Two best friends came back to India for a vacation after completing their Master's abroad and went to eat pavbhaji at a famous outlet in Manjalpur, Baroda. After having their food, when it came to taking parcels for their families, this is where the seeds of creation of our beloved "Delfoo" were planted. Yes, that is when Mr. Kandarp Patel and Mr. Yoshit Patel had the Eureca momentto start Baroda's first versatile service that delivers food at doorstep of Barodians. "Delfoo"- Delivering Food, name says it all. This name is not new for any Barodian and Suratian now. Delfoo makes it possible to bring your desired food to your doorstep. They not only deliver food, but happiness too.
Team Baroda Beat got fortunate enough to meet Mr. Kandarp Patel, one of the mastermind behind making Delfoo possible and a very fruitful chat session gave us the outline of how Delfoo got into action and how it actually works
When asked about how earlier days of Delfoo were, Kandarp Sir said "During my trip to India, We immediately realized that their is a need of a smart portal for restaurant foods where online food ordering and its delivery should be much easier. That is when the idea of Delfoo buzzed in our mind, me, Yoshit Patel and Arpan Vaidya (co-founder) started doing research about its execution and instantly started working on it.
We have rented an office and started approaching restaurants of Baroda city along with building a robust online platform" But as we say, any road is incomplete without some stones in it, Delfoo got approximately straight 30 no's from the restaurant owners. "Their fear was comprehensible as they thought if the customer is getting their food right away to their place, why would they come and sit in the restaurant?" he added. But Delfoo made them understand that where a restaurant could maximum serve to only 100-150 people at a time and how much trouble customers facing currently for picking up the food, Delfoo made it a multiple and after 30 negatives, Daawat Restaurant at Manjalpur was the first one to accept their proposal and after that first deal, Delfoo has never looked back.
Right from our favorite pavbhaji destination to classy cuisines, they bring food to our dining table. And because of smart work and dedication, Delfoo linked to the 50+ restaurants in only 3 months from its start date. And today, almost no restaurant or no food chain is there who does not deliver through Delfoo and has delivered more than 50,000+ Orders. When we asked Kandarp Sir about how they manage the busy hours of the day, which are 7 pm to 10 pm.
He explained the concept of smart delivery system and utilization of part-time employees. Where permanent employees cannot handle the load, they recruited temporary staff especially for busy hours. Also the smart communication system built on top of a robust Delfoo admin platform, which helps manage the delivery guys who makes it possible to make our favorite food reach us on time. Also when we order one item from one place and other from another outlet/restaurant, which is far away from the former, this is where Delfoo's system handler mind comes into action and they manage it in such a way that delivery guy gets all the order via linking to other delivery guys on route and accomplish the task.
When we asked about how they are managing Corporate Orders, Kandarp Sir said that we have developed dedicated Corporate Interface where Corporates have their own dedicated account and easily manage their employees and clients and automatically contribute towards their meals. Corporates will also get benefit to get single invoice for their multiple orders. Today they are proudly serving to many major corporates of Baroda City and nearby GIDC's like Makarpura, Savli, Nandesari, etc. There has to be some critical points wherein Delfoo faces some issues. Kandarp sir also shared those with us. Food is best served hot and dessert is best served cold! - Then how to maintain this when you are delivering food across city! But Delfoo has solution for this too.
They have bought the special containers in which food remains hot for two hours and small containers for cold ice-creams and ice-dishes. Getting food prepared from restaurants during busy hours, making order reach on time during heavy traffic hours, providing change to customers on cash payment on delivery but Delfoo is working very hard and creating a benchmark for fellow entrepreneurs and being a guide to many. After its successful growth in Baroda city, Delfoo has expanded its services in Surat city few month back and started serving Suratis. Also, Delfoo is continuing its journey further with the new idea of delivering fresh fruits and vegetables to your doorstep within 24 hours of ordering it with good quality and in cheaper rates than vegetable markets and super stores. By the time you read this, they might have launched the Delfoo Fresh Portal.
Kandarp Patel states "The backbone of their success is the system, service, management and most importantly – PEOPLE at delfoo who dedicate all they gottoprovideandservethepeople in an unique way." He mentioned that Delfoo is getting too much love and positive feedback from beloved customers and that brings up energy to serve them better. He is also told us that Restaurants are also cooperating and helping us all the time to give best service experience to our Customers.
Lastly, when we asked them about any advice for young entrepreneurs, he advised to focus on the problem you are willing to solve and no matter how far you reach, stay connected to your vision, never detach from the reason why you started in the first place.Article By: Hetvi Chatufale