You can order online from just about any restaurant today. But when I order for pickup, I always call the restaurant. There are three benefits to ordering pickup over the phone instead of online:
- You talk to a human.
- Restaurants get to know their customers.
- It’s cheaper.
You talk to a human
A person on the phone doesn’t display pop-ups to subscribe to their newsletter, and they don’t ask if you want to talk to their AI chatbot. Sometimes I feel stressed to talk to a stranger on the phone, but it only gets easier the more you do it.
Restaurants get to know their customers
Websites don’t want to know you in a healthy way. I’ve never owned a restaurant, but I have to imagine it’s much nicer to hear from customers than see notifications come in for orders.
It’s cheaper
When you call a restaurant, you almost never need to pay the middleman markup of online ordering: you pay the same price as if you ordered from a table. Today from La Palma in Detroit, MI, “Chicken Loaded Shawarma Fries” are $17.99 when ordered over the phone. When you order online through DoorDash, they’re $24.99. That $7 difference is a 39% markup, and that’s before you tack on “service fees.”