How to handle delivery orders properly (without losing money on them)
6 min read
Delivery looks like extra revenue and often turns out to be extra cost. Most of it is avoidable, and almost all of it comes down to information you did not collect before the food left the kitchen.
Collect the address before you cook, not after
The single most expensive mistake is starting the food and then discovering the customer is somewhere your rider will not reach for the fee you quoted. Take the location, the phone number and the name up front, every time, with no exceptions.
Landmarks beat street names here. "Opposite the Holy Family Hospital main entrance" gets a rider there; a street name often does not.
Always take a second number
Customers order, then turn their data off, then cannot be reached when the rider is outside. A phone number that works on a normal call — and an SMS you can send — solves most of this.
This is why eaziChop asks for a number at checkout and sends the ready alert by SMS as well as WhatsApp. Data being off should not cost you a delivery.
Price delivery by zone, not by guess
- Write down three or four zones you serve and a flat fee for each.
- Say clearly which areas you do not deliver to, rather than deciding case by case.
- Set a minimum order for the far zones, or they will lose you money every time.
- Quote the fee before the customer confirms, never after the food is ready.
Keep a record of who ordered what
If every order lives in a chat thread, you cannot tell who your best customers are, what sells, or which zone is actually worth serving. A week of proper records usually changes at least one decision — often dropping a zone, or raising a fee you had not touched in a year.
Tell the customer when it is ready
Most complaints are not about food, they are about silence. A single message when the order is accepted and another when it is ready removes almost all of them, and it takes seconds if it is one tap rather than a typed message.