Here might be a useful topic where people can share ideas about how to get customers to order from your own site, and not expensive directories. Here are a few ideas I have thought of, but feel free to add more and benefit everyone (except people charging high percentages ;)).
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[]Make sure your online ordering (however you do that) gives the customers the ability to add the online ordering page to their home screen and/or their bookmarks. Adding to the home screen will give the ordering page the look and feel of an app and the convenience of just being able to launch it. Also, don’t rush out to create your own app, even if companies are making these affordable to you. People are getting tired of everybody wanting them to put their app on their phone. It’s too much and the entire idea will eventually fail. The browser will win the war and be the prominently used method of searching and doing because it’s one app that can go anyplace, and no installs needed, and no upgrades needed.
[]Make sure the customer can see an order history and has his card info stored (securely) for quick ordering. They are coming to expect this. If the customer wants his order info saved, then he signs up really quickly giving you info, and BANG, the marketing info begins to flow.
[]Grab that email, text number and other info from the customer, and advertise back to them after they order directly from you, like these services do. They get the order for you, and then they train your customers that this is how they order from you so that they always get the order first. A vicious cycle. Your customers need to be retrained. How about a 5 or 10% discount if they place another order that week directly from you? Money or savings is a useful re-trainer.
[]Obviously, blanket your sit down menu with notifications that you now take online orders directly from your site. Possibly offer a 10% discount with first online order. Sure you lose money the first time, but still not as much as you lose with GH and others, and you won’t keep losing it. That’s the point.
[]Put the fact that you have online ordering (and a discount) on your coupons if the takeout or delivery was placed by phone to encourage next order to be online rather than phone.
[]Add a link to your online ordering in yelp, facebook and other sites that get a lot of eyeballs.
[]Put a prominent sign right at your front counter checkout.
[]Display prominently on your outside sign and/or windows. Your sign is one of your best advertising vehicles you have and it’s basically free,
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Again, feel free to add more ideas for everyone’s benefit.
unfortunately gubhub is a necessary evil in urban areas, especially here in Chicago, they have a strangle hold on this city. people are loyal to it ive tried a lot of things to get people to use my site even asked straight up the grubhub regulars to switch and they dont.
i did recently figure out that if your your not on the first or second page there is no point of being anywhere else except the bottom. i was paying 5 bucks an order for years and that put me on page 9 out of about 13, and about page 3 of just pizzerias. i got fed up with paying $5 on a $7 pick up order and so i dropped down to 3 bucks witch put me on the 13th page. i still get the same amount of orders as i did when i was paying 5. fyi if you wanna be on page 1 it will cost you about 10 bucks an order…ugh!
You can’t depend on search engines. Even if you hire the best SEO, the search engines always change their rules. It’s an expensive, time consuming and unreliable process. But what about money? Money talks, right? So if GH is whacking you for %14, what’s the problem of putting the fact that you offer online ordering directly all over your dine in menus, on your front counter, on your front sign where people are constantly driving by, and here’s the best part, put it conspicuously in your actual delivery bag (closed up so GH doesn’t see it). 5% discount when you order directly. Maybe even 10% if you want to be aggressive. You’ll still be losing less than with GH, and it will re-train your customers.
If you told me that next time I order online, if I merely order directly from your site instead of GH or whoever, I will get 10% off, I would definitely do that. All I have to do is type in a new url which is your site, and I get 10% off. Who resists that? And don’t forget the fact that although people might be comfortable enough to have a third party middleman deliver it, they don’t necessarily feel great about it and would probably want the delivery to be direct from the restaurant and would probably expect it to arrive sooner and more reliably and that would probably be true. In fact it would often be true.
And what will the Grub Hub fanatic do when he realizes your delivery charges are cheaper, faster and he has been way overpaying this whole time? It’s the truth. So all you need to do is to make them wake up and see that. GH is a tremendous rip off, and people pay it because they don’t see a side to side comparison between direct ordering and GH. If you do a clear side to side, that should wake some people up. Money always talks.
yup, i offer 10% off every online order, lower minimum orders on my site vs grubhub, and i don’t accept my coupons through grubhub…still, people are sheep they go with the herd.
How easy to use is your online ordering site?
Make a cheap postcard pitch with side by side comparison to make things plain and put it inside of your delivery bag that you give GH. Has to be very carefully worded and not too negative as too much negativity could have the opposite effect. I’m guessing that GH has no rules about what you put inside your bag, even though it’s anti GH propaganda. But boy, what a cheap and targeted ad you’ll have. Probably doesn’t get cheaper or more targeted than that as even your transport for the ad is already paid for thanks to the very service your ad is trying to negate.
If that has zero effect, then somehow, as mentioned earlier, your online ordering might not be as easy as theirs or just doesn’t look or seem as appealing as theirs. Copy it if you can (not obviously). Does it save their past orders and more importantly, allow them to reuse cc info? That’s very convenient, especially the cc info. How is the User Interface compared to GH?
The interesting part about the post card idea is that the more money GH takes from you, the more people that see your ad. Strange sort of inverse relationship. But for every dollar they make, comes an effort from you to change that, and they transport that for you for nothing. No mailing expenses.
First, it’s odd you pay a flat fee per order. For me, they take 12.5% of the subtotal sales. Furthermore, Grubhub is so outdated and prehistoric, that I’m dropping their asses in a few weeks once schools starts again.
Eat24 charges the same and is much more popular here in SF and much easier to use as both a consumer and a restaurant owner. When confirming orders you can let the customer know how long it will be: 30,45, 60, 75, or 90+ mins. I find this to be advantageous as opposed to GH who simply tells them the same wait time no matter what. When we’re lit, deliveries can take 75-90, but when it’s slow it could be less than 30. In this day and age, that’s a helpful tool. I’m looking for an online ordering company that does this too, as mine does not currently.
I’ve also printed off box toppers recently that offer a coupon code to my online ordering site. The box toppers promote online ordering on my site and when doing so, customers get a discount for using it.
Tguag said the he has tried similar things in Chicago, but GH has a stranglehold on the city. I like the box topper idea. Clever. Has this been working for you in SF?
we were one of the first restaurants to sign up with them back in the day it was a 3, 4, or 5 dollar charge per order.
gubhub uses a tablet around here and we can change the wait time per order.