India’s online food delivery industry has been snowballing over the past few years. More and more customers are opting for the convenience of having their favourite restaurant meals delivered straight to their doorstep. The Indian food delivery market is expected to reach nearly USD 13 billion by 2025.
And as food delivery services have become an essential part of the restaurant industry, there are many challenges restaurants face daily to keep up with the demand. In this blog, we will explore some typical online food delivery pain points every restaurateur faces.
If you too face these problems at your outlet, then read till the end of the blog because we have listed the perfect solution for all these worries!
5 Online Food Delivery Challenges and Their Solutions
While online food deliveries in India are increasing and making customers’ lives easier, restaurants have difficulty keeping up. Here are solutions to challenges faced by restaurants regularly.
1. Manually Order Management
Some restaurants assign an employee to accept online food delivery orders and then manually do data entry of all such orders into the order/ sales book at the end of the day. It is time-consuming and tedious, especially if restaurants receive a high volume of delivery orders. Moreover, there is a higher potential for errors in recording the order, miscommunication between the kitchen and the delivery staff, and delays in processing the order.
Solution: Use a POS system with a user-friendly interface to help speed up the process and reduce the risk of errors. Your POS can integrate with third-party delivery services and automatically sync order details, and its status into the system, absolutely cutting the time needed for manual entry. This way your staff will have more time to work on improving the quality of food and service!
2. Managing Multiple Delivery Platforms
How many online food delivery platforms are you active on? While having a presence on multiple platforms can help increase visibility, it can also be daunting for restaurant staff to manage orders from different sources. Managing various online ordering platforms increases potential errors and miscommunications, such as duplicate or missed orders.
Solution: Restaurants must establish clear processes for managing orders from different platforms. It may involve assigning dedicated staff or using a centralized platform to handle each platform. POS systems can integrate multiple services and consolidate your orders in one place.
Petpooja offers seamless integrations with all the major online order aggregators like Zomato, Swiggy, Dunzo, DotPe, etc. You don’t need to switch screens or tabs to accept orders; you can easily manage all your online orders from a single screen.
3. Pickup Counter Chaos
With the increase in online food delivery, restaurant staff must manage in-house customers and those waiting to pick up their orders. It can lead to chaos at the pickup counter, resulting in long wait times, unhappy customers, and a chaotic working environment for restaurant staff.
Solution: Restaurants should establish clear processes for managing dine-in and online orders. Restaurants can dedicate a separate counter for online pickups, which can be processed separately from the dine-in orders. Additionally, POS systems can streamline the pickup process, such as mobile order notifications, digital displays or tracking systems, which allow customers to track the progress of their order and receive alerts when it is ready for pickup.
4. Keeping Proper Packaging
Nothing is more disappointing for a customer than finding a spilling gravy container when they order food online. A restaurant needs to ensure there is no spillage and it remains in good condition when it reaches the customer. Ideally, the food should be as good to eat as if served in a restaurant.
Solution: Use the proper airtight containers, maintain the right temperature and accompany your packaging with suitable add-ons.
Read our blog “Important Do’s and Don’ts of Food Packaging” to avoid common mistakes accompanying food delivery.
5. Updating Your Online Menu
Online menus, especially for home cooks and cloud kitchens, require frequent updates, which can be time-consuming and complex. Some common difficulties restaurants face when working online menus include ensuring that the menu is up-to-date and consistent across all platforms, managing inventory and ensuring that items are in stock, and providing accurate and consistent pricing.
Solutions: With the help of a POS system, you can get the live cost of any food items that you sell, and quickly update your online menu across your aggregator platforms. With Petpooja you can also smoothly toggle on and off-menu items when ingredients are unavailable.
The rise of online food delivery has brought several challenges to the restaurant industry in India. However, by leveraging technology and implementing transparent processes, restaurants can effectively manage these challenges and provide a more satisfying experience for their customers.
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