This post was written by Incentivio’s partner Otter, your restaurant delivery experience solution.
Over the past decade, digital restaurant delivery has been one of the industry’s most significant innovations. With markets expected to grow by $266 billion within five years, it’s clear that customers love dining in on top-quality food. In the wake of this innovation, restaurant owners are asking themselves: How can we provide strong customer experiences at home? Let Incentivio and Otter serve up the answer with these 6 ways to enhance your restaurant’s online delivery experience!
As all Incentivio users know, modern diners crave engagement with their favorite restaurants and are eager to pay for it. That’s why building strong online delivery experiences is so important – it rewards businesses and customers at the same time. This list will show you how to create experiential dining in customers’ homes with minimal costs and maximum profit.
Delivery Experience Strategy #1: Personalized Packaging
In a 2023 survey by acclaimed researcher GoodFirms, over 76% of respondents agreed: personalized packaging is critical to customer experiences. It’s not hard to see why – customers love to feel like individuals, and custom packaging gives them something unique. Many restaurants use plain brown bags and boxes to deliver their food, giving all customers the same thing. Using your own branding on packaging helps your food stand out from other eateries and makes it seem more professional.
During the same survey, over 30% of respondents said they often shared pictures of appealing packaging on social media. This kind of organic, word-of-mouth marketing is extremely impactful in today’s connected culture! Don’t feel like you need to break the bank to create personal packaging, though. If you’ve got a marker, you’ve got unique delivery materials! Let your staff be creative with your packaging, and show customers you want to make them smile.
Delivery Experience Strategy #2: Unique Promotions
Consumer data is a vital resource for today’s restaurant marketers. In a world where everyone has an internet-connected device on them nearly all the time, stoking customer cravings is easy! In 2023, many businesses are using mobile marketing to provide customers with unique, dynamic promotions straight to their mobile devices. This marketing method is perfect for restaurateurs, who can use customer tastes, locations, and events to serve up personalized deals! It’s also rapid by design, keeping kitchens productive and efficient during sales.
Imagine digitally pushing cold drinks on a hot afternoon, or advertising desserts to customers you know have a sweet tooth. Mobile marketing makes these forms of promotions quick and impactful, incentivizing diners to enter personal experiences with your business. It doesn’t take a marketing master, either – plenty of tools exist to help you start building unique mobile promotions instantly. Use mobile marketing to craft enticing, one-on-one delivery relationships!
Delivery Experience Strategy #3: Customizable Menu Items
With all the customization available to today’s customers, fixed menus can seem slightly passé – especially for Millenials and Gen Z. Modern diners love being able to change dishes to meet their tastes, and favor restaurants that let them do so. Delivery apps make customization a major part of the ordering process, typically offering several substitution options for each dish. Taking advantage of this desire for item customization shows your eagerness to satisfy customers, and encourages loyalty to your restaurant!
Consider the types of dishes that are best suited to customization. Items like bowls, pasta, and sandwiches pair deliciously with any ingredient and can be prepared efficiently by your staff. By allowing customers to build their own meals, you broaden your restaurant’s appeal to different tastes and stoke individual experiences. Add customization to your delivery menu with a powerful ordering system, and make eaters hungry for their favorite flavors!
Delivery Experience Strategy #4: High-Quality Containers
It’s a common complaint with restaurant delivery: sometimes, food just doesn’t travel very well. Poor-quality packaging can seriously harm a dish’s taste and look – which can be destructive to your restaurant’s reputation. This point ties in with personalized packaging: excellent containment strengthens your restaurant’s image significantly, and benefits reviews, ratings, and more! If you need inspiration on attractive, effective packaging, there’s plenty to be found online.
Don’t forget about the importance of sustainability in your delivery packaging, either. Consumer demand for sustainable container materials is rising, and big brands are meeting that demand with new eco-friendly practices. By employing sustainable packaging materials, you’ll be doing your part to control pollution – and giving customers a guilt-free meal. Use high-quality containers to keep your food fresh during delivery, and to keep customers’ experiences intact!
Delivery Experience Strategy #5: Great Customer Service
When a customer orders from your restaurant, they want to know you have their best interests in mind. Customer service is now more important than ever, and restaurateurs will need strong communication skills to make delivery experiences successful. It’s critical to maintain your brand’s reputation during all interactions with customers – these can heavily influence your patrons’ dining experiences. Speak politely to your customers, and always ensure that your focus is kept on making their experience with your business a positive one.
Digital delivery might seem like it could impair customer service, but, with the right utilization, it can actually improve it! Delivery platforms offer a variety of options for you to promptly communicate with customers directly or in-app. Use the method that fits your communication style best. Be sure to use your delivery app’s built-in customer support features, too! Great customer service can make every order a success.
Delivery Experience Strategy #6: Powerful Social Media Use
Social media marketing is one of the most useful tools in the modern restaurateur’s repertoire. With nothing more than a smartphone and an internet connection, you can bring customers into your kitchen from anywhere! Restaurants are in an excellent position to leverage social media with attractive pictures and videos of their food and location. If you use social media well, customers will understand your business’s culture even if they’ve never visited you in person.
Combining your restaurant’s social media content with your other promotional channels makes both even better. Most social platforms let you embed content directly into your website, where it can be seen by customers immediately. You can also place links to your social media pages in emails alongside delivery promotions, further motivating customer engagement. Social media gives customers the experience of being in your restaurant no matter where they are.
Make delivery from your restaurant an experience to remember!
With these tips, you’ll be able to create memorable customer experiences inside and outside of your restaurant’s walls. Keep pushing the envelope for customers to enjoy your restaurant’s food, atmosphere, and delivery, and customers will keep placing orders. After all: delivery isn’t an exception to your restaurant experience – it’s an extension of it!
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