Takeaway and delivery has seen a huge spike in sales after the launch of several third party delivery apps in the market. While they solved the problem of handling the deliveries, there are some other inevitable problems that have gradually come to light with time. The bigger question is whether these services are beneficial or actually harming your business? Services like Grubhub and Ubereats take most part of a restaurant business profit with heavy commissions often making it difficult for small or independent restaurants to generate more revenue.
Restaurants pay as high as 30% of service charges per order to these entities. On one side the sales increase but does the profit increase at all? Grubhub and Ubereats have complete control on your customer data and are responsible for the delivery of orders.The experience during this entire process is equally essential to define whether they would be ordering again or not.
So How are Grubhub/Ubereats Eating up on Your Business
1. They charge high fees that marginally eats up your profits:
Third party delivery services eat upto 15% to 30% of the customer order price and this itself shows how expensive it is to use these services. For the marginal profit that a restaurant earns, most of it goes in paying up the fees.
For the brand name that they have established, Grubhub and Ubereats have lots of restaurants signed up under their banner and hence most of the restaurants go for their services. However there is an ulterior motive that often leads to less benefits and more downsides.
2. They control your customer data
Data holds a key to the future since every marketing effort would be in a way connected to the customer data. The stronger your database, more reach and conversions can be expected. With that, third party delivery services tend to control the customer data which is a step back for the marketing endeavours of the restaurant.
With Grubhub and Ubereats, the customer data is common and hence when your loyal customer receives offers marketed exclusively for other similar services by Ubereats and Grubhub, they might tend to shift their preferences.
3. Your customer service is impacted
The third-party delivery services are majorly responsible for customer service which in a way can be either good or bad. Some orders are cancelled due to several reasons, sometimes a customer does not receive a refund on an undelivered order. The way Customer service is delivered is entirely responsible for repeat customers to order again.
These services are also to be relied on to deliver the order in the same condition as they received it from the restaurants but many a times, during the transit progress, the quality of packaging and hence the food as well is compromised.
How You can pull the customer to your side and get rid of Grubhub and Ubereats altogether:
1. Enhance your brand credibility with website ordering. Remove Grubhub/Ubereats button from your site.
Being independent in your business decisions is a boon any given day! Offering your customers the ability order from your website will give you a direct control of how you handle the takeaway/deliveries entirely.
Update the menu as you need, offer discounts as you need, manage the delivery charges as you need — all in your control. The best part is customers are in direct contact with your website and know what you stand for. Offer delicious food, nice delivery service at a fair price and you have got a customer for lifetime.
2.Get entire control of the customer data to endorse your promotions!
By choosing to get rid of Grubhub/Ubereats, restaurateurs get full control of the data and can use it to market their offers, discounts and promotions as you need. By reaching out to your customers frequently, you create a chance of brand recall.
Instant promotions can be planned and rolled out without having to rely on anyone. The promotions and offers can be designed to suit best the customers and your restaurant.
3. Let your customers know what makes your food an option to go for, something that Grubhub and Ubereats will not do for free!
Third party services offer exclusive promotions at a handsome price. With things in your control, you can directly reach out to existing and potential customers letting them know the highlights of food at your place and the healthy ingredients you use. Record a promotional message for exclusive offers on your website ordering in your hold message or voicemail so customers can take advantage of it directly from your website itself.
By having a constantly updated Instagram and Facebook page,you can reach out to masses instead of waiting for third parties to market your offer in that app.
4. Offer a standalone Mobile App with your own branding
Mobile is the most used device by anyone these days. With the ability to place orders with a few fingertips, your customers would prefer to order from your restaurant often. Huge brands like Dominos receive more than half of their takeaway/delivery orders through their standalone mobile app.
A mobile app will eventually help you become a household name in your locality. With regular push notifications marketing new items in your menu or timed offers can help you grab more orders any given day.
5. Market the price difference of ordering from your website and that of Grubhub/Ubereats
With third party delivery services not playing any part in your business anymore, you are spared of the high fees that you were paying. It goes without saying that these charges by third party services had an impact on the pricing of your menu.
With a light hand now, you can charge your customers with a competitive price. With great food and a great price, your restaurant can become a regular hangout destination or a takeaway buddy during weekends!
With these many benefits that a restaurant gets after getting without having third party delivery services, it’s high time they realize what they are missing out on.Its quite understandable that getting rid of these services might be daunting when they have been using them for years. With right actions and ramped up promotions, things can be paced up and your restaurant can shine out with this decision.