In February, Helsingin Sanomat reported that delivery apps such as Wolt charge restaurants commissions of around a third of each order's price. Most owners are not trying to quit the apps. The practical question is smaller: how many guests could book or order with you directly, if it were just as easy?
A market on the move
The same report quoted a co-owner of Guido's Pizza in Kauniainen and Tapiola, which has since gone bankrupt. In the same weeks, Foodora announced it was leaving Finland and Uber Eats said it was coming in. The players change, but the cut does not get smaller. Every guest who books through your own page, or walks in because they saw today's lunch on your Facebook, is a guest you do not share.
Why the direct channel slips
Most restaurants know what they should do: post the lunch menu every morning, keep Instagram alive, keep the website and booking page correct, and remind regulars about the weekend. The problem is time. The lunch list has to go out before 10:30, exactly when the kitchen is busiest. So the delivery app becomes the easiest way for a guest to find you, and you pay for that on every order.
Four things that bring guests to you directly
- The daily lunch post, every weekday before lunch. In Finland, lounas is a habit, and office workers decide where to eat around 10–11 o'clock. Consistency beats clever wording.
- Your own photos. Guests want to see the actual soup and the actual dining room, turned into a tidy menu image or offer poster, not stock pictures.
- One page that is truly yours: today's menu, opening hours, location and a booking page, kept correct.
- A reason for regulars to come back: a short post or email about the weekend brunch, a new seasonal menu or a music night.
What this looks like with an AI team
This is the kind of routine work BeeStaff.ai, the AI team DanaExperts built for small businesses, is designed for. Three of its AI employees cover most of it. Iris (marketing) writes lunch posts and weekly updates for Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn in your voice, and posts them on schedule once you approve. Luna (designer) turns your own photos into menu images and posters. Kai (IT and website) builds a simple landing page and booking page, and updates prices and opening hours when you ask.
An illustrative morning: at 8:45 you send one message with today's three dishes and a photo of the soup. Max, the team leader, passes the job on. Iris drafts the post, Luna makes the menu image, and the draft is checked for tone, spelling and prices. You read it on your phone between deliveries, change one line and tap Approve. At 10:15 it goes out.
Which jobs to hand over, and which to keep
A useful test is to ask how bad a mistake would be. A lunch post with a typo is easy to fix, so AI can draft it and you approve it in seconds. Changing prices on every channel at once, signing a supplier contract or answering an angry review in public are hard or impossible to undo, so they stay with you. We explain the full four-level test in our article on why AI should not run on autopilot.
What it does not do (yet)
- It does not read order data from Wolt, Odoo or other ordering systems.
- It does not chat with guests on Messenger, Instagram DMs or your website, and it does not reply to Google reviews.
- It does not run paid ads.
What it does is take the routine writing, design and website updates off your plate, so the direct channel keeps running even in a busy week. Nothing goes out without your OK, and you set a monthly cost limit: when it is reached, work pauses until you raise it. Restaurants in Finland have a local contact, and BeeStaff.ai can be tried free for 30 days while it is in its test phase, with no contract.
