Published April 14, 2022
During shutdowns, restaurants had to become more resilient, flexible and creative. Many found themselves caught in a constant tug-of-war between managing business and keeping staff and customers healthy.
Restaurateurs around the globe had to pivot quickly to open their businesses, even if their dining rooms were closed. Many new operational models were implemented at all kinds of restaurants, from creating makeshift drive-thrus and implementing more outdoor seating to leveraging third-party delivery apps. One of the most successful and widespread methods of offering safer restaurant experiences was curbside pickup. It allowed customers to get their favorite food without having to dine in or enter the restaurant. And it helped restaurants build a more robust system for contactless pickup.
There are many ways for restaurants to implement curbside: simple call-in orders, online orders through the restaurant’s website, mobile apps, orders through third-party delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash and more. Some restaurants even implemented curbside ordering and pickup, too, leveraging mobile and contactless payment methods to enable guests to pay for orders from their cars.
Offering curbside pickup has become a new standard for restaurants across the industry, and this trend shows no sign of abating.
Here are five ways curbside pickup can increase your restaurant’s margin.
Curbside pickup doesn’t impact your dine-in capacity. This means you can earn more through off-premise orders without disrupting your core business of on-site dining.
You can leverage your existing staff to facilitate curbside pickup, too. Much like carryout orders, one major advantage of the store pickup model is that it doesn’t necessarily require additional workers to execute. While a surge of off-premise orders will make your kitchen staff busier, front-of-house employees can manage the order handoff. If business is slower, a member of the kitchen staff or a shift manager can take charge of fulfilling online orders as customers arrive.
Unlike several other restaurant processes, integrating curbside pickup into your operations is simple.
Figure out how you want to receive off-premise orders and payment and how you want to give customers their orders. Here are a few suggestions on how to set up a curbside pickup.
Related: Second-party delivery: What it is and why you should embrace it
While many people love dining inside a restaurant, it’s not always the most convenient option for customers who are on the go. By offering a curbside pickup option, you’re giving your customers another way to enjoy your restaurant’s food. There are a host of reasons why curbside is more convenient such as avoiding delivery fees, faster, and
During the pandemic, we’ve seen an increase in the ways people get food from their favorite eateries. Over time, consumers have continued to appreciate the flexibility of choice in dining, especially customers who feel more at ease staying safely within the confines of their cars.
Curbside pickup offers an easy opportunity to increase profits while maintaining healthy and stable operations. Are you ready to add curbside pickup to your restaurant?