Because of state-mandated closures and social distancing guidelines from the (CDC) in the wake of COVID-19. 92% of restaurant business has taken place off-premises. For the consumer, even a pandemic was not enough to decrease the demand for convenience and delicious food, and restaurant online ordering and delivery has increased at a growth rate surpassing that of pre-coronavirus. Even as restrictions loosen and dine-in traffic reopens, off-premises services show no signs of slowing down—in fact, they are predicted to increase further as consumer behavior permanently shifts.
Restaurant delivery technology will be the next catalyst that helps restaurant owners increase revenue during the new normal. The viability of third-party delivery services will also be put to the test as restaurants work to recoup profits, as well as mitigate the risk of dissatisfied customers due to delivery logistics out of the restaurant’s control.
If your restaurant has seen success with online ordering, consider the benefits that integrated delivery management technology will provide for maximizing delivery sales and profit margins both today and tomorrow. Here’s how:
Eliminate Manual Order and Delivery Entry
For some restaurants, online orders have successfully recouped and at times surpassed dine-in sales revenue. Leveraging the right technology, these restaurants have been able to shift labor to accommodate the online order increase. Restaurant owners can now take the next step to automate processes that will allow more orders to be received and delivered. With delivery management technology integrated into your HungerRush 360 platform you’ll be able to successfully grow your business.
Consider this scenario: A customer places an order via your website and requests delivery. Your employee must now manually enter the order into your HungerRush 360 system, and then manually assign the order to a driver that they can only guess will be available at the time the order is ready.
At the same time, an online order for delivery comes through but gets held up in a third-party queue. Your employee has to re-enter this order into the point of sale as that is the only way to assign a driver. Meanwhile, the mobile app order is ready, and one of your delivery drivers leaves with it. Turns out, the online order was within the same location and could have gone out as well had it not been delayed due to order re-entry. Another driver returns and takes the online order, but takes a wrong turn delaying the delivery, which you’ll find out is incorrect due to mis-keying it into the point of sale. It’s a nightmare—and that’s just two orders.
However, with delivery management technology, orders flow seamlessly into one system, no matter if they come from online or mobile app. These are then automatically assigned to drivers. Customer addresses are also automatically pulled into the order, ensuring accuracy, while also saving valuable time. Provide the visibility required to batch orders and deliver more meals in less time.Â
Optimize Driver Delivery Times
Integrating delivery management technology into your HungerRush 360 system allows your business to increase productivity and efficiency. This means that as a restaurant owner, you’ll be able to keep a closer eye on delivery staff. An integrated map view gives you the ability to track delivery progress in real-time. This helps ensure that drivers are staying the course. Additionally, the map view shows clusters of orders, helping you maximize resources by assigning orders from similar locations to a single driver.
The more efficient you can make the delivery, the less staff will be required, allowing your business to maximize profitability. Some food concepts leverage the power of Google Maps integration to their system to assign and triage orders before they are even dispatched. With Google Maps, the fastest routes can be identified in real-time, mitigating the unexpected, like heavy traffic and construction zones.
Keep Better Track of Orders
Manually placing orders and assigning and tracking deliveries is not as effective as using delivery management software. With manual processes, errors occur, orders are lost, and customers never return.
Delivery management technology provides the automation that modern food concepts need to:
- Ensure all delivery orders are accounted for and tracked through delivery.
- Track order delivery time and alert management of orders in danger of being delivered late, or that were fulfilled over the time allotted for delivery.
- Enhance the customer experience by providing the opportunity for special requests such as leave with the doorman, or use the back door.
Accurate Reporting for Improved Business Decisions
Restaurant owners can’t identify what is working without proper data collection and analysis. Manual processes don’t provide the insight required to grow business. Integrated delivery management technology allows all orders to flow into one central HungerRush 360 platform. Data can then be cross-referenced with sales to help you make better, more profitable business decisions.
For example, maybe your burger and fries meal combo have been a hit for dine-in customers, but rarely get ordered for delivery. Being able to collect and analyze this type of data helps your business decide what offers you should promote. Additionally, robust reporting allows you to determine benchmarks and track improvements in delivery time, accuracy, profitability, and more.
Industry-Crafted Software That Helps You Master Your Delivery Operations
Keep profits maximized with delivery management technology that integrates into your RMS. HungerRush is the best option for savvy restaurateurs looking to amp up off-premises sales. Easy-to-use, HungerRush was designed for restaurants looking for feature-rich delivery software that helps them master services including centralizing orders, present and past trip segmentation, route resourcing, late order prevention, and timestamps for robust metrics and reporting.
With HungerRush, give your restaurant the tools it needs to grow business, increase profits, keep customers happy, and build a brighter tomorrow. Request a demo today!
