Takeout foods — or home-meal-replacement items — can help attract time-pressed customers to your restaurant. Here are some tips for packaging a successful takeout business.

• Designate a takeout area. "Don't treat takeout like an afterthought," says Diane Trepper, national director of marketing for the 37-unit Red, Hot & Blue restaurant, based in Arlington, Virginia. "It should have a separate area and be treated like a separate business." If your restaurant does not have enough space for a separate area, Trepper suggests using the end of the bar. Place clear signs, such as "Pickup Orders Here," so customers know where to go, she says.

• Train staff in takeout guidelines. Trotter's To Go — a prepared-foods market operated by Chicago's Charlie Trotter's restaurant — trains staff to handle customers’ questions. For example, employees are prepared to answer questions about how to reheat items.

• Provide convenient parking. Customers are often in a hurry when picking up their orders. To speed up the process, Red, Hot & Blue designates a few parking spaces near the entrance for takeout customers. "People want to pull up, park, go in, get their order and leave," says Trepper.

• Use proper packaging. "You want to use packaging that is ‘food-friendly,’ " says Trepper. "You want the food to make it home in the bag and not on the floor of the car." She recommends wrapping condiments separately and using packaging that prevents spillage. Trotter’s To Go places food in tightly sealed plastic containers inside plastic bags to avoid spills. Packaging that allows for reheating is a plus. Dallas-based Eatzi's Market and Bakery sells more than 1,800 prepared items, which it packages in microwavable containers.

• Put food safety first. Eatzi's places a "use by" date sticker on all packages. "We also encourage people to get their food home and into the refrigerator, especially in the summertime," says Carol Cobler, spokesperson for the four-unit operation.

• Advertise your offerings. Red, Hot & Blue encourages dine-in customers to try takeout items by presenting guest checks inside mini takeout menus that contain a coupon for the guest’s next carryout order. The Internet also is a great resource for advertising. Eatzi's posts special menus for Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, Easter and Passover on its Web site.

• Make ordering convenient. In addition to phone orders, some restaurants allow customers to order online or via fax. Red, Hot & Blue encourages faxes for large orders. "Those can take a lot of time on the phone; so now they just mark up [a form] and fax it back," says Trepper.

• Double-check orders. "Go over the packaged order with the guest to make sure details are not missed," says Trepper. "Go through each item — ‘Here's the ribs, here's the barbecue sauce....’ That's much better than the customer getting home only to discover that the sandwich buns are not in the bag."