Pizza Today - July 2021 - 28

customers must love 'em because they
are growing at a rate of 13.5 percent
annually, almost five times the total
food industry rate. Over 85 percent of
consumers say they expect to use 3PDS
as much, or more often, in the future**.
If nothing else, this article will help
you understand them so you can take
Michael Corleone's advice: " Keep your
friends close, but your enemies closer. "
A 3PDS has an app or online site for
customers to view menus from all participating
(and some non-participating,
but we will get to that later) restaurants,
and to place orders for delivery to their
home or business from any one or more
of those restaurants. In most cases, the
3PDS then send one of their drivers to
the restaurant to pick up the food and
deliver it to the customer. Some third
party delivery companies will take the
customer's order and allow the restaurant
to deliver the food themselves.
From the Customer's perspective
The Good
* A single place where they can shop
for any type of food delivery. A onestop-shop.
*
There is no need to speak with a
human. Everything is done through
the app or online.
* Once their account is setup, their
address and card information are
stored, so that step of the ordering
process is eliminated.
* They can often place their delivery
order with very few 'clicks', allowing
the task to be completed in under a
minute.
* They receive promotion offers regularly.
*
Problems with service encounter no
argument, a refund or credit is given
instantly.
The Bad
* Missing items. Since the 3PDS cannot
open the bags, they cannot check
that the order is complete.
* No human to help. Problems are
generally dealt with through the app
or e-mail. For food items, this means
credit or refund, but for other issues,
28 / PIZZATODAY.COM / JULY 2021
it usually means an e-mail that gets
no reply.
* Mistakes are not corrected. If the
food is wrong or missing, a refund
or credit for the item is issued. If the
customer wants the correct food, they
must place another delivery order,
and pay all the fees again associated
with that delivery.
* Expensive. 3PDS add a delivery fee
and a service fee. In addition, many
restaurants have higher menu prices
in-app to offset the fees the 3PDS
charges the restaurant. With fees and
the price hike, it is not unheard of
to pay double the price for the same
food if you dined-in or picked-up.
From the Restaurant's perspective
The Good
* No need to staff delivery drivers: no
hiring and scheduling.
* Marketing. By listing you on their
platform, all their customers see your
pizzeria.
* No overhead. Costs of do-it-yourself
(DIY) delivery are huge. Here is
what you save:
o Labor cost: no delivery driver or
phone operator wages.
o Uniforms for delivery drivers.
o Non-owned (delivery) auto insurance.
o
No need to setup online ordering
or apps.
The Bad
* The customers are not your customers.
They are customers of the 3PDS.
* The cost. Expect to pay on average
30 percent of your menu price to the
3PDS.
* Integration. While some POS companies
are integrating 3PDS, most
do not. That means the order will be
coming to you on a separate printer
in your kitchen, and the sales information
will be on separate reporting.
Or you could manually input into
your POS system, which takes more
labor cost and mistakes when entering
the order.
* Unethical business practices by some
3PDS. When they list your pizzeria,
they publish a different phone
number than yours. They control that
phone number. That means you lose
all marketing you have ever done
with your phone number, and this
new number that is not yours is what
gets stored in the customer's phone.
* More unethical business practices by
some 3PDS. They list restaurants that
have not signed up with them, in
essence competing to move your customers
from your platform to theirs.
* Even more unethical business practices
by some 3PDS. They charge a
higher price for your products than
you charge. The customer believes
these are your menu prices.
* And yes, more unethical business
practices by some 3PDS. They make
changes to your restaurant's information
on Google. A customer may not
notice that the link is not to your
pizzeria's site when it goes to the
3PDS site.
* Your pizzeria's brand and marketing
are diminished. Rather than using
your website, your online ordering,
or your app, the customer is more
familiar with the brand and ordering
process of the 3PDS.
* The customer will always blame your
pizzeria for the problem, although
you have given up control of your
product and service.
* Food quality. The 3PDS driver may be
placing the food in a dirty car, with
no hot bag to maintain temperature.
* Delivery times. Since you do not
control the scheduling or the driver,
the delivery may take longer to get to
the customer's door.
Whether 3PDS or DIY is in your
pizzeria's future, I encourage you to
attend Pizza Expo to learn more about
both. Delivery is the fastest growing
segment of the restaurant business, and
your pizzeria can reap the benefits. n
*Data presented by StockApps.com.
**Pentallect report: Third-Party Food Delivery Service Market
DAN COLLIER is the founder of Pizza
Man Dan's in California and a speaker at
International Pizza Expo.
http://www.StockApps.com http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - July 2021

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