Diners who order delivery from your restaurant are hoping to dig into your delicious food sooner rather than later. By consistently bringing hot, tasty meals to customers’ front doors in a timely fashion, your restaurant earns the trust and loyalty of diners who put a premium on convenience. Having carefully considered delivery best practices in place is essential to delivery success.

Here are a few tips and tricks to reduce food delivery time, so your diners are always satisfied.

Use technology to your advantage

Thanks to technology that easily syncs with your drivers’ mobile phones, food delivery management technology is easier than ever. Use it to assess driver performance, optimize routes and predict the return of drivers so you can have the next orders ready to go when they get back to the restaurant.

Outsource delivery drivers

Rather than hiring your own delivery drivers, you now have the option to outsource food delivery. With a restaurant delivery service, you can access professional, experienced drivers when you need them. Outsourcing delivery drivers is an innovative way to reduce delivery time during unexpected rush periods, and reduces food delivery costs such as insurance and hourly wages.

Encourage delivery driver communication

During the busy lunch and dinner rushes, you don’t want communication breakdowns among drivers to culminate in finger-pointing. Provide your drivers a time to get together to talk about what works and what doesn’t. Even if they don’t always talk about work, the mutual respect they’ll develop will lead to healthier relationships and more open communication on the job.

Standardize your delivery process

Organize and assign specific delivery responsibilities across your drivers and restaurant staff. Make it clear to your in-house employees who is in charge of bagging the orders and having them ready to go for drivers. Then, leave time for drivers to match the contents to the ticket before loading it in the car.

Prioritize efficiency over speed

Inaccurate orders have the potential to damage the reputation of your delivery business much more than slightly late delivery. Forgetting an important part of the order can drastically slow down delivery times when drivers have to go back to the restaurant to get it. Consistent order accuracy is the key to the diner’s heart, and taking a little time on the front end will reduce overall food delivery time in a significant way while keeping customers satisfied.

Keep your cool

Getting frustrated with your drivers when they make a mistake during a busy period will only raise everyone’s stress level at a time when they need to stay positive and power through. Wait until the storm has passed to assess the team’s performance, and offer praise and criticism in a way that helps everyone improve the next time.

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