5 Tips For Finding the Right Delivery Partners

Working with third-party delivery services is a scary concept for many restaurant franchises. Once your food leaves the restaurant, all of your trust is in a driver who you have not trained and may or may not know you brand. 1851 Franchise spoke with David Burgass, Chief Operations Officer at Famous Toastery, and he shared the five steps brands should take when looking for a third-party delivery service.

1. Find Someone Who Represents Your Brand

One major concern restaurants cite regarding third-party delivery services is the lack of control they have once their product leaves the building. Burgass had the same fears, but he and his team took the time to vet the services in their area in order to find the perfect brand for Famous Toastery.

Burgass shared, “Every sales guy is going to sell you that they have the best service, but I needed to know that they were going to execute what they sold me on. In order to do that, we did secret shopping and ordered food through different third-party vendors. We rated each service in different categories in order to find the best partner to represent our brand.”

2. Understand How They Will Market You

There’s a cost that comes with signing on with a third-party delivery service. And many times, the fee is not small. Burgass recommends reviewing the brand’s marketing initiatives to better understand how they are going to drive business into your restaurant.

“When it came to marketing, it needed to be more than just them putting their logo on our windows. We looked at how they were going to advertise our menu and our restaurants. I wanted to know if they were going to come out and take pictures, create flyers and place our menus on their different platforms. I wanted to make sure we were going to get the right visibility.”

3. Don’t Be Concerned About Money

The biggest concern that a lot of restaurants have when they look at third party is with the fee. It’s a substantial commitment to bring in a third-party resource, but Burgass doesn’t look at it that way. He thinks about the customers that he’s going to connect with that wouldn’t have had a chance to try Famous Toastery before, allowing the brand to gain new customers.

“I don't look at the initial financial impact. What I’m looking at is those people that are in that office building 10-15 minutes away who aren’t my guests anyway. It’s about growing my weekend sales and getting the food in front of that guest now. If I have the potential to win that guest coming back on a Saturday and Sunday, then that’s a win. My initial concern is growing that dine-in value.”

4. Hold Them Accountable

There are standards set in place for every restaurant employee, and your third-party delivery service shouldn't be any different. As stated above, you likely chose a service because it is an extension of your brand. Each time a driver walks into your restaurant, be sure they are presenting in a way that was agreed upon by the company you signed with.

Burgass stated, “This is an extension of your restaurant, and you need to hold the company to the image of who they say they are. When our third-party service drivers come into our restaurant they come in uniform, they have a hot bag, they going above and beyond. It’s not just the food, but it’s the image. We hold our staff to a high quality and we want to make sure that translates to our delivery partner.”

5. Be Patient

At the end of the day, it’s important to be patient. If you want your delivery service to thrive, it’s very important for you to find the perfect partner to fit your restaurant’s needs and culture. As Burgrass shared, “It takes time to find the right partner. We interview our staff three times, why wouldn't we take the time to find our third-party delivery partner? Do no rush to find the right partner.”