Introduction:

Hey restaurant owners, operators, and managers. Today, I want to talk to you about third party delivery apps like Uber, DoorDash, GrubHub, etc. 

A couple years ago I wasn’t the biggest fan in the world of third-party delivery. Last year, I kind of teetered in the middle. But these days it’s part of the business, whether you’re a fan or not. I am suggesting that you grasp onto it and go with it! I know you’re out there fighting me and telling me 25-30% commissions are crazy. This is not the video where we discuss whether it’s worth it or not; rather, this is for those of you who are doing this, doing it well, and want to do it better. This is about getting you to the top result when people are searching restaurants in third-party apps and getting you more orders.

How to Increase Sales with Third Party Delivery Apps:

I have developed this method over the last 4-5 months, experimenting with different clients to get the best results. I’ve compiled my findings into a list of things you can do to get more orders, get to the top of searches, and make sure that you’re making the best of what may be a great situation or an average situation for you. These are proven, tested and we know this works! 

1. This sounds pretty obvious but make sure your restaurant is set up with the correct categories. Don’t be too specific here but also, don’t be too broad. What I mean by that is if you’re a pizza restaurant, pizza should be your number one category. What also works is Italian, pasta, American or Italian American, it just depends on what they offer. I work with a client who has an Egyptian restaurant. In the United States, very few people are searching for Egyptian food; rather, they’re searching for Middle-Eastern or Mediterranean food. When we changed his main category from Egyptian to Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean, we instantly saw an uptick in the amount of orders he was getting. Be very careful with your categories and double check to make sure they’re accurate. Make sure your meal periods are also accurate: breakfast, lunch, dinner, late-night, etc. Every website is different, but we have found this is the absolute most important thing that you can do to increase your orders.
2. Some of you are going to do this, some of you aren’t, but we have found that Pay-for-Play works. If you’re paying for advertising, offering coupons for free delivery, or any sort of Pay-for-Play treatment, you’re going to move higher up to the top. 
3. The amount of reviews that you have. Nothing is moving the needle more than the first two than reviews – lots and lots of reviews. Put together a process for getting reviews. Some delivery companies give you customer information and allow you to follow up with them, but most of them don’t so it’s up to you to do something. The easier, the better. Postcards work well. Scan a QR code and take it back to Uber or whoever it is so they can put up that review. Whatever you have to do to get more reviews is going to move the needle for you quite a bit. 
4. Names of your menu items. For example: I work with a breakfast restaurant and he has 10 different omelets with different names, but he had them listed in only one category (omelet). He didn’t name/categorize it as California Omelet, Denver Omelet, etc. When someone searches they may not be searching for Breakfast or American, they may be wanting an omelet. If your menu has 15 items listed in the omelet category and someone else’s menu only has it listed once, then the one with fifteen is going to win. Same thing for sandwiches, wraps, bowls, pasta, pizza or whatever it is…make sure that the major category is listed in the description of each item.
5. Get on the phone with them. But don’t just get on the phone and yell at them complaining about the 30% commissions – they hear that all day long. You know what works great? Saying something like, “Hey, I’ve done a lot to make my listings better: fixed the SEO, put better pictures on, etc. I am loving the relationship that we have created and I want to do more business with you. I believe that you’re the future! I’m redesigning my restaurant to be more efficient for deliveries and take out orders. I’ve updated my menu and the menu on your site, how can we do more work together?” 

When you approach your relationship with these companies from that standpoint, it’s amazing the information they will share with you. They might not be able to give you free advertising, but maybe they can give you some discounts. Maybe they can try out one week with free delivery for you and pull up some metrics. These companies have an enormous amount of data, they know what people are searching for and what words they’re using to search. Maybe they’re searching for spaghetti instead of pasta, and making that change on your website/menu could have a huge impact on sales. 

These companies are going public if they haven’t already, and now they have to answer to investors. They are not profitable but they have huge valuations with tons of investors behind them. They need to start making profits. Trust me, they need your business as much as you need theirs. This could be a great relationship if you use my advice and follow my steps. I hope to see you again for another video just like this next week, go out be a boss.