Empowering SMBs: The Transformative Role of Food Delivery Apps and Onboarding Best Practices

Author: Elena Garcia, Operations Director

The advent of technology and the boom of food delivery apps have significantly changed the restaurant industry's landscape. In particular, small-to-medium restaurant businesses (SMBs) have experienced a considerable shift in the way they operate and engage with customers. In today's fast-paced digital era, these platforms have become a lifeline for many restaurants, creating new avenues for growth and sustainability.

Food delivery apps have democratized the restaurant industry, providing an equal opportunity for SMBs to reach a broader audience. Pre-technology, these smaller establishments often struggled with visibility and access to larger customer bases. However, the rise of food delivery apps has leveled the playing field.

Additionally, data analytics help restaurants understand their customer base better. Data on customer preferences, peak delivery times, popular dishes, and even feedback on meals can be invaluable for improving offerings and services.

However, to fully exploit the potential of these delivery apps, it's essential for restaurants to be properly onboarded and activated promptly. 

Based on Wear Your Brand’s experience onboarding restaurant partners, here are a few best practices that can help streamline this process and foster technology adoption:

1. Comprehensive Onboarding:

The onboarding process should not only include setting up the restaurant's account and menu but also training on how to use the platform efficiently. Additionally, minimizing time to activation has a huge direct impact revenue generating. 

WYB has managed to reduce time to activation by 36 hours on average, generating +0.5M of yearly revenue increase.

2. Regular Communication:

Consistent and open communication between the restaurant and the delivery app is crucial, especially during the initial setup period. Regular check-ins can help address any issues promptly, thereby reducing the time to activation.

3. Utilize Pre-existing Materials:

Restaurants often already have menus and images that can be readily used on the delivery platform. Using these resources can significantly reduce the time required to set up the account. However, for those lacking such resources streamlining access to these services (for example, through a dedicated merchant e-shop) minimizes potential onboarding hurdles.

4. Collaborative Promotions:

Once onboarded, direct communication with the restaurant plays a crucial role in raising visibility, increasing brand awareness, and driving more customers. Additionally, providing a platform for the merchants with a very competitive offer of frequently used materials (disposables, like paper bags, cutlery, etc..) has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to foster brand adoption and consequently boost brand awareness for food delivery apps.

5. Dedicated Support:

Dedicated support during the onboarding process and beyond can help restaurants resolve any issues quickly, ensuring smooth operations.

The impact of food delivery apps on the restaurant industry, especially SMBs, is profound. These platforms have opened doors to new opportunities, increased visibility, and ultimately allowed these businesses to flourish in a competitive market. By improving the onboarding process and reducing time to activation, these benefits can be realized even more rapidly, providing a win-win situation for the restaurant and the delivery app alike.

If you want to know more about restaurant onboarding best practices book a demo today or reach out to us at sales@wearyourbrand.co!