How to Easily Do In-House Restaurant Delivery in 2024

Nearly two years into the pandemic, the restaurant industry is not yet back to normal. Due to lockdowns, customers have turned to restaurant delivery, takeout, curbside, and drive-thru. However, the research reveals that the rise in off-premise dining isn’t a passing fad.

Before the epidemic, off-premise sales were already growing four times faster than dine-in sales. The restaurant landscape will most certainly look different in the future than it did before 2020. That means if you own a restaurant, now is the time to improve your delivery game; the best way to do so is to establish in-house delivery instead of relying on third-party apps.

Table of Contents

• Advantages of Doing Your Own Restaurant Delivery
• How to Bring Your Restaurant Delivery In-House
• Use EasyRoutes to Bring Delivery to your Restaurant

Advantages of Doing Your Own Restaurant Delivery

Many restaurants with limited or no delivery capabilities had no alternative but to use third-party delivery services to supply food and beverages to their clients at the start of the pandemic. While they may have appeared to be a reasonable alternative at the time, the hefty commission fees, which might be as high as 30% or more, would typically eat into any profit margin. Bringing deliveries in-house cuts out the middlemen, allowing you to keep a larger portion of your hard-earned cash.

Not only can delivering close to home enhance your profit margin, but it also gives you more control over food quality and the whole client experience. Customers who get a late order or food that has been exposed to extreme temperatures sometimes blame the restaurant rather than the delivery service. Restaurant operators can assure a safe and good experience for their clients by retaining control of the path from the kitchen to the destination.

Regardless of what is going on in the world, the customer experience is the most important component that will nurture brand loyalty and keep customers coming back again and again. Even if you’re forced to stay at home and self-quarantine, getting your favourite cuisine delivered or knowing you’re supporting a local business might help things feel more regular.

How to Bring Your Restaurant Delivery In-House

Managing the day-to-day operations of a restaurant business is difficult enough as it is, so adding delivery to your to-do list may seem daunting. The most essential thing to keep in mind is that you don’t have to do everything at once. Start by assessing your menu and selecting a few of your most popular dishes that can be transported. Reducing the complexity of your menu and designing one exclusively for delivery will help your delivery efforts succeed.

Next, recruit a few drivers — or bring back any waiters, bartenders, or bar-backs you may have had to lay off after the epidemic — and ask them to do what they do best: customer service; this time, on the road. You don’t need to have your complete fleet operational right away, but you should keep an eye on how it grows so you can be ready to meet demand.

Finally, spread the news about your delivery services in any way you can. Distribute fliers to your in-house diners, post it on social media, and send emails to your subscriber list. You can ensure that the next time someone needs a meal delivered to their home or company, they think of you by raising awareness and remaining top of mind.

Use EasyRoutes to Bring Delivery to your Restaurant

Starting in-house delivery, which includes hiring your own drivers, can be intimidating. However, getting started is considerably faster and easier than you might expect when you use delivery management software like EasyRoutes by Roundtrip. Your employees will pick it up quickly — just listen to our customers — and the benefits of bringing it in-house for your culture, morale, and bottom line are too great to ignore.

Start doing in-house deliveries now with a free 14-day trial.

To learn more about EasyRoutes, visit Roundtrip.ai.