March/April (Revised)

CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES
THE CHALLENGE
In order to ensure consumer
confidence and continued trust,
companies offering food delivery
— both in-house and third-party
— were forced to scramble to
define protocols and implement
the digital infrastructure to enable
effective contactless delivery to
meet the demand brought on by
the sudden onset of the pandemic.
The fact that this was essentially
a new service only added to
the challenge restaurants faced
when navigating how to implement
it. Ordering systems now
had to facilitate pre-payment and
collection of drop-off instructions;
restaurant staff and delivery
drivers had to be trained on new
procedures; and many operators
sourced solutions for tamperevident
packaging.
“We’re privileged to be able to
AGILITY HAS BECOME
ESSENTIAL TO BUSINESS
SUCCESS AND DIGITAL-
TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION
THE MAJOR ENABLER. THE
URGENCY TO ADVANCE HEALTH
AND SAFETY AND CONSUMER
CONVENIENCE IS FAST-TRACKING
INNOVATION TO ORGANIZATIONAL
BUSINESS MODELS IN
THE INDUSTRY
provide service to our customers,
but having to incorporate
new zero-contact procedures
— whether it’s delivery or
carry out — [required] a lot
of work,” shares Jeff Kacmarek,
VP Marketing and Product
Development, Domino’s Pizza of
Canada. “A lot of changes have
taken place in our operations as
a result.”
Restaurants had to update
their digital-ordering platforms,
which let to brands such as Swiss
Chalet releasing updated mobile
apps featuring integration with
new contactless-delivery and
curbside-pickup options.
And, once everything was in
place, significant effort had to
be put into communicating the
new offering and educating customers
on the new procedures.
Depending on the contactlessdelivery
procedures employed,
communicating with customers
through the delivery process
has also become increasingly
important.
In an open letter released
during the early days of the
pandemic, Restaurant Brands
International CEO Jose Cil
highlighted the significant work
a company of its scale had to
undertake to quickly respond to
these needs. “Our in-house digital
team has done great work to
rapidly expand and enhance our
online-ordering platforms for all
three brands,” he explained. “At
the same time, our marketing
teams have quickly pivoted to redirect
our substantial marketing
efforts to focus on the importance
and safety of our mobile
app, delivery and drive-thru
channels, in addition to other
major health-and-safety measures
like contactless payments.”
Using tech to communicate
health and safety is of great
importance, Manoj Jasra, Chief
Marketing & Digital Officer,
Northland Properties, stressed
during the Canadian Restaurant
Investment & Leadership Summit
in November, highlighting preorder
communication on this
front as a key element operators
need to be “really great at.” This,
he explained, is because, in the
future, attracting customers will
come down to providing “what
gives consumers the most confidence,
more than anything.”
“As the second wave of the
pandemic intensifies, complying
with stringent safety protocols
is the only way for businesses to
remain open and for our consumers
to have peace of mind
when using services such as food
delivery,” says Di Han, general
manager of Facedrive Foods.
THE OPPORTUNITY
While significant effort was
required to get contactlessdelivery
offerings off the ground,
the opportunity they provided to
build trust and loyalty through
these challenged times will serve
operators well going forward.
“Letting our guests behind the
curtain has always been counterintuitive,
but…being transparent
with respect to what steps
and measures you’re taking [is
important] and guests are willing
to meet you halfway if you make
those steps on that [front],” Royal
Nasager, VP Marketing, St. Louis
Franchise Ltd., shared during the
Canadian Restaurant Investment
& Leadership Summit.
And, those who have invested
on this front are expected to see
continued benefits beyond the
short term. “I really believe there’s
going to be a collective [pandemic]
PTSD or hangover,” says Nasager.
“Even when there is a ‘cure’ or vaccine,
consumer consumption habits
[and] how they want to engage
and interact and brands will not
change that much.”
Having to adopt new tech
and procedures to survive the
pandemic could also shift the
historically slow-to-adapt foodservice
industry, collectively, into
a more agile sector. A Panasonic
Corporation of North America
survey (August 2020), reveals
businesses within the industry
now see an urgent need to rapidly
adapt to changing customer
behaviour and demands. One
in four foodservice operations
and food retailers now view their
companies as tech-forward early
adopters — up from one in eight
prior to the pandemic.
“Agility has become essential
to business success and digitaltechnology
adoption the major
enabler. The urgency to advance
health and safety and consumer
convenience is fast-tracking innovation
to organizational business
models in the industry,” says
Lauren Sallata, Chief Marketing
Officer, Panasonic Corporation of
North America.
As time goes on, there is also
a growing roster of tools to help
restaurants more easily facilitate
and streamline contactless delivery.
For example, Lightspeed launched
Order Ahead in September, an
online-ordering management
system that allows for seamless
integration of ordering platforms
with Lightspeed POS and
the ability to provide real-time
status updates to customers. In
December, DoorDash also introduced
DoorDash Self-Delivery,
which allows operators to handle
delivery in-house while appearing
on the DoorDash marketplace.
And, as Jasra points out, the
future of foodservice will likely
focus on providing “a variety of
different types of experiences,”
rather than relying so heavily on
on-premise visits. FH
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MARCH/APRIL 2021 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY 63