Should I Get My Own App?

With the rise of the online ordering and delivery portals it could easily make you ask the question “Is it worth getting my own App at all?”

If you can sign up to 3 or 4 of these portals, that already advertise nationally and provide you with everything you need, surely having your own App can’t offer you much more?

To answer the question lets look at what using an online portal means to you and your business.  

In simple terms you list your menu on their platform, they make it accessible to thousands of people in your area, the portal takes the order and payment, they pass this on to you to cook the food and then, either you deliver it, or the portal comes and collects it, depending if delivery is part of the portals service.

Sounds really simple, and it pretty much is, apart from the 15-25% commission they charge, there are few other things in this process that you need to be careful of:

• The customer is the portals not yours – The people who order through the portal are the portals customers, not yours, and the portal can advertise any business they like to them, so if your regulars start using their service, you could start to lose them to your competition who also use the same portals
  
  
• The portal takes the payment – Yep they take the order, and the money, so depending on their payment terms, you could be waiting between 7 and 28 days to get paid. How would that affect your cashflow? Can you wait 28 days to get your money?
  
  
• They deliver the food – Whilst this may seem like it makes your life easier, it also means another thing you’re not in control of, and if the delivery driver happens to take a bumpy route, the quality of what arrives isn’t as you intended.  In many cases the portal picks up the cost if the customer complains, but it can also put the customer of ordering from you in the future!
  
  

• You can’t contact your own customers – Most portals don’t provide you with the contact details for the customers, so you can’t add them to a marketing list, you can’t offer them a discount, in fact you are pretty much stopped from doing anything other than cooking the food.
  

Being on the ordering portals isn’t a bad thing, it can help you gain new customers, but you also need to be able to offer your regular and loyal customer a direct service, that gives you the ability to be in control of your customers, the standards of service and most importantly your money.

By working with a trusted and proven provider Like App4, you can quickly get your own service up and running, start to move your regular customers to your system and start to reduce your reliance on the portals for a large slice of your income and stop paying 15-25% commission on your regular customers orders.