: Restaurants are encouraging their biggest fans to become unofficial advisors, asking them to send photos of food, packaging, etc. While not a substitute for constant customer feedback, it offers an “insider view” and a solid way to stay on top of issues.
While it is great to handle customer complaints 1-on-1 to practice stellar service recovery, it is important to solve the root cause of the specific issue as well.
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Trending Delivery Issues
CRM Considerations
• TEMPERATURE: Spend extra effort to keep hot things hot and cold things cold.
What did they buy?
• TIME: Usually the temperature issue is related to delivery times. • TEXTURE: Packaging matters. Test your packaging to ensure your menu items deliver well and are packaged for optimal delivery.
When did they buy?
• THOROUGHNESS: Items are often missing. Double check the bags and have a compensation plan for when it happens.
How many times did they buy?
• TACT: Ensure proper training on how to handle a customer complaint. A missing sauce packet may not seem like a lot, unless that is how they always have that dish when they dine in.
How often do they buy?
By leveraging CRM technology and Customer Loyalty platforms as an offshoot, restaurants can collect information and create actionable insights from the data.
Ts
The 5
Track which customers are buying what, how, when and how often, then leverage the data to remarket to increase customer lifetime value.
With online ordering you have the ability to capture time and frequency of orders, which allows you to follow these best practices: • Provide incentives for customers reordering, by knowing when someone usually orders and prompt them to order from you. • “Hi Eric, you usually have tacos for lunch on Wednesday, would you like to order for delivery?” • Segment offers in marketing by past purchases.
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• If a customer only visits for lunch, send dinner promo for delivery. • Utilize point-based system/digital punch card: “10th Visit - 20% off” • Softsell complimentary items. Example: Dessert pizza was ordered once. Always recommend this item to increase basket size.
RECLAIMING DELIVERY
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