Must-Have Features and Software Tools for Delivery Restaurants
The world continues to move at an ever-faster pace. While technology was supposed to improve our work-life balance, in reality, it seems that any time saved has become occupied with other activities. While the world has taken a somewhat collective breath and paused over the past two quarters of 2020, one area has grown even faster.
Online food delivery was popular before the advent of the pandemic with sites like Uber Eats, DoorDash, SkipTheDishes, and GrubHub, adding new customers daily. Since the onset of restrictions, these sites, and many others have exploded in popularity. In many cases, restaurants, grocery stores, and supermarkets have realized that in order to survive and thrive, they need to pursue a new strategy — one that incorporates online delivery in the service model. However, like any business, there are certain features that need to be accounted for as they are more critical than others.
Online Orders
With close 2.71 billion users of smartphones around the world, they account for a significant percentage of the world’s population. This means that there are a lot of people able to access the internet at any day and time and from anywhere. With smartphones and other mobile devices, the last thing people want to do is actually call in and speak to another human to place an order.
This is where the importance of online ordering comes into play. Customers want to have the flexibility of picking their menu items of choice and paying for them through a mobile application. With this front end in place, restaurants and other businesses need to accept the order and have it feed information directly into the point-of-sale system so that everything is integrated.
Payment Systems
Consumers are comfortable paying online for almost any service now, and food delivery is no exception. In fact, in the current environment, paying for services electronically so that face-to-face interactions are limited is the preferred option for many.
Any online food delivery option needs to offer payment integration capabilities. These capabilities should account for all of the major credit card companies and also local variations to provide consumer flexibility.
Delivery Mapping and Driving Directions
When thinking about food, with a few exceptions, it is best served hot and fresh from the kitchen. Customers will generally not continue to order from your establishment if they have to wait, or if the food is cold when they receive it. Food delivery software needs to offer several different capabilities when it comes to delivery –
1) Delivery Areas — delivery boundaries need to be clearly defined using postal limitations. This ensures that customers know whether or not they are in the limits. It also allows restaurants to set different delivery fees based on the location.
2) Driver Assignment — This is where the software needs to account for different delivery areas. By mapping driver locations against delivery addresses, specific drivers can be assigned to separate deliveries. The software should provide the driver with detailed delivery instructions as well as directions to the customer.
Customer Management
Once you’ve started delivering directly to customers, you’ve got a great marketing tool at your fingertips. Using this database, you can begin to send specialized deals and offers through a push notification. You also have the capability of sending marketing materials through regular postal mail.
The advantage of knowing your customer and their likes cannot be discounted. This knowledge lets you create personalized menus for them that cater to their specific preferences and dietary restrictions. Offering deals and vouchers as unique specials that the customer can take advantage of are a great way of rewarding loyalty also.
A customer management database is an excellent way of obtaining repeat business. If a client has selected you as an option once, chances are excellent that they have a preference for the food you serve. Customers with a unique login can have their address details saved as well as payment information which can help them save time too.
Reporting
A useful software delivery tool needs to incorporate reporting and information. The tools should provide information on the quality of your drivers as well as their overall performance. How fast they deliver matters when thinking about customer experience. In addition, the report should consider the top-selling products and repeat customers as well as popular delivery areas.
Reports and the customer management database are two tools that should work hand-in-hand to improve the services you provide to your clients. With many companies in the market, knowing what is working well and what needs to be adjusted is going to be critical to your success.
Conclusion
When it comes to food delivery, the market changes rapidly, and as a business, you need to be agile and able to adjust. There is a problem that many restaurants and grocery chains face, however. While they understand their customers and food, they do not have the skills in house to create a robust food delivery offering to retain and attract new clientele.
This is where we come into the picture. At NIX, we have significant experience with the creation of delivery apps. We have worked with one of the largest online food delivery services in Europe and helped them create web and mobile offerings to serve their customers better. They had a challenge integrating their systems with their partners, which we were able to help them navigate. We have the skills to not only cope with any technical challenge, but we also understand the food delivery market and can help you compete and succeed.
Using an outsourcer like NIX is the best solution for projects of this nature. With our proven expertise, we can take a product through the full development cycle. NIX’s teams of developers can work closely with you to improve the relationship between your business and your customer. Contact us to find out how we can help you succeed at food delivery.
