Delighting your Delivery Customers

Post COVID-19, behavioural experts believe people will continue to practice routines and habits they relied upon during the lockdown period. For the hospitality industry, that means delivery as a dining option will remain an essential part of a venue’s offering. For context, Australia’s online food delivery market is worth a massive $2.7b, an increase of almost 24% over the past year according to global survey group, Statista.

Users of food delivery services have increased approximately 22% to 8.7m people.

The COVID effect is particularly stark. As of mid-2020, data from local analytics company Illion shows consumer spending on food delivery has jumped 258% since lockdowns commenced.In this article we explore ways your venue can establish and maintain superior delivery results that ensure you take full advantage of the pivot to delivery.

Making wise menu decisions

Not all meals are suited to delivery. Some dishes lose their integrity during the delivery window while others are hard to successfully package and transport. In each case, the serving of food that isn’t at its best is likely to create a disappointing customer experience.

“When you place an order, you have an idea in your head as to what it will look and taste like,” says David White, Business Development Manager & Executive Chef at Simplot.

"Too many venues miss the mark with overly ambitious ideas around what suits the delivery channel. The bottom line is that smart businesses will always have a separate menu for delivery.” White says that while wet dishes such as stir fries and casseroles are always going to transport well, deep fried foods can still be delivered successfully with the right combination of ingredients, packaging and care over the presentation of meals.

Another key piece of menu advice is to package up side-dishes, sauces, beverages and desserts into complete meals for delivery. These add-on items often contain good margins and can turn a typical order into a very profitable one.

“It’s always interesting to see what the QSR businesses are up to,” says White. “You’ll notice their advertising is currently talking more about family meals. Why? It’s because they know people are creating in-house dining events at home.“

So, there’s a lot of sense in optimising a delivery menu around complete meal solutions for larger groups.”

Package for perfection

A major challenge for kitchens around delivered food is that diners expect the same high-quality experience they'd receive in a restaurant. More than ever, it’s vital that food stays hot and crunchy for longer. That means using packaging that is purpose-made for the delivery occasion.

“The right choice of packaging will ensure the food arrives to the customer looking and tasting just as good as it did when it left the service counter,” says Tom Lunn, Group General Manager at Detmold Group, home of the Detpak range of packaging solutions for the foodservice industry. In partnership with Simplot, his company recently took on perhaps the biggest challenge in food delivery — improving the hold time of hot chips to better suit the delivery channel.

“Consumers always remember where they had the best chips,” says Lunn. “If a restaurant or takeaway outlet is trying to stand out from hundreds of other choices that are available on the phone screen, they have to deliver knockout chips that have consumers coming back again and again.”

Win the delivery war with hot chips

Detpak and Simplot believe they have created the industry’s most advanced hot chip delivery system, which comprises a brand-new packaging solution and an all-new hot chip. White says Simplot began developing the company’s Edgell Supa Crunch Delivery Chip to address a particular pain point for customers.

“What we constantly heard was they needed a chip that would hold for up to 40 minutes,” he says. “We also found out pretty quickly that diners will choose who they buy from based on who has the best chips. Basically, if you have the best chips, you’ll win. ”Simplot focused on extending the chip’s hold time, then worked to give it an extremely tasty batter. “Finally,” says White, “even though we knew we had a great chip, we needed to solve the temperature issue.

With our Delivery Chip, you can return the core heat to the chip with a 20 second blast in the microwave.

It’s a great way of protecting the reputation of the restaurant if there’s been a delay in delivery. ”From Detpak’s perspective, a huge amount of ground was covered to arrive at its Keep Crunch carton solution. “The science behind creating these premium chips and the best packaging format and materials is the result of months of exhaustive testing,” says Lunn from Detpak. “The Keep Crunch carton has an elevated floor and scientifically placed ventilation holes to allow steam to escape whilst still keeping the chips hot and crisp,” he explains. “The box is made from sustainably-sourced board in a food grade and quality-accredited Australian-owned factory, and is both recyclable and compostable.” An impressive innovation is the carton’s tamper-evident closure that ensures chips are protected from the kitchen to the table.

Says Lunn emphatically of the final result: “We think there is no excuse for delivering soggy chips ever again!”

A market-leading hot chip solution that is set to delight diners is great news for venues that are determined to win the delivery wars.

Who is Detpak?

Detpak is a family-owned business that was founded in South Australia in 1948. The company specialises in packaging for the foodservice industry and it boasts more than 1,000 paper and board packaging solutions. Throughout its existence, Detpak has shown a willingness to innovate. For example, it was the first to bring waxed wraps to the Australasian market. Other market-leading product innovations include the Ripple-Wrap™ hot cup, which continues to set the benchmark in the coffee-to-go market. The company remains a trailblazer thanks to its LaunchPad facility, a centre for concept creation and rapid prototyping.Today, Detpak operates a worldwide network that includes manufacturing in seven countries, delivering service with the care you would expect from a family-owned business.