Since the first containment due to covid-19, the catering sector has also entered the digital transformation. After several weeks of closures, restaurants are having to adapt their business models to survive this pandemic. To continue satisfying their regular customers and attract new ones, they need to adopt a sales channel that respects sanitary measures while guaranteeing better customer service: click and collect. This solution has become a must for restaurants wishing to develop takeaway sales alongside delivery, as well as an online presence via an online store.
How does click and collect work?
Click and collect is a sales solution more than suited to food entrepreneurs like restaurants. It allows you to continue taking orders and serving your customers without crowding your restaurant, thus reducing the risk of contamination.
A real need for digitalization in the foodservice industry
Since the first containment, consumers have increasingly turned to fast food restaurants offering a restaurant delivery service. Their market share increased from 36% to 43%. At the same time, home delivery has grown by 50% since the start of the pandemic.
It’s also time for restaurants to offer their customers the option of ordering their favorite dishes online. Several solutions exist, such as online sales, click and collect and home delivery via website or mobile application. In fact, the number of virtual restaurants in France is growing all the time.
But in the restaurant business, it’s important to humanize the relationship with your customers. In spite of the pandemic, you can continue to welcome your customers and exchange warmly with them without having to serve them on the spot to avoid overcrowding. To do this, you need to rethink your business model and deploy customer-focused digital solutions such as click and collect.
Set up a click and collect solution for your restaurant
DOOD offers a white-label solution to help you set up an online store in just 24 hours. This platform provides you with a blank e-shop that you can customize with your own graphics to reflect your brand image.
From now on, your customers can use this e-shop to consult your menus in real time and place an order. You can also integrate numerous online payment options. Your team can process orders in real time on your management interface for fast, efficient service.
At the same time, the chef and his team can prepare the dishes ordered according to the customer’s request: immediately or later in the case of a pre-order. The customer then goes on site to pick up his or her dish, with no waiting at all. There’s no need to consult a menu, place an order with a waiter and pay at the counter. This significantly reduces contact and friction points in restaurants.
A good click and collect system gives you the autonomy and control to optimize your organization.
What are the advantages of click and collect?
Why adopting a click and collect system in your restaurant will have a positive impact on your sales? There are many advantages to this takeaway solution:
✔️ Good order management
Order processing in the foodservice sector requires the deployment of numerous resources: human, time, material and financial. With an online store, you can receive customer orders in real time on your management interface. This greatly simplifies your organization, especially if your digital tool is connected to your POS system.
You can process orders in order of arrival. You don’t need menu cards or notebooks, because everything is digitized. A tracking table will contain all the necessary information on each order: customer name, dishes ordered, time of collection, etc. As a result, you optimize your overall management.
✔️ Better organization within the team
When you digitalize a large part of your services with online ordering, click-and-collect and delivery systems, you can better organize your team. With online ordering and payment, you can concentrate on preparing and cooking your food. As a result, you can even reduce your workforce, since you no longer need waiters to take orders and serve food.
Consumers now only come to pick up their food. This will help you keep queues moving, because you know in advance how many customers will be coming in over the next few hours.
✔️Un service specially designed for customer satisfaction
At the same time, you can improve your communication by thinking ahead. Suggest the week’s menus in advance, post special offers for special occasions, etc. As orders come in, you can evaluate your stock and adjust the menu accordingly.
The click and collect solution is designed specifically for the customer, to enhance the user experience. A satisfied customer is always more likely to order more and/or come back to you. In other words, your average basket will automatically increase, and so will your sales.
What types of stores are covered by click and collect?
Click and collect is a sales channel that suits all businesses, especially those in the restaurant and food sectors. As local retailers, they need to offer a sales service adapted to their customers’ new digital habits. Consumers search online to find the nearest restaurant that suits their taste.
Offering a click and collect solution enables you to stay in touch with your customers and build loyalty, but also to attract new customers. You’ll give your customers the chance to order your dishes by consulting the menu at their leisure, wherever they like on the web: at home, in the office or even on the move.
They choose the dish and indicate the time they want to pick it up. They can then pay online or on site. To stand out from the competition, you need to deploy the right marketing strategies when opening your e-commerce site. The aim is to increase your visibility and notoriety on the Internet. That’s why DOOD integrates loyalty and internet referencing modules into its platform to facilitate centralized management of all your online distribution levers.