Staff writer, Jesse Hill
Tips for Preparing Food for Delivery – Many businesses have been forced to move their wares online during recent times and have taken to delivery and pickup. As far as local businesses are concerned, restaurants have one of the more difficult tasks in assembling orders. The food order needs to be assembled quickly, delivered, and received in a condition that does the establishment service. While some of the items on this list may seem obvious, sometimes an overworked and stressed-out restaurateur can benefit from reading a couple of tips. Here are four tips for delivering quality food to your customers which can add to repeat business.
   1. Cold with Cold and Hot with Hot
Ok so this one may seem obvious, but a lot of establishments just throw their items together quickly and rush them out the door. What the customer receives is a combination of warm soft drinks and warmish food. Develop a good packaging strategy that you can show your team and have them do it every time.
It won’t take long to impress upon them the importance of good packing. Consider using separate containers for hot entrees and cold sides as opposed to one container with multiple compartments. Utilize a divider or separate bags and have the hot food on one side and all of the cold stuff on the other. Your customers will appreciate the attention to detail.
   2. Rethink your Delivery Menu
Sometimes making a difficult decision to cut things from your menu is the best thing for your business. Ask yourself what items your best sellers are, easiest to prep and will transport well. Consider building your menu and combo items around these few things. This can lead to reduced waste, reduced prep, quicker assembly, and faster delivery.
All these things can save precious dollars allowing you to put your money to better use. Do you have bigger items on your menu that can be made into a larger meal or DIY kit? This could lead to another revenue stream.
   3. The 20 Minute Food Test
In most cases, an effective time between meal pickup and delivery is about 20 minutes. How will your food hold up to packaging, delivery, opening and consumption? Some foods, in particular hot food, don’t do so well being packaged up. That is where the 20-minute test comes in. Prepare a meal that you want to deliver and package it up. After 20 minutes open it back up and dive in! Is the food the temperature that you want it? Is the consistency still good?
If you aren’t happy with the results, then refer to the previous two tips. Will a change in the way you package help? Perhaps substituting an item with something with more longevity is the answer. Don’t be afraid to experiment with options you might just stumble upon the next big thing but more importantly, you will deliver a better dining experience to your customers. Better dining leads to repeat customers and better reviews. If you do something interesting and better than your competitors your customers will notice.
   4. Moving to Self-Delivery
Moving to self-delivery can be a daunting prospect, however, let’s consider some upsides and an easy system of implementation. This biggest impact right off the top is saving the fee that would normally be paid to a delivery service. Additionally, you may have wait staff that need hours, and you can keep the entire process in house.
You can offer them a portion of the sales to assist with gas and of course their tips. To really help with your delivery needs, some website services such as Shopify offer businesses local delivery services for taking orders, offering delivery and appropriate tracking. If you don’t have the time to set this up yourself then services like ClickDuo will handle all the website details and set up for you.
We hope you have found these 4 tips for preparing your business for food delivery useful and check-in with Fan of Local for more articles soon!
