Restaurants offering delivery and curbside pickup isn’t new exactly, but COVID put these services in overdrive. In our new normal, this trend is only growing, and it can represent a valuable revenue stream, especially during the holidays, when customers are out shopping and visiting friends and family.
Here are a few tips to fine tune your delivery and curbside pick-up program for the holiday season.
Safety First
Safety is on the top of everyone’s minds right now, and delivery and curbside pick-up can feel like safer options for guests, so it’s important to establish and communicate your safety protocols with both your customers and your staff. These expectations should be clearly identified in your training materials so you can train new and existing staff to understand how to deliver food safely, from hand-washing and glove-wearing procedures to safely interacting with guests who are waiting for their orders. Likewise, keeping your employees safe is a huge concern, so communicate with guests if you have expectations about mask-wearing during pick-up.
When it comes to delivery, contact-less delivery has become extremely popular, but there is a risk that you may miss feedback from a customer, so give customers an option to text or call in with feedback about their order so that you can respond accordingly and in a timely manner.
Pantry Pickup
Once you’ve added your most recent menus to your website, you can take it one step further by adding pantry goods, like rice and flour, and ingredients that can help complete a meal, like a lemon or olive oil, for guests to add to their cart. You may also want to add an upsell option for customers to include utensils and napkins. This keeps you from having to add these items to every order, which can be wasteful, and allows customers to identify (and pay for) items that they need.
Do you sell merch and gift certificates? Add them to your online menu, and be sure to offer a few options for “host gifts” that are bundled up like a present to give your customers an easy option if they’re headed to a party or gathering.
Best Packaging
When you sell food to go, you lose the first point of contact between the customer and the dish—that moment when the food arrives at the table, plated artistically and served on plates that you’ve chosen. For that reason, you want to identify packaging that can stand in for the silverware you use in your dining room. Packaging should be durable, easy to open and close, and tamper evident to instill confidence and create the best dining experience for your guests, no matter where they are.
Communication Is Key
When it comes to delivery and curbside pick-up, communication is key. Your goal should be to remove any hesitation on the part of the customer by providing clear and consistent messaging. This could mean adding a FAQ section to your online ordering platforms as well as directly to your website. Consider following up online orders with an email that includes the guest’s receipt and directions for receiving delivery or curbside pick-up.
On-site, create directional signage to display around your parking lot for customers to easily navigate the pick-up process. Include the best, most responsive way for guests who are waiting on their orders to contact you. You’ll also want to label each item in the order (ideally with branded labels) and include directions for storage and reheating so that the guest enjoys their items the way they were intended to be eaten.
Test Drive
The best way to know if your delivery and curbside pick-up offerings are working is to test them. Ask friends and family to place comped orders and provide detailed feedback about what works well and what needs revision in your process. You might want to have some feedback cards printed or a Google form online for capturing customer insights. Once you have the process down pat, invite a few frequent customers and local influencers to give those services a try and encourage them to share their feedback with you and their experiences with their followers.