4 critical contactless delivery tips for your restaurant
Published March 19, 2020
As the world continues to navigate the coronavirus outbreak, many restaurants have turned to contactless delivery to help protect their customers and their employees by reducing transmission of the virus through normal restaurant interactions.
And, as of September 2020, seven out of ten restaurant owners and operators say off-premise orders represent a higher proportion of their business than they did before the pandemic.
If you operate a restaurant, here are some tips you can use as you pivot to contactless delivery.
1. Give customers a way to tell you they don’t want contact.
You can add a contactless delivery option to your app enabling pre-pay and doorstep delivery or provide a place for them to add delivery instructions in the app or online. This protects both your customers and your employees.
2. Pivot to mobile payments
Stop taking cash as a payment option to avoid hand-to-hand contact and spreading any germs that may be lingering on paper bills and coins.
3. Thoroughly disinfect all food delivery packaging
Sanitize your surfaces and POS terminals, and seal your orders in clean, disinfected packaging that’s double-sealed. Consider adding a flyer or sticker thanking your customers for their support and reassuring them you’ve taken extra safety precautions with their order. It may be worth also adding a coupon to encourage further orders and providing your social media handles for future updates and offers.
4. Drive your contactless delivery business through social media
For example, Yum China –– which operates nearly 9,000 Pizza Hut, KFC and other restaurants in the world's second-largest economy –– used short, informational videos to promote safe contactless delivery options on social media platforms WeChat and Weibo.
Here’s how restaurants around the world are implementing contactless payment and delivery
- Domino’s is now offering contactless delivery. Orders can be placed anywhere a customer wants for safer pickup.
- Takeaway.com, the Dutch company that recently bought Just Eat, and Deliveroo have both committed to providing deliveries without physical contact. Takeaway said the measure is applicable to all restaurants on its platform throughout Europe. Drivers are being instructed to ring the customers’ doorbell and leave the food at the door.
- In the U.K, Deliveroo said customers can request no-contact drop-off service, “removing the need for direct contact for both parties.” Customers can use the app to order kitchen and household products from supermarkets, as more Brits are expected to self-isolate in coming weeks.
- In China, Meituan said it installed large meal retrieval cupboards around hospitals where hospital personnel can pick up their orders
- Chinese customers can also order remotely. At McDonald’s, employees seal the meals in bags and put them in a special spot for pickup without human contact. For delivery orders, drivers drop packages at building entrances, disinfect their delivery bags and wash their hands more frequently. Drivers carry ID cards showing that they—and the people who made and packaged their food—had their body temperature scanned.
- Wolt in Hungary offers contactless food delivery. After choosing a meal, customers can add a note saying where they want the order delivered.
- Spain’s Glovo also is implementing new measures globally—including recommending “no contact” deliveries and removing the requirement for couriers to obtain a mobile signature from the customer.
- The U.K. government relaxed rules for restaurants and pubs, removing the requirement for planning permission to change to hot food takeaway.
NCR is deeply committed to helping you navigate this uncertain and challenging time. Let us know how we can help as you transform your restaurant to address the disruption caused by the pandemic, and be sure to keep checking NCR.com/coronavirus for updates, guidance and other helpful information.
