Invasion of the Customer Snatchers
3rd Party Online Ordering Systems snatch your customers away from you, charge you to reach out to them, and keep new customers away...
Below is the scenario being played out at restaurants across the country every day. GrubHub, UberEats, DoorDash, Caviar, and others come bearing a FREE tablet and the promise to bring you new customers, then:
Sounds great, right? WRONG.
Let’s start with an example.
It all begins with search. The results of the search shows the business website at the top, followed by the restaurant listing on Yelp. To the right is the Google Business Listing. Yelp and Google point to the website.
Below is the scenario being played out at restaurants across the country every day. GrubHub, UberEats, DoorDash, Caviar, and others come bearing a FREE tablet and the promise to bring you new customers, then:
- you add their marketing to your restaurants
- you drive traffic to them by placing their button on your website
- you get orders
- you receive a check at the end of the month.
Sounds great, right? WRONG.
Let’s start with an example.
It all begins with search. The results of the search shows the business website at the top, followed by the restaurant listing on Yelp. To the right is the Google Business Listing. Yelp and Google point to the website.
It looks as though the restaurant is driving traffic from search to THEIR website where they can capture that new customer as their own.
Right? WRONG AGAIN.
All roads lead away from the business. If you look more closely,
Right? WRONG AGAIN.
All roads lead away from the business. If you look more closely,
- the Google listing is telling people to order online -> from GrubHub
- the Menu and Ordering links in the Google listing are driving the consumer to order online -> from GrubHub and others
- the online button on the business website tells people to order online -> from Grubhub
- the website link from Google and Yelp drive traffic to the business website which directs customers to GrubHug
- the Yelp listing highlights online order from -> you guessed it Grubhub
The business does not capture the customer information. In fact, all traffic from them website, Google, Facebook, Yelp is driven away. Your customers become their customers.
It gets worse. You pay Grubhub and other 3rd parties a hefty fee for the service of up to 35%. In the case of the restaurant above, who does their own delivery, it is even worse because they are paying fees AND have their own drivers who are paid to sit.
The Bigger Picture
The 3rd party platforms are interested in generating orders, but not just from your restaurant. They are promoting other restaurants alongside yours to grow their customer base which they control. Then they come back to you to ‘help’ you stand out by paying more money to show up in search results, or be shown on other restaurant pages. This is so YOUR customers can place orders at YOUIR restaurant through THEM.
It becomes a race to the bottom - a death spiral. Sound familiar? ( remember Groupon?)
How you can right the ship today…
You don’t have to stop the 3rd parties immediately. If they are bringing you orders, keep them coming. It is a way to bring in your competitor’s customers. Now you need to keep these customers and keep the money. The ultimate goal is to promote yourself.
Let customers know that they can help you keep prices reasonable by ordering directly from you instead of the other platforms.
Stop the bleeding and keep your most important asset - your customers - close.
It gets worse. You pay Grubhub and other 3rd parties a hefty fee for the service of up to 35%. In the case of the restaurant above, who does their own delivery, it is even worse because they are paying fees AND have their own drivers who are paid to sit.
The Bigger Picture
The 3rd party platforms are interested in generating orders, but not just from your restaurant. They are promoting other restaurants alongside yours to grow their customer base which they control. Then they come back to you to ‘help’ you stand out by paying more money to show up in search results, or be shown on other restaurant pages. This is so YOUR customers can place orders at YOUIR restaurant through THEM.
It becomes a race to the bottom - a death spiral. Sound familiar? ( remember Groupon?)
How you can right the ship today…
You don’t have to stop the 3rd parties immediately. If they are bringing you orders, keep them coming. It is a way to bring in your competitor’s customers. Now you need to keep these customers and keep the money. The ultimate goal is to promote yourself.
- You must have your own online ordering platform
- The only ordering link on your website, Facebook page, Google listing, etc. goes to your platform
- Use your marketing and loyalty platform to keep your customers engaged and transacting at your business
- Rationalize the third parties you use. Keep the reasonably prices ones that are bringing new customers and eliminate the dead wood.
- Whenever an order comes in from a third party, inform customers of your system and give them a first time discount for using your solution - it will be less expensive than a repeat order from the 3rd party, and you will have satisfied customer.
Let customers know that they can help you keep prices reasonable by ordering directly from you instead of the other platforms.
Stop the bleeding and keep your most important asset - your customers - close.