The deposit from the app lands on a Monday, and you already know the number's going to sting before you open it. A loud weekend, a full kitchen, drivers in and out the door, and the payout comes in a third lighter than the tickets said. That third went to Grubhub or DoorDash or Uber Eats, and it's gone whether you had a good week or a slow one.
You can't just walk away from the apps. They bring people who'd never find you otherwise, and in a city where the next spot is half a block away, that reach is real. But here's what nobody at the app is going to tell you: plenty of those customers would happily order direct next time if you just asked. They're not loyal to DoorDash. They're loyal to your larb, or your bacon egg and cheese, or whatever got them to tap your name in the first place.
The second order is where you win the margin back. Same food, same customer, none of the commission. This is about using the order slip you already print to turn an app customer into a direct regular, and it takes less setup than you'd think.
Do the math once so it stops being abstract
Say a customer orders $40 of food through an app that takes 25%. You net $30. If that same person orders direct next time (your website, a phone call, a text), you keep the full $40 minus your normal card fee. That's roughly $9 or $10 back in your pocket on one ticket.
Now picture that customer orders twice a month. Winning just their direct reorders is $200 or so a year, from one household, on food you were already making. Multiply by even a few dozen regulars and you're looking at real rent money. Not a windfall, but the kind of steady margin that actually moves a small shop.
The apps keep that money because they own the moment of ordering. Your job is to own the next moment.
The order slip is a lead you already paid for
Every app order prints a ticket. Usually it's got a first name, sometimes a number routed through the app, and always an address inside your delivery zone. You paid a commission for that order, which means you paid for the chance to earn the next one. Tossing the slip in the trash is leaving that on the table.
You can't spam people through the app, and you shouldn't try. What you can do is put something in the bag that gives them an easy reason to come back to you directly. A small insert. A card. One clear offer and one clear way to use it.
That's where a little AI help saves you an afternoon.
Let AI draft the bag insert and the text offer
AI here means a chatbot like ChatGPT or Claude, the kind you type a request into and get written copy back. It won't design your menu or know your block, but it's genuinely good at drafting short, clear copy fast, which is the tedious part most owners never get around to.
Give it the facts and ask for options. A prompt like this works:
- Tell it who you are: "I run a Thai spot in Astoria. Most of my delivery comes through apps that take 25%."
- Tell it the goal: "Write three versions of a small bag-insert card nudging app customers to order direct next time by calling us or using our website, with one offer: 10% off their first direct order."
- Tell it the voice: "Keep it short, warm, no corporate tone, fits on a business card."
You'll get three drafts in seconds. Pick the one that sounds like you, fix the line that reads off, and you're done. Do the same for a short text you'll send later, and for a line your staff can read to phone customers. The AI does the drafting; you keep the final say on every word, because it's your name on the bag.
One honest note: read every draft before it goes out. AI will occasionally invent a detail or promise something you never said. Treat it like a sharp intern, not an autopilot.
Make the direct order genuinely easier, not just cheaper
An offer only lands if ordering direct isn't a hassle. If your website ordering takes six taps and a login, people will shrug and reopen the app. Fix the path before you promote it.
- Put a short, clean ordering link on your insert (your own site or a direct-order page, meaning a menu customers order from without the app's commission).
- Make the phone an option too. Plenty of your customers, especially older ones or folks more comfortable in another language, would rather call. Honor that.
- Have the offer ready at the register and on the phone, so nobody's improvising mid-rush.
The pitch is simple, and you can say it out loud: order with us directly and the whole ticket comes to us, so we can take better care of you. Most people get it. Nobody loves paying a middleman either.
Build a simple direct-order list you actually own
When someone orders direct, that's your chance to capture a number with permission, so you can text them later without any app in the middle. This is the asset the apps will never hand you.
Keep it low tech if you want. A note at checkout: "Want a text when we run the weekend special? We'll never share your number." The ones who say yes are your direct regulars in the making. AI can draft the opt-in line and later help you write the occasional text (a slow Tuesday offer, a new dish), but keep it rare. One good text a month beats five ignored ones, and a number earns you nothing once it opts out.
Store the list somewhere plain, a spreadsheet or your point-of-sale system, and back it up. It's worth more than most of the equipment in your kitchen.
What this won't do
Be clear-eyed about it. None of this makes the apps cheaper or gets you off them. Their commission is their commission, and for discovery (new people finding you for the first time) they still win. Some customers will only ever order through an app, and that's fine. You paid for the order; take the margin where you can get it.
AI won't win the customer for you either. It drafts the words and saves you the time. The reason someone comes back direct is your food and how you treat them. The tools just make sure you actually asked.
Worth doing this week
- Run the math on one typical app order so you know your real number per ticket.
- Ask a chatbot to draft three bag-insert cards with one clear direct-order offer, then pick and edit one.
- Print a small stack and start dropping one in every delivery bag this weekend.
- Test your own direct-order path on your phone. If it's clunky, fix that before anything else.
- Start a simple list: capture a number, with permission, from every direct order that comes in.
Set this up once and it runs quietly in the background, winning back a slice of every weekend. If you'd rather hand off the drafting and the setup, that's the kind of thing we help NYC shops put in place.