Like the physician’s oath, the first order is to do no harm (to your customers, business or brand)
By Julius C. Dorsey Jr.
Restaurants have been on my mind lately, as I just returned from the Ohio Restaurant Association’s annual Mid-America Restaurant Expo in Columbus a few weeks ago. By the way: if you own or supply restaurants in Ohio, ORA is a good group to know.
Some ORA members have raised questions about the benefits (or lack thereof) of mobile delivery services like Grub Hub and Uber Eats, sparked by numerous articles on the pros and cons. This New Yorker article, “How Delivery Apps May Put Your Favorite Restaurant Out of Business,” is representative. But sadly, as the article points out, most restaurant operators are hard pressed to sort through and make sound estimates of the bottom-line consequence.
I see this as a marketing question, so I thought I’d weigh in on the competitive case to be made for or against a restaurant signing up for mobile delivery.
From a marketing strategy perspective, the way to determine mobile delivery’s fit to your business is to ask the question: Does delivery extend, compromise or have no impact on your business model?
More simply, when considering a delivery service, each restaurant should consider two factors: 1) if the customers want it and, 2) why they want it – or not.
Strategically, if your business rests on a hospitality platform, it will be hard to make delivery enhance the hospitality you extend to your guests . . .unless you’re willing to make the delivery with your own staff, living up to the same performance standards you’d provide in your establishment. The Oxford Dictionary’s first two definitions of hospitality support our point-of-view:
- The friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.
- Relating to or denoting the business of entertaining clients, conference delegates, or other official visitors.
I find it hard to believe that a hospitality centered business will benefit when the food it carefully and artfully prepares is thrown into the car seat the family dog usually occupies and arrives lukewarm, presented by a disinterested stranger. Elegant, eh?
Commercial success, above all else, depends on finding and serving a very well-defined market segment in a way that you can consistently make a profit. The next “big idea” for restaurants may be really big, but might also be a terrible idea when applied to your particular target market. In the case of restaurants, those that lead with convenience, value, low price or quick-service to name a few, may find delivery to be a good fit and develop ways to address the economics. But, if your restaurant is truly a hospitality business according to the definition above, you want folks to stop by, if only to pick up their carry out and experience the warmth (and perhaps the bar) in your restaurant.
Simply put, when considering whether mobile delivery extends, compromises or has no impact on your business model, ask this question: Is this a help or hindrance to fulfilling our service and experience value proposition (brand promise) to our customers?
The answer to this question determines whether you embrace or say no-thanks to mobile delivery. If you haven’t already begun delivery, think carefully; Quitting will be easier said than done.