Expanding Your Business: Takeout and Delivery
In 2019 customers are continuing to lean toward convenience, and this can be the defining factor in many of their decisions. Takeout and delivery services from restaurants are touted to be one of the big trends in the restaurant world this year, and they fit with the model of convenience that society is moving toward. We’re always trying to expand our business, increase our exposure and, ultimately, increase our overall profits. Takeout and delivery services are a viable ways to do just that, but what points should you consider before venturing into the world of off-premise sales?
Can You Cope?
The first thing to consider before offering takeout or delivery services from your location is: can my kitchen and front of house staff take the extra workload? Is your kitchen already stretched to full capacity most nights, where a few more orders might sink them. Do your front of house staff, be it you hostess’ or bartenders, have the time to answer the phone and take takeout or delivery order then organize them and sell them; whilst still taking care of your in-house guests. If the answer to either or both of these is no then offering off-premise services might do your business more harm than good.
Takeout, Delivery, or Both?
If you answered no to the above you may still be able to offer one of these services. One difference between delivery and takeout, from an operational standpoint, is that at any time of the day or night you can stop taking takeout orders; allowing you to control the flow and ensure that your in house guests are always receiving the best service and your staff aren’t becoming overwhelmed. Delivery, however, comes with the expectation that the service will always be available; if you’re intermittent about your delivery service it’ll have much less of a chance of being successful, whilst, with takeout, people are less likely to loose faith in you and what you’re offering if you are no longer taking takeout orders.
Offering takeout services is often the first stepping stone to creating off-premises demand and after that you can look at offering a delivery service if there’s sufficient and consistent demand for it.
Setup Costs?
Providing a delivery service has a higher setup cost i.e. at least one deliverer and potentially extra insurance costs, than providing a takeout service. Remember, both of these services will require you to purchase extra dry-goods; such as condiments, takeout silverware, containers, etcetera. However, these guests are not eating in your location and, therefore, their sale isn’t attributed, as directly, to your prime costs and overheads as much as a sale made to guests in your location will.
Serving the Whole Menu?
Most locations will serve their whole menu to off-premises customers. However, some owners and chefs wish not to ruin their reputation by serving items, such as steaks, for takeout. The reason for this is that items cooked to temp will continue to cook in the container after they’ve left the kitchen and when the customer finally opens the order they’re greeted with something that’s not what they ordered; leaving them disappointed, but, crucially, they’ll often blame your establishment for the problem. Others will serve these items and offer customers disclaimers, explaining this and suggesting that they order these meals slightly under how they usually like them in order to have them be cooked perfectly to their liking when they get to their destination.
Offering off-premises services from your location effectively allows you to increase the size of your location without the drastic increase in prime costs and overheads that physical expansion would cost you. Offering these services lets you increase your business as well as increase your exposure, especially to young, emerging markets to whom convenience is a huge factor in their decision making. Knowing that your kitchen and floor staff can fulfill these orders whilst still providing stellar service to the guests sat in your restaurant is of paramount importance. Only once your restaurant has the capacity to manage more orders than you can physically fit in the door should you begin offering an off-premises service.
