Delivery by Third Parties & Big Data Can Grow Restaurant Sales 10-15%

“This is the most exciting time in this industry, maybe the biggest since the invention of delivery food.” — Matt Maloney (CEO, GrubHub)

Fred LeFranc, founder of Results Thru Strategy, discusses restaurants & third party delivery companies for Big Data at the Table, the official Bridg Blog. #BDATT The delivery options available to restaurants are changing every day. Fred helps identify pain points and best practices for success. Produced by Bridg in Los Angeles.

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What are major trend should restaurants be taking advantage of?

“The biggest trend for restaurants right now is third party delivery companies, that’s the holy grail. Everybody wants to be able to capture that. Now there’s lots of companies that have gotten into it and restaurants have an opportunity now to go with a new sales channel that they never had before. Find out who those companies are in your area that may be using your restaurant as source for food and engage with them.”

“Now the rates for that will go anywhere from 10-30%. How do you negotiate that? If you’re a popular restaurant it will be on the lower end of course, but if you’re not so popular than 30% may be more typical. While that is a lot of money it can also be recognized as a creative new sales channel. Studies have shown that while there may be small cannibalization of sales, about 5-8%, in fact sales can go up 10-15% by using these third party companies.”

“Be mindful at the same time though, these brands are now being represented in a way you may not want. Your customers are ordering from a third party, they may be delivering from other restaurants, so the uniforms, the way they look, the way they appear, how they interact with the guest will be a very important consideration for you.”

“Packaging, now more than ever before, is very, very important, including what you put inside that bag to make sure that when your customers do get the food they have other information about your restaurant.”

“If you think about it, third party restaurant companies deliver within a radius around your restaurant, so these are people who will come into your restaurant, have come into your restaurant and more importantly, will share their experience with these delivery companies with their friends.”

We have a time-strapped consumer that now wants restaurant food at home because they don’t have time to prepare it and you have an opportunity to take advantage of these services.”

More about Fred LeFranc and his firm, Results Thru Strategy.