Take-Out and Delivery: Are These The New Norms For The Food & Beverage Industry

These are new and unknown times that we are living in now and for the unforeseen future, and you as a business owner need to adapt to these new times and realize that these are times where failure is NOT an option, but change is definitely going to be required if you are going to stay open during this crisis. Fortunately for you, the restaurant owner, most cities and states are/will be allowing you to offer take-out and/or delivery services. Although this is going to impact the amount of staff and which staff you will be keeping, as unfortunate as this will be, it’s much better than having to close your doors completely for the indefinite future.

Basically, your restaurant staff requirements will dwindle down to only the most basic and essential kitchen staff, unless you set-up your own delivery service and use some, if not all, of your server staff as delivery drivers, thus dropping your need to rely on third party, national delivery chains. This might sound cruel to the corporate world, but, this is survival of the fittest in the small to middle sized, locally owned, mom & pop businesses that keep the local economies flowing that we at Food and Beverage Serve are committed to keeping open during these trying times.

Even if you’ve already been offering take-out & delivery, and if you haven’t been you should have, even though it may have been only a small percentage of your business in the past, it is now a quite literal “Do or Die” situation for you to switch your entire business plan, model, and focus on what was once previously only a small percentage of your total sales.

Take-out and delivery will become the new norm in the restaurant, and in some states and cities, the beer/wine/alcohol industries as well, as more states and cities are passing ordinances to allow curbside pickup, purchase, and delivery of alcoholic beverages along with your food order, to help keep local breweries, wineries, distilleries, cideries, meaderies, and more to stay open by offering their products for to go and delivery. As this starts to happen to become your only mode of survival, you need to look at this as not only an opportunity to survive the present, but to also build an additional money maker for the future.

With that being said, your shift towards take-out and delivery must have your full attention and dedication to deliver top quality food and/or beverages, and service as well. This may require you to think outside the box on serving up a positively memorable experience, of which your guests have not received in the past from a take-out or delivery order. You will need to pay more attention to detail than ever before on the quality of your product, to act with a sense of urgency to getting both the food and/or beverage ready for pick up/delivery, and in the follow up AND thru with any and all both complaints and complements.

Listed below are 25 suggestions, tips, and recommendations to help you navigate through the new “normal” in the food and beverage industry.

1. Re-evaluate your menu for the items that travel and reheat the best. As well as those that look and taste as they would had your guest been dining in your restaurant.
2. Outline any and all reheating instructions and include this with every order.
3. Create a value added menu for families, like a dinner for 4 special that includes an appetizer, salad, entree, and dessert for a value price.
4. Offer a 25% discount on orders from hospitals, doctors offices, and first responders as these are the people on the front lines making sure our lives stay as normal as possible during these trying times.
5. Offer bottled or canned drinks as beverage choices. This is especially true where alcoholic beverage sales are allowed and you can push alcohol sales as well.
6. Be prepared with plenty of the proper packaging needed such as utensils, napkins, and condiments. And forget your bags and boxes/containers.
7. Create a “thank you” item(s) to be included with every order, such as a low-amount gift card to be used on a future order, a higher-amount gift card for when in house dining is available and it will be, a handwritten note thanking them for their continued business, or maybe a small freebie such as a small taste of another menu item. Just be creative and remember, a little goes a long way!!
8. Be sure to include a business card and short note from either the owner or the general manager outlining the steps to follow should the guest not be satisfied with anything pertaining to their order. If and when contacted, be sure to respond and act promptly and courteously to any concerns.
9. Pay special attention to every order (ALWAYS repeat order back to guest) AND double check every order upon completion to ensure quality and accuracy.
10. Ask about any food allergy and/or special preparation requirements.
11. Add a personal touch by making sure your guests know the name of the person who is taking their order.
12. All phone calls must be answered as promptly as possible, and in a professional manner such as..”Thank you for calling (your restaurant/brewery), this is (your name), how may I help you today?? Are you ordering curbside pickup or delivery?? Upon taking order ALWAYS repeat the order back to the guest, thank them for calling (name of restaurant) and to contact you should they experience any problems with their order, that you appreciate their business, approximately how long the order will take, and thank them once again for their business.
13. Pay attention to how the orders are placed in their containers so that they retain their attractiveness when the customer opens the containers.
14. Be sure to track all orders and hold accountable all of your delivery drivers.
15. Follow up with all customers later that day just as if you were touching tables.
16. A good rule of thumb is to under-promise and to over deliver. This will make your guests feel special and well taken care of.
17. Always include any future specials and deals you will be offering, along with take-out and delivery menus with all orders.
18. If you have one, you want to utilize your restaurant's loyalty program. If you don’t have one, now is the time to start one, and I will tell you how in a future blog. You want to communicate with and market to your database of loyal customers and to offer specials available only to them!!
19. Create a simple frequent diner program. For example..”With every 4th order you receive either a $10 or 10% off discount.”
20. Build order tickets by offering a multi-meal discount. For example, if a business or office places a second or third order at the same time (think of this as a group paying with separate checks), they will receive 5%, 10%, and so on off their order respectively. You can cap the percentage off at 25% so as to not lose too much money yourself. Remember, although you want to offer your guests a great value for choosing your business, you still want to STAY IN BUSINESS yourself.
21. Offer and additional entree with every order placed over a certain amount. For example, “spend $50 and receive an entree of their choice (valued up to $15 or an entree of your choice) at no additional charge.
22. Don’t forget to keep on marketing on your social media with updated pictures of menus, menu items, specials, etc.
23. Following up on and connected to the previous suggestion, is to market a video of the owner or general manager showing off the cleanliness of the kitchen, food preparation and packaging, an updated personal message from you and your business about the current state of affairs and what you are doing to stay compliant with ALL current cleaning and health regulations, thanks, etc.
24. Document all of the new processes and methods you used for take-out and delivery so as to incorporate them into your restaurant operations to help enhance business once dine in service is restored.
25. Communicate! Communicate! Communicate! with your staff about all changes AND progress made. Celebrate the small wins and let your staff know how much they mean to you and your business in these unknown times.

I hope each and every one of you reading this blog has been helped in some small way. If you find yourself needing more help either implementing some of the ideas I mentioned above or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact Food and Beverage Serve at [email protected] for your FREE Consultation.