With US$89 million in platform to consumer delivery revenue in 2021, the Philippines delivery market is growing every year. But, at the best of times it’s a struggle to keep consistent food delivery times, whether it be for in-person dining or online food delivery, due to the strong increase in demand.
The order flow is quiet, you complete the order faster than normal, and then the delivery driver is delayed. 🚴🕠
The orders are coming through faster than ever, you’re pushing orders back, but delivery drivers are waiting. 🔪🕠
One thing is certain, ‘it’s all about the delivery’, both in the operational and holistic sense. From the moment the order arrives on the tablet to the moment it arrives at the customers door. So what is the simplest and most effective way to reduce food delivery times for customers?
1. Standardization
One of the contributing factors to delayed order pick-ups are having your delivery components in different areas of the kitchen. From delivery bags to staplers, it makes it easy, and it makes sense, to have everything close to one another. Think of this as your ‘delivery mise-en-place’, similar to the kitchen, you have a process or flow from when you start cooking to when it is sent out. The same goes for your delivery process, organising your delivery components in the same flow to reduce packaging time.
2. Efficiency > Speed
Preparing food fast instead of smart can lead to inaccurate orders and have the potential to reduce the likelihood of returning customers. There are two ways to manage this; first with consistent order accuracy and second with prioritisation. To achieve the first point, ensure your staff are double checking the items packaged to the delivery order before bagging it and handing it over to the delivery driver. This may take an extra minute, but it overall reduces delivery time and ensures the customer doesn’t receive an incorrect order (who has time to recook an order when you’re busy?). To achieve the second point, prioritizing orders with shorter pick up times over a large order with a bigger prep time is paramount to your flow. This is so your delivery drivers and ultimately your customers aren’t waiting and are served quality food, everytime.
3. Keep Your Cool
Getting frustrated gets you nowhere. Around your staff, around the delivery drivers, and potentially around dine-in customers. Making a mistake and pointing it out to everyone during a busy period just increases everyone’s level of stress during a time where powering through and positive energy is needed. The best way to deal with mistakes is to wait until the service finishes, assess the performance or situation and offer praise publicly and criticism in private, to avoid any contention within your team.
4. Use technology to your advantage
Technology should be your friend, and not your foe. Having a strong online presence means your kitchen and most likely on multiple delivery platforms, and with that comes the difficulty of managing multiple devices. This, ultimately, is slowing down your kitchen’s ability to accept and manage orders. The solution to this problem lies in order aggregation software; the ability to bring all your delivery platforms together into one device, such as klikit’s enterprise software. With klikit, you’ll not only be able to manage your orders from all delivery partners on one device, but also control order flow and menu management. To try it today, please sign up here!
