That’s exactly what third-party delivery platforms like Doordash, UberEats, and Grubhub work so hard to hide.
It’s why Doordash came up with a host of new pricing plans recently, but not one plan includes an option to access customer information. Because if restaurants saw the names, phone numbers, and addresses for third-party customers, they’d realize they were paying a premium for customers they already had. By owning the customer data, third-parties can rent out those customers to restaurants over and over again.
It’s like letting someone stay on your couch and somehow they start charging YOU rent for your own home.
In the early days of third-party delivery platforms, customer information was shared for mutual benefit, but now third-parties hold onto that data, leveraging the restaurant’s own brand to grow their own customer list and reward investors. Doordash or Grubhub may give restaurants a discount for pick-up orders or offer deals for links on a website, but they’re keeping the valuable customer information. Because once restaurants have a phone number or email address for “Charlie H,” they don’t need a middleman to reach out. They can use that contact information to establish a relationship and keep online customers coming back, the same way they build a rapport with customers in the dining room to turn them into regulars.
Get an online customer to place two orders within 30 days, and there's a 70% likelihood they’ll become a regular.
While knowing when to send the right email at the right time to the right customers sounds complicated and expensive - like all technology - it’s gotten easier and cheaper. With in-store dining, restaurant owners can thank first-time customers or pay extra attention to regulars, and on the internet, it's no different.With the right software, it doesn’t take much to automatically recognize new email addresses and reach out to those customers within 24 hours. Restaurants can send a coupon or a simple, “Thank you for ordering. We look forward to seeing you again.”
Third parties want to make this look complicated, so they can maintain ownership of customers and continue renting them out to restaurants… turning valued customers into expensive, anonymous orders. If restaurants get the key to their customer data, they can unlock those relationships and take ownership of their businesses.
Interested in learning more about how you can start owning your customer relationships?
