Home / 6 best practices for restaurant delivery, especially during coronavirus
There’s a lot restaurateurs can do to make the order-handoff to drivers go smoothly and safely.
Despite a patchwork of restaurant reopenings across the country, diners continue to rely on take-out and delivery options from their favorite concepts. To keep up with the influx of off-prem orders, restaurants have had to overhaul their delivery procedures to optimize fulfillment, comply with local health guidelines, and still make enough to stay in business.
It can be a tough balance, but there are actions operators are taking to ensure a great delivery experience for restaurant customers, employees and delivery drivers.
Whether operating your own driving fleet or contracting with a 3rd-party, there are best practices to ensure orders get to customers as anticipated. Six recommendations below are a mix of tried-and-true approaches and those newly adopted during the pandemic:
If customers get the wrong order, or parts of the order are missing, it could be a deal-breaker for future business. Designate a staff member each shift to handle all aspects of the delivery process to…
To double-check an order is complete, this employee can put a checkmark by each item on the order summary receipt and attach it to the bag before it goes out.
Assigning a delivery specialist each shift gives your operation a single point of contact for all delivery orders and can help eliminate confusion about where orders are in the pipeline.
Preparing for an influx of delivery orders while maintaining social distancing is a delicate balance.
Ensure that delivery orders are packaged to maximize the food’s freshness, maintain temperature and integrity, and make the delivery driver’s job easier. Invest in packaging that’s
►insulated for hot foods ►leak-proof for sauced foods ►ventilated for dishes that would wilt or go soggy from trapped condensation ►tamper-proofed with a sticker label, staples or tight bag knot
To ease the difficulties that drivers face when out on food runs, restaurants can help by taking down details about the address when they’re taking orders. Do drivers:
Watch the free training video, ServSafe Delivery: COVID-19 Precautions
Addresses can be hard to find when they’re part of a large complex, or when an individual house number is hidden or dimly lit. Encourage your delivery customers to leave a porch light on for the driver and clarify the location with a description.
With delivery apps, it can be hard to remedy miscommunications or problems with the delivery. Establishing a line of communication between the customer and the delivery driver helps ensure an order gets delivered properly and on time.
If a driver is confused about a delivery instruction, can’t find an address, or has any other issue while making a delivery, the problem can usually be solved with a quick text or phone call.
Making sure that the driver and customer can contact one another directly eliminates the need for either of them to waste time calling the restaurant to get in touch. Remind your customers to have their phones with them when they are waiting for an order so that they can receive texts or calls from the driver.
In addition to the general delivery pickup tips above, many restaurants implement extra sanitation precautions to reduce the risk of COVID-19 contact infection. These include:
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