Mobile Online Ordering

By Iain Woessner

Trends and technology may seem like they are taking control of your business out of your hands, but with the right tools you can leverage technology to your advantage, increasing the level of communication you have with your customers, deepening their loyalty and expanding your business.

In fact, there’s an app for that.

“There’s a lot of online ordering tools out there, but the one thing our industry has had trouble adjusting to is the third party delivery conundrum,” Clayton Krueger, director of marketing and communications for Farrelli’s Pizza, said. “Any marketer will ask you ‘who owns the customers?’ (and) if somebody is on a third-party delivery site, that site owns the customer.”

Farrelli’s developed its mobile online ordering app to fulfil a specific need — they had 100,000 loyalty customers in their point-of-sale database who may have been lost as the business swapped over to a new database. An app would allow them to carry that data over, but Krueger said the business didn’t want to stop there.

“Having the loyalty app wasn’t enough,” Krueger said. “We wanted an app with enough features on it for someone to want to download it and want it on their device.”

Krueger said he knows not everyone has access to mobile phones or uses apps — he didn’t want it to be a mobile-only club for loyalty members. As a result, the app — which Farrelli’s has been using since January 2019 — allows customers to place orders as well as receive notifications for deals and manage their loyalty points.

The National Restaurant Association’s State of the Restaurant Industry 2020 report says:

“Roughly 9 in 10 consumers say they would pay attention to restaurant specials that are communicated via app.”

The data shows users are receptive to apps and notifications via their mobile to provide them deals at their favorite eateries.

In Washington state, Farrelli’s can attest to the power this level of connection provides.

“It’s not enough to get the data, you have to have channels in place to communicate,” Krueger said. “Our app has that communication built in, we have email capability, text capability and push capability. We can utilize all three forms of communication to stimulate customer behavior.”

Farrelli’s was never really geared towards being a delivery pizza place, Krueger said, but it began shifting in that direction with the rise of third-party delivery.

“When people think of pizza they think of delivery, but for us that was not true. We were never a delivery company, we were always dine-in/take-out … third-party delivery was an opportunity that we hadn’t had before,” he said. “For us and potential operators like us … this has allowed us to control some of the variables that come along with third-party delivery.”

Even with the development of the app, third-party services are still a valuable part of Farrelli’s business model. Krueger said the business makes use of a white label delivery service provided by DoorDash, allowing them use of the service’s fleet of delivery employees while still maintaining their own customer loyalty base and by taking orders on their branded app.

“Guests can earn their loyalty points and even redeem loyalty rewards … and the whole user experience is very seamless, there’s added value to the guest,” Krueger said. “We add a layer of loyalty on the convenience of third-party delivery. As a result of it being a white-labelled integrated service, we have a really fair rate to partner with DoorDash on that level. It’s much more fair.”

The arrival of third-party delivery organizations onto the dining scene has been a significant change to business-as-usual. Hops n Drops, a restaurant and bar chain within Washington State, enjoys a favorable and exclusive partnership with DoorDash, according to Jamie Fox, their director of education and training, even though they are also looking into what a mobile app might mean for them.

“We do love our partnership with DoorDash, we don’t use any other third-party delivery,” Fox said. “We love them, we love our partners, we love that folks can go to the DoorDash website and find us … however we’re not seeing much traction going to our big, giant website, (so) we’re looking for something very one-touch.”

Among the best aspects of a mobile ordering app is its capacity to collect data. Customer data can inform and enhance marketing opportunities — Krueger has been able to tailor deals and notifications towards customer appetites.

“We’re using it as a customer relationship management software … it’s collecting all the user data from these app members on all their purchasing behavior,” he said. “We can then mine that data to more effectively target messaging to segments of our customer base in a way that … (is) more specific to them. That, in turn, stimulates increased brand loyalty and increased spending … because we’re communicating to them in a way that’s meaningful to them.”

This process can work in real-time. Krueger offered an example of the recent National Pizza Day, where he was able to push a 50% off members-only deal to app users. The result was a boost in sales for that day.

“We can really stimulate our sales and user behavior with just a couple clicks of the button,” Krueger said.