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Though the product industry is slowly coping up with its losses, the main victim has been the services. Plenty of services that were in a boom since the last year showed tragic losses.
People have been locked inside their houses because of governmental rules and regulations as well as their own safety. In this scenario, there have been questions arising about delivery services. Customers are wondering whether it will be safe to order food online or not and countless other similar questions.
Food delivery companies have faced negative effects and there are some who have got back up strong as well. What is the reason why some are still struggling and some are on the run? This is what this article is all about.
There are companies in every country around the world that deliver the food made by restaurants and bakeries but as the pandemic hit the world it closed all of them. With almost 2 months of inactivity all of them faced problems that they never thought would face, the reason was clear, the government didn’t allow them.
The problem was not over even after the government allowed restaurants to reopen and on-demand food delivery app development companies to start their services again.
The reason now was different, it was fear, fear in the minds of people what if ‘Coronavirus’ gets delivered with the food. This was something no one wanted, not in any specific country but in almost all countries.
With families almost ignoring these applications there were still some parts of the society that would be open to their services.
They were the students and the employees who were living alone in a city away from their family. After studying all day or working all day they don’t want to cook, they just want some food ready on their table.
Even they were scared, who didn't care about their life. The rapid increase in the number of cases and deaths increased this fear. Then what became the reason for their restart?
Breaking The Myth: Can The Virus Be In The Food That We Order?
If you follow the news regularly then you might know the answer to this question. No, there have been no traces of coronavirus in any cooked food till now.
WHO has made it clear that it is totally safe to eat food ordered from any restaurant in the city that is following all the safety measures. Now the main thing to focus on is the last part of the last sentence “from any restaurant in the city that is following all safety measures”.
The food you order is totally safe but the delivery method, the packaging, and the way the restaurant functions might be something that people should be concerned about.
This is the thing that is stopping people from frequently ordering food online, the uncertainty of “you don’t know who’s infected” because of the rise in asymptomatic cases has increased this.
The only way to stay safe from this perspective of people is to properly show that your restaurants are taking all the measures that ensure proper safety to their employees and their customers. If the partner restaurants are not doing so then it might be necessary to stop delivering their food for the sake of the safety of the delivery agents too.
This will also create a sense of confidence among the customers. With IoT solution development and other technologies coming into the business it will become even more secure.
There are so many problems but problems are meant to be solved. From down below the article will focus on the ways to make the business strong.
This time might be hard but it is an opportunity to be explored.
5 Areas To Focus On During COVID-19
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Crisis Management And Response To The Situations
Due to the pandemic, there have been a lot of effects on business operations. The fieldwork is disturbed, people are working from home and that is why the communication between office employees is not as smooth as it used to be. There are a lot of issues that have changed working significantly. This is the reason why businesses need to work on their business operations and need to make all the necessary changes.
They might need to change the way their mobile app development services and provide the employees with extra equipment.
This is something that needs to be flawless in order to keep the business working and indirectly growing. Coming to the management of the crisis that we are facing, the organizations that are into the business of food delivery need to follow the guidelines that the government has released.
They need to be prepared for all the possible guidelines that they can ask the restaurants to follow. This will reduce the time to imply to them and start working on them.
To tackle the situation, organizations need to plan strategically so that even if the situations get worse, they are ready to keep moving.
There should not be another full stop on the work, it might even shut some companies down. There have been different pandemics but none of them affected businesses and economies in this way. This is also very uncertain as it is growing at a rate no one can predict.
The only way is to strategically plan for the situations that might come in the future and not wait for them to happen. When planning begins after the action then it is already too late.
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Re-evaluation HR Policies
HR departments see how the work is done and that all the employees in the organizations are working properly without any problems.
At the time when users are forced to work remotely the work of these people has increased. They now need to reevaluate and reframe the policies and make them according to the current environment.
There might be a lot of people who might not understand the remote working environment properly and they might need support.
HR departments need to provide workshops or call instructions to their employees so that they can easily set up their remote working environment and work without facing many problems. Working cannot stop but it should also be efficient, to make it efficient the HR needs to ensure that employees have all the necessary equipment.
They can also train their employees to teach them new skills that can help them to work in a better way from home.
There are digital skills that can be taught. Marketing needs to be properly digital and that is why they might need to hire more professionals who can do that.
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Business Operations And Supply Chains
Field operations and reporting to the top lower level has been changed. The things that were done physically are now being done partially virtually or totally virtually.
This is the reason why people need to replan their business operating model and the way the supply chains worked. The delivery agents should be trained to use all the preventive measures to ensure that food is delivered safely. They also need to provide the restaurants with strict instructions that they need to maintain cleanliness and social distancing.
The packages should also be done in a hygienic way and there should be no direct contact of human skin and the packages.
They might also need to adjust the prices and their marketing strategies for their customers. This is not the time to focus on all the groups.
Families will not be ordering food because they can cook and but student and bachelor employees are the targets in this pandemic. And, local small towns are still not the targets but big cities are, there are more people who might order. IoT Application development can be integrated with these food delivery applications to make them perform better for employees.
The on-demand food delivery app development companies need to analyze their supply chain and be aware of the areas that are strong for them and the areas that they might avoid.
This will help them in reducing the costs and help them to go strong in the more profitable areas.
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Finance Management
Finances have changed, the pandemic has hit every business hard along with food delivery businesses. The organizations now need to study all the impacts that it can have on the financial aspect and make strong policies to tackle them.
They also need to consider disclosure of the effects that this pandemic can have at present and in the future on their capital resources and the finances of the organization.
Finance management is really important for these companies because all the investment companies are also facing financial problems.
The companies have themselves faced a lot of loss because of these the pandemic and the lockdown. Only proper management of finances and the ways to keep themselves going.
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Planning And Branding Strategically
Planning strategically is important because now they have to reduce the flow of cash. They also have to manage the key areas where they need to spend in order to make the delivery chain strong.
Strategic planning of investment and the areas of growth is something that will keep them in the market for as long as they want. Branding is one of the most important parts during this time because that is what makes an impact on the minds of the customers.
Without proper branding, no food ordering app development business can attract people to use their application and establish themselves as a safe option.
Digital branding makes the reputation of an on-demand app development service, it is what tells people about what they are, how they function.
This is also something that will tell them what are the measures that they are taking to keep it safe for all people ordering through their application or their website. This is why hiring people who can improve their branding campaigns is very much important during this time.
Read the blog- Top 10 Food Ordering Application for high revenue streams
People need to know that a company is proving their delivery agents PPE kits and they are making sure that packing is also done safely.
This is what makes their reputation. Branding includes way more activities than just digital content. It is also related to the ways they integrate with other companies to provide customers with a better experience.
Ways To Grow The Food Delivery Business During COVID-19 Spread
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Try Increasing The Online Sales By Different Methods
Food delivery models work mostly online and that’s the benefit they have. They need to make sure that they increase their sales by any possible methods.
There are many ways through which they can do this. They might give offers to make sure that people use them and order from their platform. The same can be done in different ways to attract new customers to the application and make sure that they also buy something.
They need to categorize their customers or start some loyalty program in which they get some reward every time they order.
This reward can be in the form of points or credits that they can accumulate and then can use against their orders. Loyalty programs have proved that they do increase the sales and attract new customers to the applications and that is what online food ordering app development companies are looking for.
This is the way to get the best out of this opportunity that has been served by a situation that no one thought would ever come. Proper marketing and good offers can help these companies a lot, also adjusting the price is one way.
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Start Non-Contact Delivery
Most of the companies that are delivering products have now started non-contact delivery. According to that, there is no contact between the delivery person and the receiver.
The delivery agent keeps the package outside the house of the person and then contacts them to take the product. Food delivery companies need to tell their customers not to use alcohol-based sanitizers as it might seep into the food and make it poisonous that will have a negative effect.
There should also be no contact between the restaurant employees and the delivery agents so that the safety of everyone in the chain can be ensured.
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Promote Local Restaurants Rather Than Food Chains
Chains restaurants have many customers already. Local restaurants need customers, they have no way to promote as they are not strong enough or they don’t know how to promote themselves digitally.
This is the reason they can’t sell as much as the big ones. This is in a way loss to the food delivery applications as well.
They have listed all these but if they don’t get business that means they will be just taking up space and they are also wasting an opportunity.
Customers can’t explore all the way through the list and that is why it is important to promote some local ones. This is also a social duty that needs to be done so that locals can survive as well. This will also give opportunities to those who are looking for an on-demand app development company.
Read the blog- How Much It Will Cost To Develop Online Food Ordering Apps Like Just-eat?
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Reduce Of Waive Off Delivery Charges
Delivery fee is something that most people find a lot so this can either be reduced or it can be waived off. This is something that can reduce the money that people have to spend.
The profit might be less but at least it will keep the account moving. It will encourage people to keep ordering without paying anything extra no matter how much they want to order. This is also some help that they can provide for their customers or users.
These are hard times and everyone needs to consider the problems of the others.
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Encourage Customers To Pay Digitally
Digital payment has increased a lot but there are still some people who pay by cash. This is why online food delivery companies need to make sure that they encourage all their users to use digital payment methods.
They can start cashback offers if users pay online or any other way to attract them to digital payments. This can also be promoted as a safety measure as cash needs physical contact and that is not preferred at this time.
Mobile app development services need to improve their features and services related to digital payments.
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Take All Preventive Measures
It is important that food delivery businesses take all the preventive measures so they can keep their chain safe.
They need to teach the delivery agents and restaurant executives how they can stay safe and how they keep the order safe. They need to make sure that starting from the kitchen to the door of the customer, everything is taken care of. They need to give them protective gear, teach them all the important ways to sanitize.
These things will also ensure the customers that it is totally safe to order food and there will be no consequences. They can also make sure that they get their workers tested if they think they have any symptoms or they have come in contact with anyone who is COVID positive.
Conclusion
Food delivery companies need to do all the things that are possible to stay in the market. The situation is challenging but the businesses that will win this challenge will also have endless opportunities after that.
The ways mentioned above might look basic but they can really have a great impact on the sales and the branding of the on-demand delivery company and this is what will increase the importance of an on-demand app development company. Safely delivering the orders is the basic requirement and all other activities are supporting it.
