The Downsides and Upsides of Curbside
The ready-to-go dine-out market is a tempting target, but you need to do your homework.
Restaurants serve food, yes. However, they also offer convenience, which is why quick-service restaurants (QSRs) with uninspired heat-and-serve fare can thrive. Their customers do not seek culinary excellence or an "experience." They seek a quick meal without fuss or muss.
Once the exclusive territory of fast-food purveyors, curbside service has expanded its advantages to casual concpts of all sizes, and independents -- even upscale -- are figuring out how to build sales by offering convenience with curbside pickup. The appeal to diners is apparent. They can grab-and-go something other than typical QSR food.
You can get on board with this trend. Just realize that making the transition to this extension of your service isn't as simple as treating drive-up guests as alfresco diners on wheels. First, once the food is in front of your guests, it only begins its journey to their homes. If the food arrives in poor shape or something "isn't right," you have very little opportunity -- if at all -- to fix it. This can reflect badly on your dine-in service, which is the backbone of your concept.
"A drive-thru or curbside pickup program that looks good, but functions poorly, or one that functions great but provides poor customer service is not a good investment for any operator," says Juan Martinez, principal of Profitality, a restaurant design and operational consulting firm. "The design has to be in balance with the retail and operational or functional aspects working in synergy to deliver the best customer experience," he says.
The transition doesn't require an overhaul of your staffing or equipment. For example, after a RestaurantOwner.com (the official website for this magazine) member decided curbside was a way to build business, he designated a phone line and existing staff member to handle the calls for pickup, delivery or curbside. For curbside pickup, one employee per evening is given a cash bank, runs the food to the customer and collects the payment.
Curbside customers at this member's restaurant must use a cellphone when they arrive at, or are close to, the restaurant. They give their car's color, make and model. If a credit card is used, the curbside employee must process the card inside and then cash out as normal at the end of the evening.
While this approach is time-consuming, it's much less expensive than installing cameras, sensors or remote wireless payment systems in the pickup area. It makes for a quicker add-on to an existing takeout/pickup system and is a good way to test the market. In this particular situation the restaurant owner felt that while curbside might not increase sales it would add convenience to existing customers, maintaining their loyalty. Of course that came with an increased cost in labor and hassle.
Figuring out the process is only part of the puzzle, however. Martinez says it's important to determine what curbside might do -- or not do -- for your brand. Will it serve as an added value for guests, helping to maintain and keep happy the current customer base? Will it actually drive business with new customers or will existing patrons use the expanded service as a way to dine on nights they normally stay home?
"Whatever you decide, curbside pickup needs to match your concept, your brand," Martinez says. "For example, if you're a chef-driven, local food-focused restaurant with an emphasis on the dining experience, curbside or takeout might not make sense. If you're a casual or neighborhood restaurant with many family customers curbside, it might work better.
"If you are going to offer curbside pickup, do it full-out, or not at all; there shouldn't be any in between," Martinez says. "Don't only do curbside from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. or on certain days but not others. Don't confuse the customers. The idea is you're going to have it all day or not."
Managing the Menu
Critical to takeout and curbside service is properly matching your menu items and packaging. For Stéphane Lang-Willar, owner of the newly opened Stéphane's in Boca Raton, Florida, menu selection was very selective. The "gourmet curbside service" menu was carefully chosen to make sure it matched the upscale, fine food image of the restaurant.
"We decided to do curbside because we thought the cuisine we are serving would be great to-go, but we wanted to provide only items that could travel well," says Lang-Willar, a 30-year veteran restaurant owner.
We decided to do curbside because we thought the cuisine we are serving would be great to-go, but we wanted to provide only items that could travel well -- Amelia Levin
"We are very proud of our food, but we know that many items for takeaway never arrive at the home of the customer the way it should." Lang-Willar's team pays close attention when selecting the appropriate items for the takeout and curbside menus.
Their showcase entree is a whole St. Tropez rotisserie chicken with seasonal vegetables and potato puree. The restaurant offers half-portion chicken, so offering this dish as takeout fits well with the flow of the kitchen. Aside from the rotisserie chicken, which cooks on a 14-bird rotating spit throughout the day and night, Stéphane's also serves a classic Caesar and mixed greens salad with dressing on the side. Rotating crème brulée flavors and whole French baguettes fill out the selections.
Takeout bottled wine can also be purchased, which Lang-Willar says requires an addendum to a traditional liquor license. Selling wine has proved to be worth the initial added cost of the license. It greatly increases ticket average for takeout orders and gives the added convenience of customers not having to make additional stops for beverages.
Hamburgers and french fries are trickier. In fact, Lang-Willar wasn't sure initially he wanted to put those items on the curbside pickup menu. "French fries steam themselves in plastic containers and both items have a tendency to become soggy in just minutes," he says. "That's why we chose plastic bags just like the fast-food restaurants."
Rotisserie chicken can easily be reheated in a convection oven with its own juices to prevent dryness while crisping up the skin in aluminum-based containers, which can safely go into the oven for short-term reheating. Stéphane's also uses aluminum to safely chill and protect the delicate crème brulée desserts, although there are small, round plastic containers on the market that could fit the same need.
Salads easily fit in plastic containers, which can be prechilled for extra coolness. While these containers may cost a bit more upfront, they can be reused by the guest multiple times -- an environmentally friendly option, and a reinforcement of your brand, day after day. Even consider putting a logo on them.
Then there is the range of sustainable packaging items, from recyclable plastics to products made from corn-based polymers and simple 100 percent recyclable paper goods for to-go boxes, napkins and other items.
The problem is that takeout and curbside packaging adds additional inventory items that might not normally be part of inside operations. It is important to properly account for them under "Other Controllable Expenses" on your P&L, as you want to track their usage and avoid waste. (This is described in the National Restaurant Association's Uniform System of Accounts for Restaurants, Eighth Edition.)
Labor Considerations
Just like a takeout program, it's important to designate not only specific labor for takeout per shift, but the right amount. "Once you've made the commitment to do curbside pickup 100 percent, designate a specific person to focus on the task," Martinez says. "You'll need someone to run the food out to the customer, deal with phone or online orders and take the payment."
With an existing takeout program where staff are already taking phone orders and dealing with payment, that could mean just one extra staff deployment to run food out to the customers and note when they pull up.
Lang-Willar started from scratch and invested in hand-held POS devices with card payment ability and used just one person both to run the food and take payment in a timely fashion.
Will the costs of added labor deployment for curbside pickup outweigh the revenue generated from such a service?
"The POS even has its own printer, so you can order, pay immediately and give receipts," she said. Car rental companies have been using these systems for years in their return locations. The technology is proven but the cost and wireless security have to be thoroughly investigated. Several manufacturers offer such systems and, like most modern systems, they have the ability to remember the customer's information for future marketing and promotional efforts. Like other aspects of the restaurant business, labor-saving technology pays for itself in the long run.
While cross-training is an important part of any business, deciding which staff member to assign to curbside can be a challenge. Tip income is generally less for this type of work. The standard "server" hourly wage, along with reduced tip income, are not going to be attractive to your best servers. Deciding what you'll pay and who is going to be the curbside person is an important task because you certainly don't want someone who will degrade your image because they're not happy running food curbside.
"Rather than assign a highly trained server to fill in for this job on a rotating basis, perhaps hiring an hourly or shift worker to handle takeout and curbside makes more sense," Martinez says. "Trying to designate servers to the job on a rotating basis could anger staff because of the significantly lower tips. And, while turnover might be high for a curbside pickup runner/cashier position, training is also less intensive than server training."
He also recommends some calculations. For example, will the costs of added labor deployment for curbside pickup outweigh the revenue generated from such a service?
This type of evaluation is performed on a case-by-case level. "If profits break 10 percent, that's good," he says. "If they reach 20 percent, [that's] even better. And, if you can have two people running that show, combined with your fixed food costs and you still make money, then it's worth it. At the same time if you're a million-dollar restaurant and you put in a drive-thru and it doesn't make a difference to your sales and profits, maybe it's not worth it.
"Like so much else there are no black-and-white answers, making it necessary to test the concept with real live people. Curbside service shouldn't require you to have to add additional kitchen staff, so the upfront investment is a better financial proposition from the start."
The Design Factor
"Managing form and functional design when developing a curbside pickup program is critical to optimize the results of the investment," Martinez says. "Get down to the details. Ask yourself, where are the parking spots designated for curbside located in relation to the kitchen? Does the food runner have to travel all the way through the dining room to the back of the house to retrieve the food? Or is there a side door off the kitchen where runners can easily get to and from the parking lot?"
Martinez, again, looks to the chains for examples of good planning. "Places like Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba's Italian Grill do a phenomenal job with curbside pickup," Martinez says. "In some cases, if the kitchen is in the back, they've created a space at the front of the restaurant with a sidewalk leading to the kitchen side door for curbside." That way, servers have less distance to travel to retrieve and run out the food.
This philosophy extends to the kitchen design. "The way you create your workstations is very important in curbside," Martinez says. "While there is no right or wrong solution, the right workstations have to be integrated with the right adjacencies." In other words, consider where food comes off the line, where packaging takes place and how far that is in relation to the pick-up customer.
The ability to reduce employee physical movements is always important in any kitchen to control cook times and food costs. That's magnified when running a takeout and curbside program. Because many dishes must be prepared to order, coordinating cooking, packaging and delivery becomes an art.
While the preparation time for hamburgers and fries is critical, serving rotisserie chicken for takeout offers more leeway because it can be cooked up to a few hours ahead of time and safely held. Timing considerations are important in deciding which items are "curbside-efficient," and can influence your curbside menu.
The curbside parking spots need to be both visible and close to the kitchen, Martinez says. "I've seen some restaurants not want to mix curbside with their parking customers, but I believe that's wrong. You want to constantly advertise and remind patrons that you have curbside; not hide it."
Posting visible signs that stand out should not only clearly designate the curbside spots, but continue the marketing efforts, with well-chosen words: "Reserved -- Takeout Customer Parking" or "Gourmet Takeout Parking." One restaurant uses a sense of humor with a sign reading, "Take-Out Parking Only"; then just below it reads, "Others will be crushed and melted." Depending on the size and location, most signage has to be approved by the landlord, local government authority or development management.
Marketing has to continue inside the four walls. Check presenters, reception desk mentions, front waiting area posters announcing the availability of curbside takeout and "portable menus" featuring takeout items showing a map of the curbside location all work. Prominently mentioned should be the take-away telephone number if it is a separate line. And certainly the staff needs to communicate the program to regular guests. Your website needs to picture the pickup area and show menu items.
The appearance of the outside of your building plays a part in marketing a curbside service. That can suddenly matter more than it might have in the past, as curbside will make the building more noticeable from every angle as customers pick up their orders and might occasionally have to wait for their delivery. No one's appetite is going to be piqued sitting next to the dumpster for five minutes.
"One of the key differences between retail design and the drive-thru or curbside pickup area is that the dining room is indoors while the curbside pickup area is outdoors, where you might have to deal with more unsightly areas, such as building walls and other less glamorous exterior features like dumpsters," Martinez says. It's important to pay special attention to all parts of the exterior of the building that could be seen by curbside pickup customers. One idea is to get in your own car and test out where curbside delivery might work best while at the same time look best.
Not a Sure Thing
As with all marketing or service initiatives in a restaurant, measuring cost against potential return is never a sure thing. With takeout and curbside service you are really asking a question: Do I want to try to develop a revenue stream by entering the home food segment of the marketplace? The major chains have embraced this type of service, adding sales and profits, and using it to compete against casual dining independents.
There is nothing magical about the chains. They simply do their homework and plan carefully. If you want to compete with them in curbside service, you'll have to do the same; however, we hope you appreciate it is not beyond your capabilities.
Online Ordering Is a Growing Trend
Online ordering continues to grow in popularity, according to Technomic, a Chicago-based research and consulting firm servicing the food and foodservice industry. According to the company's research, 43 percent of full-service takeout customers expressed an interest in options to prepay for their order via computer or mobile device. Thirty-eight percent of those customers surveyed say they prefer systems that will register their favorite orders for future ordering. In both cases, younger consumers seemed to prefer this ordering method. An important caveat: Any online ordering systems, including wireless, needs to be PCI-compliant (payment card industry) and have strong security and fraud protection requirements.
With telephone orders, the order taker must write down the order, and in most cases re-enter that information in a traditional POS (point-of-sale) system. If possible, find an online option that allows the order to sync with the POS system for instant kitchen notification and payment options.
That saves time and helps eliminate mistakes. Order errors at curbside are much more difficult to handle than those in-house, particularly if the customer gets home and discovers they've not gotten what they ordered. Saving repeat customer information not only speeds up ordering convenience, it allows the restaurant to build a database of customer information for marketing, promotional and surveying needs.
Where's the Market?
Technomic, a Chicago-based research and consulting firm servicing the food and foodservice industry, says 61 percent of takeout customers say they would likely use take-away or drive-up programs at a full-service restaurant if that option were available.
The research also indicated that those 35 and older would be the most likely segment interested in a drive-thru or curbside pickup service at a full-service restaurant. Families also seem to be the most interested in this possible service option.
Chains have been the early adopters, so we have to look at their experiences. Chili's Grill & Bar, Applebee's and Outback Steakhouse have shown that curbside pickup works best in suburban areas where "cars are king." Recently Panera Bread said it would begin drive-thru service at 20 percent to 30 percent of its stores nationwide by the end of the year. Like the chains, you need to determine if your neighborhood can support this service. For example, are there many working families in your service area? Do most people use their cars every day or is it more of an urban area where automobile ownership is limited? Are you near a busy stretch of highway that might cater to commuters? Is a significant percentage of your dine-in clientele parents with young children?
One way to find out more about the demographics of your market is to use a detailed map of your town and draw concentric circles of one, three and five miles around your restaurant. What's inside those circles? You can easily search the Internet for local demographic information from sites such as your chamber of commerce, city and regional governments or the U.S. Census Bureau. Those sources can help estimate the potential inside your local business area.
Surveying your customer base is another way to find out if curbside has potential. If you have a takeout program, even better; include a survey with their order that promises a discounted item, free appetizer or drink with their next purchase if they complete it and bring it back in.
