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For anyone in the food industry, you can probably imagine or already know that food delivery presents an exciting additional revenue stream. When implemented successfully, food delivery will also increase customer engagement and build brand loyalty. In fact, this principle extends beyond just food delivery — whether you’re delivering food, flowers, laundry, health services, maintenance, and more, the following tips will be of great value to your business.

An increase in demand for convenience has ripened our current environment for delivery services of all kids, especially as more people are more inclined to stay safe inside, away from both cold weather and COVID-19.

In 2018, Olo, a mobile and online food ordering platform, published an extensive guide for restaurant operators to use when growing a delivery program. We’ve taken some of their tips and modified them to apply to any delivery program – not just for restaurant operators – as many of the key principles apply.

  1. Designate specific spaces for online orders to prep and package.

If your company doesn’t just deliver, you’re going to want to have a separate space for delivery operations. It’s also best if your marketplaces are POS integrated.

Restaurants and other businesses would highly benefit from having an area for receiving orders, for prepping online orders, an area for expediting orders, and an area for handoff.

2. Designate team members & train delivery service providers (DSPs)

In a restaurant setting, for instance, delivery specialists should take ownership over each aspect of the delivery order lifecycle. Depending on what you’re selling and delivering, make precise arrangements for who is responsible for receiving orders, preparing for delivery handoff, and providing communication and support for delivery issues. This will, of course, depend on the size of your team and each individual’s area of expertise.

3. Consider sustainable and personalized packaging

For just about any delivery, you’re going to want to think carefully about how to reduce your carbon footprint. Consider biodegradable packaging, or at least recyclable plastic. Did you know that thick plastic packaging is easier to recycle than styrofoam, thin plastics, or even cardboard? In fact, if cardboard gets greasy, it cannot be recycled. More and more customers consider sustainability in their buying choices, so you should modify accordingly, and position yourself as a conscientious brand.

On a similar note, custom and personalized packaging is an easy and effective way to market your brand. From signature colors to personalized notes, it takes little effort and goes a long way to make your customer feel special, while also making your aesthetic more salient to recipients. Plus, if the only person (maybe) seeing your customer is the courier, it’s nice to add a personal touch.

4. Treat your couriers and delivery drivers like guests.

As you can imagine, your couriers are the essential ingredient in effective delivery management. Treat them like your customers – considering providing loyalty rewards according to their number of successful deliveries. And most importantly, in the same way you prioritize customer communication, maintain reliable contact with your couriers. Any schedule changes or delays need to be communicated efficiently among team members. With the Root Planner, you can use either email or SMS to relay info to both drivers and customers.

We have an exciting addition to the Sprwt software ready to be released in just about a week. But we just can’t wait any longer to tell you about it. Soooo… introducing: the ROOT PLANNER. Get it? Root, as in route.

That’s right – now we have an additional software designed to optimize your delivery management by automatically calculating the most efficient routes for your drivers. If you have 200 orders to deliver and 5 active drivers, how will you know the best way to designate certain meals to certain drivers? Sure, according to your customers’ locations, but that’s a lot of manual work to do. You’re likely to lose a ton of time just planning the routes out, and it’s doubtful your drivers will know the quickest way to get to their respective destinations. The end result, of course, is customers waiting far longer than they should for your delicious food. 

Sprwt’s mission is to create a one-shop stop for meal prep businesses – a place where all of their business operations can be executed in one place. And with the Sprwt Root Planner, you can save 80% of your time. Best of all, any business relying on delivery management can use the Sprwt Root Planner. Maybe you’re a flower shop, or a dry cleaning company. Our software works no matter what you’re selling, so dive right in. 

But how exactly does this work? Well, we don’t want to overwhelm you with all the details right now. But just know that the software is incredibly simple, and for now, can be broken down into these two steps:

1. Create your account, and you’ll see a dashboard tab with your map, routes, and orders. First, you can input your orders and customer information either manually or by importing the data from a Sprwt or Excel file. Then, do the same to add your drivers, which can be easily found below the customers button. 

2. Once your orders, customers, and driver information are in the system, you simply return to the dashboard and select “routes.”  Select the date and which drivers are active, and voilà: the best routes for your drivers to take are automatically generated. And, once your routes are created, you can easily adjust them – whether you need to move and re-assign stops, or add last-minute orders. 

That’s all for now. But honestly, these two steps are only scratching the surface of the Root Planner’s capabilities. For a sneak peek (sorry, we can’t help ourselves), picture this: customer text notifications, edit driver zones, allow drivers to have individual accounts, multiple franchises, and more….

We’ve given you the #1 meal prep and restaurant management software. But, we knew there was more we could do to take your business efficiency to the next level – especially with delivery operations. Enter our brand new Root Planner- an additional Sprwt software designed to streamline your delivery management, integrated seamlessly with your meal prep operations.

Our clients were relying on third-party applications to plan their delivery routes, or even manually mapping the routes themselves. Existing software wasn’t working for them – we found that they were either outdated, had an excess of unnecessary functions, or simply didn’t work. Our software has only the features you absolutely need, still with plenty of opportunities to customize your various operations – whether that be exact location, customer needs, or driver zones.

Sprwt’s mission is to create a one-shop stop for meal prep businesses – a place where all of their business operations can be executed in one place. And with the Sprwt Root Planner, you can save 80% of your time.

But don’t take our word for it – try it yourself. Schedule a call with an onboarding agent for hands-on assistance, or, if you’re eager to try on your own, simply select which plan is best for you, create an account, and dive in. We’re always here to help, and can’t wait to see what you think.