4 Factors Critical to Solving Restaurant Delivery Dilemmas

With delivery expanding into new sectors, maintaining the quality and safety of food in transit gains some new wrinkles. As the range of products available for delivery expands, the challenges of keeping hot foods hot, cold foods cold, preventing cross-product mingling, avoiding soggy buns and wilted lettuce, preventing spilled drinks, and more become operational and logistical in nature.

There is no silver bullet to solving these challenges. It’s a multi-step process that will require constant re-evaluation as new menu items are added into the mix. But those who get it right might reap similar rewards to what Domino’s did with its unprecedented delivery model.

Begin with a complete review of all your products for delivery, determining what it will take to maintain quality and food safety in transit. In review, you may find there are some menu items which cannot be offered for delivery due to quality control issues.

Develop and implement standards for maintaining the hot and cold chain, and ensure all delivery partners have the tools and materials needed, such as insulated bags, ice packs, and more.

Examine—and re-examine—your packaging and be sure it’s designed to maintain the integrity of the product. For instance, this may mean looking at packaging materials for hot or cold items that “sweat,” so they don’t arrive soggy to the customer; investigating a no-spill beverage carrier; or identifying containers that are partitioned to prevent products from mingling. Staff should also be trained on the proper way to pack items in bags or boxes for delivery so items don’t become mingled in bags or leak or sweat onto others, posing food safety or allergen hazards or impact food or packaging quality. You may also wish to consider using a seal of some type to prevent tampering. One McDonald’s operation, according to a report in Investor’s Business Daily, places French fry orders into a separate bag sealed with a sticker. The goal? To ensure the product hasn’t been opened on its way.

3. Develop a Clear Policy for Customer Action

In a sit-down restaurant, take-out, or drive-through situation, customers have an immediate opportunity to examine the quality of their food. The steps to take when food doesn’t meet their standards are usually fairly cut and dry: talk to a staff member, send the food back to the kitchen, etc.

In a delivery model, that course of action may not be clear. Many delivery drivers aren’t employed by the restaurants for which they are delivering—and let’s be honest, complaining to the driver may not always deliver the result a customer wants. At a Datassential event in August 2017, Jason Rusk, vice president of alternate platforms at Red Robin, reported that some customers griped about rude delivery drivers and late orders.

Left in a (possibly literal) sticky situation, what actions is a customer to take when a delivery order is not to his or her liking or is just plan incorrect? If the customer is left with a bad taste in his or her mouth, whose business will suffer—your restaurant’s, the delivery company’s, or both?

These questions could be easily answered by ensuring you have a few items in place before delving into delivery. First, establish clear standards for acceptable quality and safety, and what actions will be taken if those standards are not met. For example, how food is presented to the customer, if a delivery driver is involved in an accident, is significantly delayed, if they cannot locate the delivery address, etc. If you’re depending on third-party delivery companies to deliver food, you may not have control over some of these items.

Therefore, be sure a customer feedback course of action is available on your website, so customers looking for information on what to do can easily find it and follow the necessary steps. Consider including information in every delivery on what customers can do if not satisfied. This could be as simple as a sticker on the order or language on the receipt. However, making it stand out may help with overall customer satisfaction if a problem is encountered.