Over the years, the online food delivery trend has picked up a lot of paces. Online delivery is not one of the fun restaurant promotion ideas anymore. It is convenient, and it is trending. Who wouldn’t want to order food via an app from the comfort of your home in a few clicks?
Platforms like Food Panda, Zomato, and Swiggy have made it even more accessible. With the arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic, ordering food online has become even more popular than before. On top of that, food delivery business ideas like cloud kitchens’ arrival that focuses only on food delivery combined with cashless economic transitions, online food delivery has seen significant growth.
Therefore, as a restaurant business, you need to learn how to market effectively to increase restaurant traffic and revenue boost your delivery business. You need to have a proper food delivery marketing plan as a poor delivery service can have an immensely negative effect on your brand and tarnish your physical restaurant’s reputation.
Here are some strategies to increase sales in restaurants by marketing and working on your restaurant delivery business online.
1. Use Technology to Manage Online Orders and Delivery Tracking
When it comes to food delivery business ideas, incorporating technology is indispensable. Technology can help you manage orders, maintain clear communication with riders, and assign them the deliveries. Technology also enables you to track the orders after they leave your restaurant.
Suppose you are looking to increase the restaurant delivery business online. In that case, you need to put a proper technological system to monitor and optimize the whole delivery process from food orders to routes for riders.
Many POS systems help you categorize customers as per their favored orders and optimize the entire data accordingly.
It is vital to choose an efficient POS system, especially if you are multiple online ordering services. This choice saves you the trouble to maintain all the orders manually. If you use technology efficiently, it will help increase restaurant traffic and enhance the online delivery experience for both you and your customers.
2. Train Staff and Use Cloud Telephony for Clear Communication
Taking orders on the phone is still a prevalent method in many restaurants, but it negatively impacts, especially if the staff is untrained.
There are chances that your restaurant may lose business. Instead of seeing an increase in restaurant delivery business online, you may decrease because of wrong orders and miscommunication.
Follow these tips to improve your restaurant’s delivery service:
- Proper telephonic communication with customers
- Staff trained to confirm orders politely with no discrepancy
- Guide customers effectively for their orders
- Have proper order instructions
- Use Cloud Telephony
Using cloud telephony helps you maintain all call logs, and it automatically transfers calls from one number to another when one goes unanswered, or the line is busy. This practice makes it easy for you to keep track of all orders, and none of the orders are missed.
3. Create and Optimize a Crisp, Concise, and Clear Online Menu
Having an optimized online menu that is clear, concise, easy to read, provides all the required information, and has a clear CTA is an essential clause of a stellar food delivery marketing plan.
This online menu can be found anywhere, whether on your restaurant’s website or the different online delivery services. Streamline this menu and display the popular dishes that can be delivered without mishap on a bike.
It is also essential to have a dynamic online ordering page where the customers would be compelled to place the order. It is one of the best strategies to increase sales in restaurants when customers are tempted and find it easy to place an order.
You can also utilize this landing page for unique and fun restaurant promotion ideas to leverage the online revenue to the max.
4. Create Foolproof Packaging for delivery
To learn how to increase restaurant business online, you need to pay attention to every aspect of your enterprise, including food packaging.
Packaging is a crucial part of food delivery that can significantly affect the restaurant’s sales online. It is essential to deliver neatly packed, piping hot food to the customer like it is necessary to serve food in a sit-in restaurant.
Ensure that the food and packaging are suitable for delivery on a bike. Give proper thought to how the food will be after traveling (whether it be soggy, dry, cold, etc.). If you have any doubts about some dish or there’s a chance of spillage, then it is best to omit that dish from the online menu altogether.
Dropping a dish from an online menu can benefit you in the long run as it will compel customers to come and dine in and enjoy their favorite food.
You can also use good packaging to create your brand’s online presence by adding personalized touches like your restaurant’s logo printed on the packaging or stickers. This attention-to-detail will help you in boosting your brand recognition.
5. How to Optimize Your Kitchen for Delivery with Dine-in
Most of the restaurants switched to online delivery services when the pandemic hit. As the dine-in guests are coming back, it is crucial for you to organize your restaurant for both services.
It is best to optimize the kitchen for both delivery and dine-in by dividing your kitchen staff for both services. By dedicating a separate team for both services, you can ensure that one section does not overlap the other.
No matter how many orders you have online, there will be a separate team to deal with it. It will not impact the dine-in services—especially during the peak hours like lunch and dinner; having separately optimized units smoothen the whole process.
Another benefit of having two teams is that you also have some extra hands if one of the sides is slow and the other is fast.
6. How to Increase Restaurant Sales with Good Customer Service
Good customer service is not limited to dine-in customers. It is also essential that you provide excellent customer service and an outstanding client experience to online customers.
It is imperative to track delivery time, equip delivery personnel with insulated bags to maintain the hot and cold food and drinks temperatures.
Do you want to rank amongst the top online delivery businesses? Then, pay special attention to a few extras that can increase your brand value. Include proper tableware (when required), napkins, and condiments with each order.
Quality check is vital for online deliveries. Experiment with packaging techniques like spill-free containers to ensure that the food remains safe on delivery vehicles.
It is imperative to pay close attention to these details when delivering an order through a third party like Zomato, Foodpanda, and Swiggy. Customers can also rate your restaurant on these platforms, so it is essential to maintain a high rating to add value to your brand.