Do you run a restaurant or food service business? Around 80 percent of restaurants fail within the first five years of opening.
Why do they fail? Restaurants fail for a variety of reasons. Maybe they didn’t uphold health standards or perhaps they served disgusting meals.
If you achieve a successful dining experience for your customers, you may think you have made it.
And yet, that doesn’t mean you can afford to ignore the delivery trends that are changing the restaurant industry at a rapid rate.
You may already be using a third party to deliver your food to customers. Or maybe you’re considering providing a delivery service for the first time.
Check out below the reasons you need your own delivery service to take advantage of the food delivery trend now. Let’s go!
1. Customers Are Demanding Food Delivery
Food delivery is the future of your restaurant business. You may not like the idea that people want you to deliver food to their home. You want them to come to you.
As harsh as it seems to say, you can either adapt to the new business reality or risk everything by fighting it. By the year 2020, around 70 percent of restaurant food will be eaten off-premises.
A growing number of customers prefer home delivery. In fact, over three-quarters of millennials display a preference for delivery.
You need to decide whether you want to win a slice of that market, or you’re happy to give it up for others to take over.
2. Customers Don’t Want a Third-Party App
Food delivery apps are popular. You have probably heard of a myriad of delivery apps which are growing at a faster rate than ever.
And yet, you may be surprised to hear that people don’t want to shop with apps designed by third party services. They want the restaurant they know and love to deliver the food themselves.
Up to 55 percent of consumers say that they would prefer to order directly from the restaurant rather than a third party. Only 8 percent would rather order through a third-party. That’s a huge market to conquer.
3. Customers Will Pay More For Delivery
Some of your customers probably cannot afford to eat at your restaurant every day or every week—even though they may want to!
But for other customers, it may not be about money. Many customers want to stay at home and eat. Whether it’s just because they’re more comfortable in their own house, or because they want to eat while watching TV, they don’t want to leave the house.
For the privilege of eating your delicious meals with no need to leave home, they’re willing to pay extra. Adding a delivery charge is a way you can make some extra money.
Many customers say that they would order around once more per month if their favorite restaurant provided a home delivery service. That means they’ll pay more, more often, to eat your yummy dishes.
4. Don’t Give Your Margins Away
There are many food delivery companies making a killing on the back of your restaurant’s success. They pick up your food from your restaurant and deliver the package to the customer.
They charge the customer and your restaurant at the same time. These companies are not only making money from your customer, but they also cream off your margins.
Delivering straight to your customers with your own service will eliminate this problem.
5. Promote Your Brand on the Vehicle
If you’re an independent restaurant business, you need to take advantage of any marketing you can get your hands on.
You probably cannot afford to pay for expensive ads on television or banners on Facebook, not to mention local billboards. You need to get any ad space you can afford.
If you invest in a dedicated delivery vehicle, you don’t need to worry about billboards anymore: you can advertise on the side of the vehicle. It’s an excellent way to spread the word about your food while making money from deliveries.
6. Deliver Excellent Customer Service
Your customers expect you to deliver not only deliciously served food. They want more than a hot plate of food—they want excellent customer service.
Over 92 percent of customers say that they would stop patronizing companies with poor customer service after 3 or fewer bad experiences.
Some customers may give you a second chance if your takeaway dishes are yummy, but over one-quarter of customers would stop buying from you after just one bad experience.
With those kind of numbers, you cannot afford to disappoint your customers. Even your loyal customers won’t stick around if they start receiving poor customer experiences.
With all this is mind, can you really trust a third party to deliver your food on time with a smile? You have much more control over customer service quality if you use your own staff that you can trust to deliver excellent customer service.
7. Strengthen Relationships With Customers
Your customers may enjoy coming to your restaurant regularly. But you need to find ways to strengthen your relationship with your best customers. Offering delivery can foster a friendly relationship between your driver and customers.
Another way to strengthen this relationship is by visual contact. What if customers had a delivery app on their smartphones? You could send them notifications and updates about your recent specials or coupons.
8. Better Understand Your Customers
Data, data, and data!
Understanding your customers is all about customer data. You would be able to target your customers more effectively if you knew more about them.
If you have a home delivery service truck, you could gather data on customer location, favorite dishes, and regular times. And a delivery app is a great way to get customer feedback through allowing them to rate their delivery experience. You could even use it to send out surveys and gauge customer interest in prospective new products.
How to Provide a Food Delivery Service!
You don’t want to miss out on the potential to grow your restaurant business through a food delivery service. There are so many reasons to get your own food delivery vehicle today!
Contact us for a quote and we can help you customize the perfect delivery vehicle for your business.