Restaurant owners know that serving delicious food to customers promptly is the best way to keep them coming back. However, restaurants can no longer live on dine-in business alone. Building a business that flourishes and thrives means embracing other ways to service your customers. 

We’re talking about food delivery.

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According to the 2023 State of the Restaurant Industry Report, 55% of consumers consider takeout and delivery essential.

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The food delivery business is huge and has changed the restaurant industry forever — and we’re not just being dramatic. Giving customers a way to look at their menu items, order online or in an app, and get the food brought to their doors helps increase your customer base and revenue.

But certain practices can make the delivery process even more successful and profitable. Below, we’ll outline 10 simple tips for increasing delivery orders and growing your bottom line.

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1. Use the right technology and software

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A restaurant may use a third-party delivery platform like Uber Eats, Slice, or Grubhub. They may also opt for a first-party ordering system that’s directly on their website.  

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Then there’s delivery itself. You can either manage your own drivers with a transportation management system (TMS), employ a third-party delivery platform, or use an orchestration platform like Nash that can handle all of the above. 

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Overall, technology plays a pivotal role.

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The customer experience needs to be seamless from the moment a diner looks at your menu to the moment they finish their meal. This means:

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• Easy-to-navigate apps or online ordering
• Multiple payment options
• Transparent, real-time order statuses
• Timely delivery
• Professional delivery drivers
• Well-packaged, high-quality food

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The food delivery software platform must be intuitive to use, robust enough to handle the entire process, and informative enough to provide restaurant operators and customers with statuses and updates. In addition, it should integrate with the other software a restaurant uses, like the POS system.

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Learn more about how using Nash for your restaurant’s food delivery can boost your restaurant delivery sales.

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2. Optimize your online presence

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Diners, whether long-time customers or new ones, need to be able to find you online easily. Improving your online presence increases visibility and attracts more potential customers.

Your restaurant’s marketing strategy should include these effective ways to improve and expand its online presence.

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• Optimize your restaurant website: Search engine optimization (SEO) uses keywords that make it easier for people to find your business. Include relevant keywords in your website page copy to help your business rank higher in search engine rankings

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• Leverage social media: Many customers will see your restaurant on their favorite social media platforms that would have never found your website. Use this to your advantage by including a link to your website and your menu. Include your company’s phone number, hours of delivery, and all other pertinent information in your profile.

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• Use Google My Business: This free service gives restaurant owners control of how they appear in a Google search. The tool’s Maps and Local Pack features help you reach a wider audience and drive more visitors to your website.

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• Advertise: Options like social media advertising and Google Ads get your restaurant in front of potential customers that wouldn’t find you otherwise. Their targeted approaches help you narrow your efforts to the consumers in your area and other demographics.

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3. Offer promotions and discounts
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Doesn’t everyone love to feel like they’re saving money? Incentivizing customers to place delivery orders is another smart way to increase your restaurant’s delivery business.

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• Promote discounts at specific times: Drumming up more business during slower times keeps your staff productive and increases your restaurant’s profits. Advertise a certain percentage off for customers who order early (say, before 5 p.m.), late at night, or on slow weekdays.

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• Give quantity discounts: Large orders usually give you better profit margins. Cut large family and big office orders a break with either a percentage or a set dollar amount off. This way, you increase your delivery business and create customer satisfaction at the same time.

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• Advertise a coupon for the first in-app order: Have you recently added a delivery app? Get your customers used to ordering through it by making them an offer they can’t refuse. Email them a coupon or promote it to your social media followers.

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• Offer a free item for in-app or online ordering: On-the-house add-ons are also popular and effective ways to increase your delivery business. A free appetizer or dessert may be the catalyst for a customer to order from you instead of your competition.
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4. Leverage customer reviews and feedback
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Customers expect their food delivery to be timely, safely packaged, and tasty. Missing items, incorrect orders, delayed deliveries, or mediocre food will cause them to never order from you again.
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Asking for your customers’ opinions through feedback surveys gives you insight into how well your delivery service operates. There are a few touchpoints at which you can collect feedback:
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• In the app: Some online ordering platforms offer short surveys after the order is delivered. A handful of questions about the driver, the food, and the overall experience only take a few seconds to answer but can give you valuable data about what’s working and what isn’t.
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• Text message: Sending your customers a text message with a single question about their dining experience is also almost effortless for the customer. The answers can show trends that help determine whether your delivery process meets expectations.
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• Email: If your ordering platform collects email addresses, a survey is a great way to get more in-depth feedback from the customer. These feedback endeavors require more of your customers’ time but are informative ways to know where to change processes.
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5. Provide exceptional customer service
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One of the quickest ways to increase customer loyalty and enjoy repeat business is to rock your customer experience. Understanding your product, your customer, and your delivery process are the key elements to building a system that pleases everyone.
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• Implement an efficient process: A clunky, frustrating ordering process will turn customers off quickly. Thoroughly test all the technology in your stack to ensure it meshes well with your other operations. 
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Similarly, lay out your website and menu to make them easy to navigate. Use a transparent, user-friendly in-app or online ordering system that communicates all fees and delivery times.
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• Keep an eye on every delivery stage: Your delivery platform should make it easy for you to watch your restaurant’s orders. Is something holding them up? Are any falling through the cracks? The quicker you pinpoint these obstacles, the sooner you can fix them.
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• Head off problems when possible: Take action as soon as you identify a problem. If a driver cancels, find another driver ASAP. Notify the customer their order may be delayed instead of letting them sit there waiting for it. Offer a refund or discount on future orders to help keep their satisfaction high. Even if a problem seems minor, remember that small problems can cause good customers to become former customers if they go unaddressed.
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6. Expand your food delivery reach
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If the bulk of your delivery orders come from the two-block radius around your restaurant, you could be missing out on a ton of interested patrons from a wider area. Expanding your delivery reach helps you reach those people and turn them into repeat customers.
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This isn’t as tough as it sounds. In fact, there are a few simple, tried-and-true ways to do this:
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• Partner with a third-party delivery service: Third-party delivery companies are easy to sign on with, have a wide coverage area, and already employ a full fleet of drivers. They also give you a spot on their app, increasing your restaurant’s visibility in other areas and markets.
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• Hire more delivery drivers: Perhaps your business has run primarily on dine-in and take-out orders. You may even have some staff members who occasionally run deliveries within a few miles of your establishment. But expanding your reach means you’ll need more drivers to deliver further away. A designated in-house driving fleet gives you more control over the delivery process and keeps you from paying the steep fees third-party partners sometimes charge.
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• Use a delivery orchestration platform to manage both options: By using Nash, you can have your own in-house drivers and utilize third-party delivery services on one platform. For example, you can always dispatch your in-house drivers first and foremost, but if you need to run an extra route or if your staff is sick or too busy to take on all the orders,  you have an easy network to tap into for back-ups.
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7. Offer convenient payment options
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Today’s consumers expect to have their choice of convenient payment options. You should accept debit cards, all types of credit cards, digital wallets, and PayPal to reduce friction and encourage more delivery orders.
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Storing favorite payment options is a must-have feature, too. It saves time and makes the process even more seamless. Repeat customers should be able to keep their debit card or PayPal account saved in the app or online to use for their next order.
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8. Use photos and enticing imagery
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It’s said a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to food pics, a photo is worth way more than that!
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For example, a written description of a cheeseburger will never do your product the same justice as a picture of a luscious burger with fresh lettuce and tomato on top and melted cheese peeking out of the bun.
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Photos are often the push that hungry diners need to place an order, so it’s important to invest some time and effort into getting them right. Consider commissioning a photographer to take crisp, high-quality photos of your most popular dishes or any menu items you want to encourage more sales for. 
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9. Create an optimized online menu
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Your delivery menu is one of the biggest tools in expanding your business. It differs from your in-house menu, as some dishes don’t travel well. Why set yourself up for failure by trying to deliver nachos that will get soggy on the drive?
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Consider these points when building your online delivery menu:
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• Will the item keep?: As mentioned above, some menu items won’t stay fresh and tasty on the drive. Leave them off rather than risk subpar food being delivered to your patrons.
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• Is the item profitable?: The restaurant business already operates on a thin margin. You’ll lose money delivering barely profitable in-house dishes.
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• How popular is the item?: If you have menu items only a couple of people order, omit them from your online offering. They’ll only take up valuable space.
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10. Make sure you offer catering delivery
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Catering is a great revenue stream for restaurants that offer it, and often, these orders are logistically simpler for your team to prepare thanks to bulk preparation. However, one aspect of catering orders that sometimes gets overlooked is catering delivery. Offering delivery service on catering orders can be a huge profit booster:
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• Attracts high-value orders: Because they’re designed to feed multiple guests, catering orders have the potential to be big-ticket orders in terms of revenue. Offering delivery on those big orders can be a major point of attraction for event planners!
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• High probability of retention: Delivering gives your catering clients one less thing to worry about the day of an event when they’re already busy. Taking order pickup off their to-do list is an easy way to provide a better customer experience — and make them more likely to use your services in the future.
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• Greater visibility: If you brand your catering experience well and provide stellar food, event guests will be more likely to think of you for their own events (or recommend you to others).
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• Expands customer base: When you partner with catering marketplaces like Sharebite and ezCater, your business has the opportunity to reach additional customers.
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Find out how Nash can help your business increase delivery orders
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Nash is the perfect all-in-one delivery platform for your restaurant. Maintain control and find delivery providers that are the best fit for you. Our user-friendly software integrates with the most popular POS systems and other restaurant technology to give you a cohesive process from beginning to end. The result? A better customer experience, greater efficiency, and more revenue.

Nash’s customizable delivery platform offers everything your business needs and nothing it doesn’t. Get started with Nash today to get on track for a better delivery experience!

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