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Convert customers from food delivery apps to your direct ordering channels
Convert customers from food delivery apps to your direct ordering channels

Best practices on how to convert customers from third-party apps to order directly

Benjamin Mouflard avatar
Written by Benjamin Mouflard
Updated over 3 years ago

I'm sure you all agree that when someone orders from you multiple times, most of the reward should go to you.

They do so because they loved your food and they want more, again and again.

In that context, keep paying a 30% commission every time they order can be very frustrating.

Below, we will share with you 3 proven tactics to convert more of your food portals customers to your direct ordering system.

  • Voucher claiming system

  • WhatsApp Advanced broadcast

  • SMS Blasts

1. Voucher Claiming system with your delivery bags and automated reminders.

When your customers order from you and you send your delivery bag to them it's a great moment to tell them they can order directly next time and get rewarded for their loyalty.

Usually, what most restaurants do is to add a leaflet in the bag that either brings to the menu through a QR Code or just tell them to order through the website next time.

The issue here is that most probably your customer will throw this leaflet and forget about it.

And next time he will want to order from you, he will go back to the food portal he used.

What you want at this stage is to collect his data and remind them!

That's why the voucher claiming system developed by ChatFood is very useful.

Print a QR Code with the mention "Scan to Claim 25% OFF your next order" and drive to the ChatFood Voucher Claiming System. (Up to you to decide about the reward)

Once your customer enters his phone number, he will receive an SMS or WhatsApp message with the link to order and redeem his voucher next time.

Chances are he will remember and order from there next time.

Ok, but what if he doesn't?

This is where ChatFood automated reminders become super useful. As you capture your customer data, you can now add him to your automated reminder machine powered by ChatFood and remind him to use his voucher if he didn't do it yet.

Cool no? and the best with all of that. This comes at no extra cost but it's included in your ChatFood subscription.

2. WhatsApp advanced broadcast

Implementing the above will help you massively to convert your food portal customers but we agree that not everyone will scan the code and claim its voucher.

How to go further then?

This is where the WhatsApp broadcast comes into play.

How does it work?

That's easy.

  • At the end of each day, ask your staff to extract all the phone numbers of each of your customers who ordered from a food portal sharing your customer phone number.

4/ Send your broadcast every day (limited to 500 messages per day)

3. SMS Blasts

Every now and then it also makes sense to run blasts SMS campaigns to your database of customers (We suggest 2/3 blasts per months maximum)

If you do so (Go to your ChatFood Marketing Dashboard to book campaigns), we recommend having a very targeted offer to attract your customers' attention.

Below are some examples:

  • Unique offers they can only get ordering from you directly (ex: bundles, happy hours, ...)

  • A special event that justifies a limited time discount (Black Friday, Eat Healthy Week, Restaurant anniversary,....)

  • Weekly or monthly activations you run on a regular basis. ( Monday BOGO, Friday Brunch,...)

Does SMS work?

If you have a good database and you apply some of the principles above it sure does!

Below is an example of a restaurant using SMS in a great way.

YOU can notice 2 things:

  • He gets a boost of orders on the day he does his blast.

  • After the blast, the average number of orders he gets his higher than before the blast = there is a long-lasting effect!

As a conclusion, those above ideas can really help you convert more customers to order directly but if you want to retain them you need to make sure you execute the basics properly:

  • Acceptable delivery time (not more than 45-50 min)

  • Live tracking about the order (update your customers about their order status)

  • Reward them for their loyalty with ChatFood automated loyalty program.

Disclaimer:

WhatsApp senders Chrome plugin are not endorsed or certified WhatsApp Inc.

Those are unofficial enhancement tools for WhatsApp Web.

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