Del Taco Dives into Digital for a Competitive Edge

Del Taco's digital transformation continues to drive traffic and build brand awareness with strategic phased-in initiatives aimed at operational excellence. 

Over the past two years, Del Taco has launched a roadmap of optimizations beefing up its digital presence with the Del App and delivery partnerships with Grubhub and Postmates. The nation's second-leading brand in the fast-growing Mexican QSR category plans to launch its third delivery provider DoorDash by the end of the year to further expand market reach. 

The multi-delivery service provider approach looks to optimize consumer demand and illustrates Del Taco's laser focus on onboarding the right way, with the right partners. 

“Our overarching strategy is to add digital convenience to our restaurants for our guests through operationally excellent touchpoints,” says Erik Collins, Del Taco's director of digital brand engagement. “Any brand can put out an app and do delivery in this day and age, but to be operationally excellent, we had to be careful and strategic with how we pace and sequence the different opportunities. We selected certain partners for our operations to not only be able to fulfill these new orders, but to do so to be compatible with POS integration options.” The resulting POS integration has also resulted in delivery order accuracy scores peaking at “all-time highs,” says Collins. 

Del Taco fans are embracing the opportunity to engage with the quick-service-plus powerhouse brand. The app has over 800,000 registered users and growing. All 300-plus company-owned stores accept mobile orders for pickup or delivery, and over 100 franchised restaurants are live or in the process of adding this capability, notes Collins.

With this built-in customer base in place, Del Taco will turn its attention to deepening these connections with more personalized offers and messaging—and ultimately, more significant returns on investment—through improved CRM segmentation techniques that come with scale. 

Del Taco's digital value is already paying off. As outlined in an October earnings call, CEO John Cappasola reported the brand more than tripled its third-party marketplace delivery incidents during the most recent four weeks, compared to the prior run when it only had one partner. 

Backed by experienced leadership, Del Taco's franchise-driven system is booming with aggressive plans to expand across the U.S. with passionate multi-unit restaurant operators.  Franchise partners see consistent returns thanks to Del Taco's focused barbell menu strategy and innovation designed to bolster the success of its franchisees. 

“We are making it as easy as possible for our franchise groups to be able to meet the increasing demands of a digital guest,” Collins says. “We want to be a good partner and make everything available to both of them through a seamless process.”

Ready to discover more about Del Taco’s franchise opportunities? Head over to deltacofranchise.com.

SPONSORED BY:

Learn More