Dive Brief:

• Grubhub updated its Grubhub for Restaurants portal with three new features: customer insights, self-serve refund requests and self-serve photo shoot access, the company said Thursday. 
• These features were developed after feedback from restaurant partners.
• The expansion of Grubhub for Restaurants comes a few months after the company added three features to its Grubhub Direct platform, which is a commission-free branded ordering channel for independents.

Dive Insight:

Grubhub developed the portal updates after hearing from restaurant partners and receiving feedback from partners involved with Grubhub’s Restaurant Leadership Council, the company said in an email to Restaurant Dive. A handful of partner restaurants within the council then met with Grubhub’s Restaurant Success team to discuss a range of topics, including features and products that can best help restaurants achieve their goals. 

The portal’s additional features, especially customer insights, may make Grubhub for Restaurants more competitive with Uber Eats and DoorDash, which already offer sales trends data.

Using the “Insight” tab on GFR, restaurants can view and filter sales and order metrics by new or returning diners and Grubhub+ or non-Grubhub+ members. Partner restaurants can access up to a year of aggregated data to compare sales and metrics. Grubhub said the data will allow restaurants to make better strategic decisions and adjust their marketing plans with Grubhub accordingly. The food delivery company said this is the first version of insights on the platform, and it will continue to build out this feature based on partner feedback. 

Grubhub also added self-serve refunds, allowing restaurants to request automatically an adjustment in the platform to dispute a refund. Previously, partners had to call or chat with Grubhub Care, a process that often took 10 minutes, the company said. It now takes one minute to dispute refunds.

Partners can dispute charges up to 30 days after the original order date by clicking on the specific order ID and hitting a button that says “dispute adjustment” and select a reason for the dispute. A Grubhub agent will look into the situation and respond within 24 hours. 

Grubhub’s self-serve photo shoot access has been updated with an opt-out option allowing restaurants to click “I’m not interested” when asked if they want to schedule a professional photo shoot of menu items. The banner will then return every 30 days after an opt-out and every 90 days after booking the shoot. Grubhub said this feature increased the frequency with which it presented operators the chance to book a photo shoot, which would help restaurants update menu images for seasonal items.

Additional functions improve the value proposition of delivery platforms, especially now that sales have declined across the channel as consumers have returned to dine-in. Delivery companies have enhanced customer service features or are offering discounted subscriptions.

Grubhub last year partnered with Amazon to provide one-year of free Grubhub+ to Amazon Prime members. Earlier this week, Uber Eats rolled out family profiles to link multiple Uber accounts under one profile, as well as video messages for gift cards. DoorDash added a cash payment option for DoorDash Drive, the company’s white label delivery offering, allowing customers to pay cash to drivers.