Back in the day—well, the early 2000s—you had two options if you didn’t want to cook dinner at home: going out to a restaurant or ordering take-out. The latter usually came in the form of pizza or sub-par Chinese food.
Today, we’re in an online ordering revolution. Food delivery services have changed the game and found a whole new identity: bringing entrees from the restaurants you love straight to your front door. As a restaurant owner these services may vary, but they all offer the same utility—they help you make more money.
So, why should you utilize services out there like Eat24, Caviar, and Postmates?
Exposure For Your Restaurant
While every service varies, they all have the same thing in common: they deliver your food from your kitchen to your community. Some services will even style, photograph, and market your food for you. By expanding your reach beyond the traditional “delivery zones” that many restaurants are restricted by with in-house delivery staff, patrons can experience what you have to offer without ever setting foot in your establishment and possibly even your neighborhood.
“Eat24 helped us to increase our online delivery sales by exposing and advertising our restaurant online.”
– Front Room, San Francisco
When people love food, they will seek it out. That means you not only just scored a new customer two neighbors away, but they might show up at your door the next time they’re craving your grub.
Increased Convenience, Decreased Costs
Here’s an even more compelling argument for opting-in to services that even Amazon Prime is capitalizing on: It allows you to increase convenience for your customers while simultaneously decreasing your costs. How is that possible? Generally speaking, restaurant owners decide against going down the delivery rabbit hole because of the cost of hiring extra staff to hand-deliver each order. With delivery services, you remove that hurdle from the equation.
In an interview with FSR Magazine’s Danny Klein, Wilson Tang of NYC’s Nom Wah Tea Parlor says, “We went from nothing to where we’ve had months where we’ve done a couple of thousand, sometimes even $10,000 extra, in sales,” Tang says. “Who doesn’t want that? Especially when it doesn’t add to an already busy restaurant. We’re making the stuff throughout the day. It’s not extra stress that’s put onto the kitchen or the front-of-house staff. We’re basically able to maintain the same amount of staff to execute that amount of food.”
Ultimately, each restaurant owner must make their own decision about whether food delivery services are right for their business and their customers, but decreasing your overall costs is a pretty powerful argument.
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The information above is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice and may not be suitable for your circumstances. Unless stated otherwise, references to third-party links, services, or products do not constitute endorsement by Yelp.