Your Guide for Delivery Management During Peak Periods  

When running a successful restaurant, preparation is key—and we’re not just talking about food prep. Owners and managers must understand their business's flow to ensure it can handle any unexpected twists and turns. One major hurdle that brick-and-mortar restaurants have had to navigate in a post-pandemic world is the influx of online deliveries they’ve been receiving.

There’s no sign of that slowing down, with projections from Statista, which state that the European meal delivery sector is expected to experience revenue growth of 18.8% in 2024.

Though an increase in revenue is fantastic news for any business, that increase can only happen if, you guessed it, you’re prepared. Say, on a busy Saturday night, your restaurant is packed from wall to wall with hungry customers. While they sit in the dining room eagerly awaiting their meals, your phone has been ringing off the hook with take-out requests.

Unfortunately, your overwhelmed front-of-house staff and kitchen staff ignore the calls in favour of serving the customers in the dining room. Not only are customers becoming agitated, but your restaurant is missing out on plenty of delivery revenue while the phone is being ignored. Now, throw in multiple delivery app platforms through which orders are being missed, lost, or mixed up, and imagine how many revenue growth opportunities are being tossed out the window.

This is why having the right delivery management strategy in place can help create a pleasant work environment for staff and result in higher overall revenue and satisfied customers who leave glowing reviews.

Facing Food Industry Challenges with a Robust Order Management System

Though the scenario we provided happened on a Saturday night (a predictably busy time for most restaurants), there are many times throughout the year when order volume spikes occur for both explained and unexplained reasons. Some of these include:

• Public holidays, making for nights in without cooking 

• A lunch rush in corporate areas 

• Restaurant or delivery app promotions

• Crowd-drawing events in your city, like concerts or festivals 

• Rainy or snowy weather 

• A feature on an influencer’s social media post or blog

Outside of this list, there are various reasons an unexpected volume spike might occur, and your restaurant needs to not only be ready to manage these busy periods but capitalise on these times as well. 

As our scenario above illustrates, being ill-equipped for proper delivery management can decrease customer satisfaction. Long wait times will make customers in the restaurant and at home cranky. If the kitchen staff is inundated with orders from multiple platforms, rushing to fulfil these can lead to human error, resulting in a poor customer experience. According to Small Business Trends, 87% of people surveyed in the U.K. and 90% in France said they would choose a restaurant based on online reviews. In the age of the Internet, restaurants can’t afford poor reviews left by disgruntled customers. 

So, what’s the solution? A set strategy for online order management is essential to thrive during high-volume periods and increase revenue. Though it may seem overwhelming to set up a solid strategy, we’ve compiled some tips to help ensure success. 

3 Tips for Delivery Management During High-Volume Periods

1. Invest in an Order Management Solution

Did you know there’s technology that can take the weight of strategising delivery management off your shoulders? Order management systems like Deliverect can be a huge help. By working on the back end to combine all your online ordering systems into one place, order management systems bridge the gap between the POS system and your third-party ordering platforms. Integrating these delivery channels into the POS system streamlines the online order flow and automates your delivery process every step of the way, from the kitchen to your customer’s doorstep. 

Automation has become a bit of a buzzword in many industries—but truthfully, the more you can automate within your restaurant(s), the less likely you are to experience human error. Mistakes can easily be made while updating menus across multiple delivery apps, creating promos within the POS, punching in orders, and sending orders to kitchen staff. The less capacity for human error, the more likely your process will run smoothly for every order placed. 

2. Improve Your Restaurant’s Scalability

Whether your delivery service is expanding within one restaurant or growing delivery services across a chain of many locations, you must implement, record, and share your standard operating procedures (SOPs) across your business. Streamlining front- and back-of-house procedures and ensuring your staff are on the same page can mean the difference between your business sinking or swimming. SOPs should cover everything from food preparation and presentation to hygiene standards and cash drawer processes.

Consider the customer journey from the moment they walk into your restaurant or place an order online, and write rules, regulations, and expectations for everything that might happen along this journey (the customer has accessibility needs, for example, or receives the wrong order and would like to file a complaint). Also, be sure to revisit and revise your SOPs as your business expands since needs will change during periods of growth. 

When every staff member is on the same page, your location can run like a well-oiled machine. That said, it’s also imperative that each staff member is trained in the same thorough way and are all shown equal value. A restaurant can’t thrive or survive without happy and healthy staff. Place prominence on creating an environment where staff want to work and be pleasant with the customers they serve.

3. Focus on Route Optimisation and Real-Time Monitoring

Ensuring delivery couriers take the fastest routes to drop off meals to customers is an essential piece of the online ordering puzzle. Delays in meal delivery can result in cold food and hungry diners, leading to poor reviews and loss of revenue. You can now implement technology that helps couriers quickly deliver meals to customers without a hitch. Take last-mile delivery company Stuart, which connects nearby self-employed couriers with your restaurant to get deliveries to your customers in 30 minutes or less. 

Stuart partners with thousands of restaurants across the UK, from renowned brands like Crosstown to independent local restaurants like Serious Nugs. For restaurants of all sizes, utilising platforms like Stuart's means: 

• A fast and reliable on-demand delivery solution tailored to your specific needs;

• Less manual labour and more automation for a seamless delivery experience;

• Benefiting from Stuart’s pooling capabilities, so you can stack orders for greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness;

• Increased reach, meaning we can extend a restaurant’s delivery radius up to 5 miles to reach more customers; and

• Access to real-time order monitoring technology which enhances the customer experience and ensures that front- and back-of-house staff are all synchronised 

Ultimately, all the tools you need to streamline your deliveries are at your fingertips—it’s just about finding the best strategy for your business.

Consistent Food Quality and Customer Satisfaction

Keeping meals fresh, hot, and presentable during the delivery journey is no easy feat—especially when the meal will pass through plenty of hands before it reaches the customer. Here are a couple of ways to keep your meals in top shape and your customers returning for more.

• Stress the Importance of Clear and Timely Communication to Staff

Not only do your front- and back-of-house staff members need to keep the lines of communication flowing, but your service employees must do the same with patrons. Servers should be clear about essential details like meal ingredients, how food is prepared, and overall wait times customers may experience. Setting realistic expectations can often mean the difference between a 5-star review and a 1-star. 

• Maintain High Standards for Quality Assurance

When high order volumes come in, maintaining consistent standards for food quality can falter, especially when meals are being packed quickly for delivery. For any staff member who has hands on an order before it is passed to the courier, be sure to stress that they thoroughly read an order ticket from top to bottom. Often, during a rush period, items get missed, which can leave customers angry and may back up the kitchen further if the customer calls wanting their missing items later. 

How meals are packed is also a crucial factor in a perfect hand-off. Best practices for packing meals include keeping the heaviest items at the bottom of the bag, packing cold and hot items separately, using cardboard inserts to separate items with uneven surfaces for stacking, and popping small sauce packets and canned beverages in separate baggies so they can be found quickly. 

Conclusion

Running a successful restaurant with top-notch service across all channels, including delivery, is a challenge in the best of times and a business-ending pain point in the worst of times. But it doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it feels. By keeping customer service top of mind and using the latest technology to streamline your delivery management, you’ll enjoy the reward of happy staff and satisfied customers who’ll enjoy your food for years to come.