How to Create a Menu that Works for Meal Delivery

Your customers have busy schedules. It can be difficult for them to make dinners every day, but meal prep helps them take the lengthy prep time out of cooking. Meal prep offers dishes that are fully ready to eat from the package, the perfect solution. You need to stay organized so your customers keep coming back. An easy-to-use software system helps keep you on track so you can focus on creating delicious menus. Elevate your meal prep business by creating menus that work for your meal prep delivery business.  How do you decide on the items for your delivery service?

Food Service Industry Delivery That Works

When deciding on what to put on your food delivery menu you want to think about everything from packaging to travel and eating to clean up. There is much more involved than what tastes and looks good.

• Food that Travels Well – Just because you aren’t eating in a restaurant doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a great quality meal. When food gets delivered it should be piping hot, look appetizing, taste good, and be presented to you as if it was just sent to your table. Think of the delivery distance and travel time required from point A to B. Deep-fried food products may not taste like they do when dining in. During travel time, items can get soggy or softer than when they came fresh out of the fryer. Consider eliminating foods like this, that just don’t compute with travel, especially over long distances.

Think of prep time for your food delivery items. Remember that some food needs to be eaten shortly after being prepared. A dish like ceviche, if sat too long, can cause the citrus component to cook the fish to the point that it is far too soft to enjoy.

• Packaging – When coming up with your menu, take into consideration bumps on the delivery journey. It can be tricky for some food items to stay together on a beautifully arranged plate or stay in the container at all. It is important for your packaging to be sturdy, layered (especially for hot meals so there are no burning fingers), and packaged in proper containers to avoid leaking, shifting, and ending up looking like a mess due to an unexpected speed bump. 😉

• Honed-In Customization – Allowing your customers to create a dish of their own adds to customer service. It can be difficult to provide customer service in the food delivery business. Giving your diners the option to customize their orders encourages repeat business. Bear in mind that too many choices can cause frustration. Organize your menu to help your customers choose items that go together to make it easier for them to select their dinners. Remember, your meal prep delivery business should be convenient for everyone. A great software program can keep you and your customers on track. Not only can you customize your orders, but you can monitor customer preferences, delivery options, and payment choices.  

• Experience – When your customers dine in at a restaurant there is ambience and music to add to the experience. Give this type of experience with your prepared meals. Why not add a free dessert to give your customers a little something extra? Or let them choose something from a “bonus menu” on your site. This helps you stand out from your competition and adds to the food delivery experience.  Spice up the at-home ambience by putting a QR code in with the meal that has a playlist to listen to while your customers are eating. You might even want to add a table covering so they can really add to the mood, giving them even more of the restaurant vibe. Think of themes like movie night and re-create a movie experience with a themed food and drink menu that adds an experience to an already prepped meal.

• Family Size Portions – Besides individual items, offer family-size portions of food so your customers can cater to large groups of people for birthday and holiday events.  Dining at home doesn’t always mean doing it alone.

Finally…

Dining out can be just as special as dining in so show your customers this through incorporating these tips into your meal prep delivery dishes. At Meal Prep Tech we know how important fresh, flavourful, and quick food is. This is why we consider every detail for food delivery. Take a fresh look at your menus and say yes to preparing meals that are customer experience-focused.