Bringing deliveries under control

Partnering with third-party delivery services doesn’t come without its consideration for restaurants. It goes beyond getting that order across to the customer on time. In my previous article titled “How delivery services can make or break your brand”, I wrote about how the delivery of your F & B order can either enhance or destroy your brand’s reputation.

Last week I ordered a Pizza via Uber Eats from a Pizzeria in Havelock Town with whom I previously have had positive experiences. They serve or rather offer a great pizza – fully rounded, all 12 inches of it with a fantastic amount of toppings (four meat toppings to boot), for below Rs. 2,000!

This time though, when it arrived, the pizza was squashed to one side of the box with half the slices piled on top of the other half – obviously the rider had forgotten that he was delivering food and thought he was in the MotoGP world championship instead! It required a bit of re-assembly before it resembled a pizza. Thankfully, it was tasty as expected, as was the generous amount of meat toppings. However, the toppled presentation, ruined the  overall eating experience.

This incident left me wondering how is it that when we order from the mainstream pizza places and see the riders ‘zigzagging’ madly across the road in an attempt to do as many deliveries as possible, the pizzas still end up delivered in relatively decent nick?

It could be for several reasons. First off, the dedicated pizza carrier is better suited for pizzas than the general ‘box’ in which third-party delivery riders’ use. Second, their riders are their own hired staff and are totally under their control, so any complaints can be promptly dealt with.

I once received an incorrect order from the Hut, and within 45 minutes they sent me the correct order (with an outlet Supervisor accompanying the rider to apologise for the mix-up). On top of it all...I got to keep the incorrect order as well – talk about a Pizza fiesta! That’s how you recover a product and service snafu, which is practicable only when the entire supply chain, from the cutting table to customer’s doorstep is under own control.

In a post-Covid19 world, it is projected that people will not immediately flock to restaurants and dine at hotels with the same gusto they did before the epidemic hit. Even if they do, social distancing norms would compel most restaurants to make do with half the tables that they initially had. This makes it very hard for those smaller, ‘hole-in-the-wall’ style restaurants and cafes to actually offer a decent dine-in space for more than a handful of diners at a time. Thus, the likely net result is that they will face significant losses and have to lean heavier on the delivery angle.

With increasing choice of delivery providers and food options, there are fundamental requirements that need to be right in order to compete in this space and drive customer loyalty. So here are some helpful tips for restaurants of all sizes and prices, as well as hotel dining outlets that wish to continue the delivery angle:-

• Establish reasonable delivery times from the outset. Do not try to match the “30 minutes promise”. Instead, communicate clearly to the customer that their meal is being prepared with care, in some cases from scratch and that preparation takes time. Do not be afraid to even tell the customer that it may take an hour or more to come; thus alerting your customer of this and when delivered earlier, converts to a wow experience rather than a broken promise.
• Some of your wait staff and other employees’ will most likely have motorcycles. With the reduced inflow of sit-down diners, their presence at the restaurant at all times may not be needed. So instead of laying them off or reducing their work hours - engage them on delivery duty! The only initial purchase required is the requisite food carrier box which you can obtain in a size suited for your delivery containers. Even with meeting fuel costs, you are likely to save money as opposed to paying a third-party delivery service.
• If you have to rely on a third-party delivery service provider should you not have staff to entrust this task : it’s best to choose a provider who has a smaller, regular pool of riders who are dedicated to food delivery services as opposed to a larger 3^rd party agent who delivers anything and everything. This way, the chain of accountability is much easier in the event of any snags.
• Ensure you have a proper written contract with the company that clearly states responsibility and remedial actions for issues that happen due to transport.
• Maintain regular contact with riders. They should text a confirmation whenever an order is delivered, thus enabling you to keep track of their whereabouts, and, should a customer enquire about his/her order, be able to provide a realistic response, rather than the stock answer “He is on the way” or “He should be there soon”.
• When an order is taken during inclement weather, inform the customer of any likely delay. Call the customer when the weather turns for the worse even after an order is received. This shows that your restaurant or hotel cares about the rider’s safety as well.

And last but not least, don’t forget to clean and sanitise the food carrier box. Every day, before commencing deliveries they must be sanitised, and inspected whenever the rider returns to base.

Ashraaq Wahab

Ashraaq is an automotive journalist, marketer and writer who enjoys penning his thoughts, insights and ideas on a variety of topics

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