Restaurants use WhatsApp Business to engage in real-time conversations with customers, sending them updates regarding order confirmation, estimated arrival time, order dispatched messages, rider details, order delivered notifications, invoices, and feedback links. As the app enables two-way communication, customers can also reach out to restaurants to reschedule or cancel bookings, tell restaurants about their specific food preferences, and do more. If customers choose to eat out, restaurants send them reservation reminders on WhatsApp, which significantly reduces instances of no-shows and also lowers wait times for customers. In turn, restaurants can optimize their table turnover. For these dine-in customers, contactless menus can also be shared on WhatsApp using QR code signages placed on tables.
Multiple surveys suggest that delivery aggregators (UberEats, Zomato, Swiggy, etc.) charge high commission rates of 25-28 percent from restaurants for their services. Earlier, online deliveries comprised only a small part of the restaurant business, so this loss didn’t amount to much. But now, with online deliveries accounting for almost 100 percent orders for many restaurants, owners lose a lot of revenue to these third-parties, making business unviable. What’s more, delivery aggregators have access to a huge customer database and use this data to create their own brand loyalty, cutting businesses out.
WhatsApp solves this problem by helping restaurants engage directly with their customers. They can receive orders directly on WhatsApp, take care of all the coordination, send out alerts about the order, and fulfill deliveries themselves. This saves them a lot of money and gives them full access to their own database, which they can analyze to target and retarget customers with tailored offers.