NCCO International 
Curbside pick-up and delivery services have been more than industry buzzwords over the last year—they’ve been lifesavers. While many restaurants have offered some form of delivery or pick-up in the past, others have adopted these services for the first time during the pandemic out of necessity.
Even high-end restaurants that relied solely on patrons dining in quickly pivoted to pick-up and delivery once they realized “business as usual” wasn’t an option anymore.
And when the pandemic ends, curbside pick-up and delivery will likely remain a valuable source of revenue. If your restaurant is looking to improve or continue takeout and delivery options, check out these tips.
How to improve pick-up instructions
Offering delivery and pick-up to your customers is great. But if the process is confusing or poorly executed, your customers might find it discouraging and go somewhere else.
Make sure you provide customers with clear and easy-to-follow directions for delivery and pick-up. Do you clearly label locations for customers to park or receive orders? Is there adequate space should more than a couple of customers arrive at the same time? Should customers call or text once they arrive or before they leave? Make sure your customers have answers to these questions before they arrive.
You can do that by first posting pick-up information on your website. You can also send customers an email once their orders are complete or provide signage outside your establishment that directs and instructs your customers on where to pick up their orders.
You can also consider using alternative entrances for pick-up orders–especially as restaurants scale-up indoor and outdoor dining. If your space has an alternative entrance on the side or back of the building, you can use this area as an alternative curbside pick-up location.
Understanding third-party apps
While some apps pick up and deliver food for your customers, we recommend you do plenty of research before deciding to partner with one.
Start by considering the ways each delivery app makes money and charges customers. Certain apps charge the restaurants and accept tips from the customers upon delivery, which eats into a restaurant’s profits. Others don’t charge the restaurant and will make up the difference in additional delivery fees for the customer, which might turn your customers off from ordering at all.
Packaging & sanitation
To make delivery a success, you need to make sure your customers know their food is safe when it arrives. That’s where NCCO’s SecureIt® tamper-evident labels can help.
The cutmarks on these labels tear of tampered with while in transit, which means that every unbroken label shows customers that their food is safe and ready to enjoy.
For more information on SecureIt tamper-evident labels or other affordable, reliable foodservice solutions to help your business achieve success, swing over to our products page and have a look around.