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Month: May 2020

Proper Steps to Take to Maintain your Restaurant Hygiene

Posted on by inrestoblog

The fate of a restaurant depends on several crucial factors. One among them is the hygiene standards followed by a restaurant. These standards ensure the safety and well being of the customers and staff of the restaurant.

 The sensitive situation from the ongoing pandemic COVID-19 has emphasized the need of utmost and standardized hygiene in a restaurant.

A few vital tips for restaurants to fight covid 19 are listed below.

1. Routine Examination of Dining Areas, Kitchen, and Restrooms

Routine checks and examinations must be done to ensure regular and frequent cleaning in the dining area, kitchen area, and restrooms. It is essential to maintain the restaurant cleanliness as per the hygiene standards mentioned in the COVID 19 regulations for restaurants.

  • Fresh, unused towels must be used to clean the surfaces that come in contact with any food item.
  • Smoking, drinking, or eating must be strictly banned in the kitchen area.
  • Daily sterilizing of kitchen items such as blenders, cutting boards, and grills must be done.
  • Sanitisation of chairs, tabletops, bar tops or any other restaurant furniture at least twice a day.
  • Toilet seat, toilet bowl, and restroom floor to be cleaned every few hours.

2. Staff Training in Personal Hygiene Measures

Ensuring the personal hygiene of staff is a primary step mentioned in the tips for restaurants to fight covid 19. Basic personal hygiene gear such as gloves, clean clothes, hairnets, and other necessary tools must be made available to the staff. Some noteworthy points mentioned in the COVID 19 regulations for restaurants must be shared with the staff.

  • Wash hands thoroughly and dry them before beginning work, beginning to cook, or between tasks.
  • Maintain well-groomed nails without any trace of nail polish.
  • Wear a clean uniform in every shift and change it before the next shift.
  • Sanitize hands frequently (a minimum every 3 hours) and change gloves once they tear or get soiled.
  • Wearing rubber gloves must be mandatory while operating the dishwasher.
  • Any cut, injury, open sore, or wound anywhere on the arm or hands must be covered with a waterproof dressing.
  • Hairnets, scarves, or hats must be worn when working in the kitchen.
  • Jewelry must be minimal. 

3. Appropriate Sanitizing of the Kitchen Equipment

The COVID 19 government restrictions mandate certain specific hygienic measures for the safety of staff of a restaurant.

  • Stove, Oven, baking plate, Grill must be cleaned three times a week.
  • The sanitizing liquid must be changed frequently.
  • Cleaning of the garbage bins must be done repeatedly.
  • Follow a deep cleaning routine of the equipment after every use.

4. Ensure Appropriate Ventilation in the Restaurant

Proper ventilation is of utmost importance for the safe storage and preparation of food. The presence of high heat and smoke lowers the performance level of the staff. The tips for Restaurants to Fight COVID 19 include the adoption of DCV (Demand Controlled Ventilation) or Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technology for efficient ventilation in the restaurants.

5. Follow a Checklist for Restaurant Hygiene

A specific checklist with the list of cleaning duties, counter checks, and staff assigned must be prepared and scrutinized by the manager to be used in sync with the COVID 19 government restrictions.

Maintaining restaurant hygiene, especially during this pandemic has a direct impact on sales and long-term brand value. Hence, restaurants must take these steps seriously and provide safe services to their diners.

Tips for Restaurants to Fight COVID19

Posted on by inrestoblog

With the fear of the COVID-19 pandemic still looming large, the heavily impacted restaurant industry continues to look for innovative means to fight COVID 19. Organizations like the WHO and various government health departments continue to share tips for public places/businesses to fight COVID 19.

Some COVID 19 regulations for restaurants that must be followed to keep the virus at bay are listed below.

1. Caring for the staff members

Taking care of the restaurant staff is the foremost tip for restaurants to fight COVID 19. Training them with the safety guidelines like refraining from touching their eyes, nose, and mouth, making sanitizer accessible, and ensuring the 20-second hand washing after touching any new surface must be done. If any employee shows any symptoms of sickness, they must be asked to stay at home and follow the prescribed safety guidelines.

2. Proper Utilisation of Resources

Another noteworthy tip for restaurants to fight COVID 19 is to make optimum utilization of existing resources. With business being slow, it is advisable to use resources in an advantageous way. Restaurant owners can invest their resources in SEO tools to highlight the visibility of their restaurant for online orders, look to expand their delivery channels, and start new ones if the restaurant was not offering delivery service already. Further, servers with personal vehicles can also work as restaurant delivery agents. 

3. Convert Obstacles Into Opportunities and Minimise Cost

Follow smart management practices by encashing on delivery services and revamping the restaurant menu to include dishes that have higher margins and lower costs. Include special offers to deliver meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Restaurants can even look at options to collaborate with contractual channels for delivery service while ensuring all hygiene parameters are met when delivering food.

4. Keeping the Guests Updated

Keeping in line with the COVID 19 government restrictions, restaurants must ensure to share all relevant information, safety protocol, and any changes in the modus operandi of the restaurant operations with the customers. They must use their website, email, message, and social media platform to assure customers of the safety and hygiene precautions followed at the restaurant. Efforts must be made to keep all such communications positive and timely. 

5. Sanitizing Business Premises

Keeping the restaurant clean and disinfected must be diligently followed. Frequent and regular cleaning of surfaces that are touched regularly, such as door handles, electrical switches, table tops, chair seats, and floor must be practiced. 

6. Stay Informed

Restaurateurs must, at all times, keep themselves updated and informed about the modifications, amendments, additions, or relaxations done by the Government in the COVID 19 regulations. Staying informed will give them adequate time to plan and strategize for the times ahead and keep their business soaring.

7. Adopt Cutting Edge Technology for Restaurant Management

Restaurateurs must figure out processes that can be managed with the help of machines or using restaurant technologies. Restaurants must also go contactless on services such as booking, preordering, digital menu, digital payment etc.. This will helps secure the health and safety of both diners as well as staff members.

We hope these tips will aid you and your restaurant to strengthen your fight against COVID19. 

Making an Effective Offline to Online Transition for your Restaurant Business

Posted on by inrestoblog

With the emergence of digital media platforms and numerous online food delivery applications, customers are presented with a convenient option of ordering food online. Taking the current situation in consideration, even if people wanted to go out and dine, they are bound to their homes and are sticking to ordering food and taking measures to remain safe.

Furthermore, the digital ordering culture is being deeply instilled due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. In times such as these, traditional restaurant owners are faced with a huge challenge on how to stay relevant and conduct business successfully. Below mentioned are a few tips on how to transition from offline to a successful online restaurant business. 

Learn About Online Delivery

It is imperative that restaurant businesses which haven’t facilitated home delivery must gain knowledge on how online delivery works. With the help of peers and market leaders in the industry, one must understand how it works and how it can be used to reap benefits. This knowledge can further aid you to be informed about those unsaid rules followed in the online delivery business, when delivery partners for collaboration or when starting your own online delivery platforms like a website or an application.

Build a Brand that Bears Weight

Building a brand for your restaurant and gaining an online presence can aid your target audience to recognize you and maintain loyalties with your restaurant. As most traditional businesses run on the signature taste of their dishes, diners wouldn’t think twice before ordering from your restaurant. Hence, aligning business strategies to evolve and retain market share would prove as a great step.

Many traditional businesses run on signature dishes or a signature taste that diners have loved for decades. However, to build loyalties online, restaurateurs must consider branding their restaurant and aligning their social media strategies with the same.

Know your Options

When expanding your restaurant business online, you basically have two options: to collaborate with a food delivery platform or start your own website that enables your restaurant to take orders directly.  Owning a restaurant website translates into gathering much-needed diner information that comes to use when chalking new strategies and map diner behaviour.

Focus on Delivery and Fulfillment

In case you decide to start your own food delivery platform, you must keep various important aspects in primary focus. Shipping, logistics, fulfilment of orders, usage of oven-safe packaging, and ensuring no-contact delivery are some of the key processes that one must take care of.

Accessibility and Convenience of Customers

Whether you devise your own food delivery platform or choose to collaborate with a food delivery service platform that already exists, taking accessibility and convenience of your customers is vital. If your restaurant is not accessible for your customer, from their area, it might hamper your brand value negatively. On the other hand, making sure that the customer’s convenience is taken care of, enables better brand loyalty and enables seamless transition from an offline to an online restaurant business.

These above tips are in no way exhaustive in nature when it comes to making an impactful transition to an online restaurant business. 

Another bonus tip would be to make sure that you follow through with all the covid-19 related regulations put forth by the government, especially during the transition phase. Doing so will ensure highest levels of brand loyalty and preferability on the customer’s end.

Ways to Use a Digital Menu and Increase Your Restaurant’s Sales

Posted on by inrestoblog

These are some turbulent and dreadful times as the novel coronavirus is wreaking havoc on the global economy. Online orders have seen a steep spike in recent days as people are quarantined and forbidden from leaving their houses. In a war against the virus, normal lifestyle rules seem to be obsolete. Pandemic or not, people need to eat in order to survive and for the restaurant owner, this is the beacon of hope. To step up, adapt, and meet the challenges of changing times head-on is the only option for restaurants.

With people leveraging the use of online channels, restaurateurs have a viable option to increase food sales with the digital menu during the Covid19 pandemic. 

To gain traction in terms of food sales during Covid19, the restaurant industry needs to revamp the digital menu and employ the following tips to garner more sale:

1. Make a Clean & Brief Menu Design

To increase food sales with the digital menu during Covid19, you need to ensure that you are putting high-margin and best-selling items first. Generally, people prefer to go forward with items they have already tried or ones that sell the most. Hence, keeping it crisp and concise is the best approach for your digital menu.

2. Highlight a Special Item with Photos

Your digital menu must include a special item with a photo that looks appetizing, encouraging guests to try it. Your visuals may include aesthetically pleasing to capture the attention of your audience. Get creative with your photos, videos, GIFS, etc. to guide the customer’s decision-making.

3. Do Personalized Menus

Even though there is a pandemic going on, forcing people to stay in their homes, some of your diners may still need to follow a strict diet regimen. Designing and providing personalized menus will allow you to form new loyal diners during this time of difficulty. For instance, veg menus, vegan menus, and menus to support healthy food eating habits are bound to be a huge hit for your restaurant. 

4. Do a Cost Analysis

A cost analysis is necessary in order to devise a new business strategy that enables you to provide better service to your diners, at lower costs, while maintaining profits or minimizing the impact on the same. The cost analysis will enable you to better focus your resources on gaining more sales through your digital menu.

5. Ensure Category-wise Selection

Different times of day calls for different meals. Jamming every item in a single category is a perfect recipe for disaster. A proper category section such as breakfast, lunch, evening snack, and dinner menu will help streamline the process and enhance your customer’s experience.

6. Make Seasonal and Occasion-specific Menus

People are influenced by occasions and seasons. The seasonal and occasion-specific menus will attract new customers and help you to stay relevant. Further, conjuring a limited-edition menu by utilizing seasonal materials and occasion/festival themes will surely lead to a surge in targeted sales.   Many diners are still celebrating festivals like Ramzan and special days like Mother’s Day from the safety of their homes. Hop onto this bandwagon and curate special menus for special days with limited deliveries. 

The world has changed dramatically in recent months and yet, your restaurant has the potential to attract customers and fulfil their needs in these stressful times. By employing these tips, you can increase food sales with the digital menu during the Covid19 pandemic.

How Instagram can Bolster your Restaurant Business

Posted on by inrestoblog

Social media marketing has taken over all the conventional ways that brands used to advertise their services decades ago. Instagram has seen a revolutionary surge in the last few years and we’re definitely not surprised. Young adults are absolutely in love with the app and for good reason; it’s the perfect place to put your best side forward. And the good news is, individuals aren’t the only ones who can do so.

Brands have showcased their services and reached out to their audience in the most creative ways. And if you are planning to use Instagram to bolster restaurant business, you have certainly hit the jackpot considering the nature of the platform.

Let’s talk numbers 

86% of the top brands have a consistent presence on Instagram. Cap that with a billion active Instagram users on a monthly basis, and you know just where to be to reach out to your audience.

Why use Instagram for your restaurant?

There is no dearth of reasons as to why one can use Instagram to bolster restaurant business. But the ones below are certainly crucial.

1. To build a brand and reputation

For any brand to be successful, there needs to be an awareness about the brand that emphasizes how and why it is different from the rest. Further, maintaining a good rapport with your customers and connecting over topical things also aids in better flourishment of such brand image.

2. To build a loyal customer base

Making a mark is not only reaching out to your audience but also making sure that they are here to stay. By interacting with your audience regularly you can be sure of building a loyal customer base in time.

3. To introduce your business to new customers

Instagram is a platform that can be used to target and reach new potential customers as it provides a direct way of staying in touch with them; through their phones. Posting multiple times a day can enable the customers to come across and engage with your brand throughout the day. 

How to use Instagram for your Restaurant?

Now that you know the whys, here are the hows!

1. Optimize Profile

Every business account on Instagram needs a compelling introduction. With that, you must place a trackable link on the account to keep a track on the website visits through the app. This helps you to best analyze account activity and successfully use Instagram to bolster your restaurant business.

2. Use professional photography

If there is anything we learnt from Instagram since the time it was launched, it is that Instagram is the perfect virtual picture book. Visually appealing and aesthetic shots are exactly what Instagrammers love about the App.

3. Interact with customers

Interacting and engaging with your audience online can help them build loyalty and provide a personalized experience. Tracking good and bad reviews give better insights into revision of business processes. Reposting such good reviews can fuel brand image and add a human element to your profile.

4. Post steps taken by your restaurant during Covid-19

     Whether or not you already have an Instagram presence, this is the perfect opportunity to use this platform and communicate with your audience regarding the rules and regulations put in place to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. This also builds trust and loyalty in new as well as existing customers. 

We’re hoping that these pointers will give you the additional push and clarity needed to bolster your restaurant business on Instagram

Effective Ways to Tackle a Period of Slump in your Restaurant Business

Posted on by inrestoblog

In a general trade lifecycle, every business must experience a period of slump in sales. This period not only aids businessmen to take a step back and re-evaluate their approach, but also helps with enforcing multiple changes in the business model. Sadly, most businesses view this as a threat, rather than an opportunity for your restaurant to emerge stronger and better in every single aspect.

A similar situation has arisen upon the restaurant industry along with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic due to enforcement of lockdown in most parts of the world. Sales at every restaurant is impacted brutally and restaurateurs are trying everything, in an attempt to try and match at least their break-even points. Let’s not shoot in the dark. We formulated this article to better help restaurants tackle major concerns in these unprecedented times. Let’s have a look.

1. Not to Panic and Take Hasty Decisions

Panicking and making hasty decisions will only lead to bleeding of resources, with little to no returns on the same. On the contrary, making sure that relevant changes are enforced while minimizing costs is one of the best ways to approach this situation.

2. Find Areas Where Costs can be Saved

This is a period of little to no profit for your business. Hence, we suggest that you sit down with a pen and paper, with your accountant on a video call, and do a cost analysis. Figure out all those unnecessary expenses and immediately cut them off. For instance, due to the lockdown, most people will order food online. Hence, keeping your local restaurant closed and operating from only the kitchen will aid in cutting electricity, dishwashing, and conveyance expenses.

3. Focus on Digital Promotion

Owing to the lockdown, digital media is the only way to reach your audience base. This situation also has presented higher engagement and a better reach to a wider consumer base. Interacting with your consumer-base will allow you to stay relevant and maintain your brand image.

4. Maintain Consistency in Quality

The only thing that keeps a diner loyal to a restaurant is quality and taste. Therefore, even when operating from your virtual kitchen, it is important that you maintain your quality and unique taste parameters. This way, you can maintain loyalties of existing customers and build new ones as well. 

5. Adopt Restaurant Technology

This pandemic has enabled us to realize the importance of digitization in various industries, including the restaurant industry. A higher focus on restaurant technology will aid in not only operating efficiently with existing staff, but also enable you to expand operations with the same resources, in a post lockdown economy. Further, it also makes way for contact-less dining, making it safer for everyone.

6. Offer Promotional Deals

Design promotional deals that enable customers to order food that is within budget and allows you to gain better sales. Apart from that, creating offers that give discounts on the next order will motivate the customer to order again, aiding new sales.

We hope these pointers have given you a direction to think in and apply different tactics in your restaurant to tackle this period of slump in your restaurant business.

inresto’s Contactless Dining | Paving the Future of the Middle Eastern Restaurant Industry

Posted on by inrestoblog

The impact of the coronavirus outbreak has been swift & brutal across the world.

In the middle east region, the government has taken the necessary precautionary measures to protect the lives of citizens and residents and to prevent the spread of the pandemic. This has led to the suspension or reduction of many local economic activities, which had a negative impact on non-oil revenue and economic growth.

With its rapid escalation, it has begun to decimate the restaurant industry as an increasing number of states and regions enforce population lockdowns and close eateries, gyms and other “nonessential” businesses.

While the markets have been allowed to open partially, there are new government regulations imposed by the UAE Government to operate in the post-lockdown era. 

New Government Regulations (UAE)

The government laid regulations insist on the opening of restaurants in a phased manner, with the following practices:

  • Restaurants should register in the food watch portal to ensure compliance with the newly laid regulations.
  • Restaurants to utilise the dining space with a maximum of 30% capacity.
  • Continuous sanitisation and consistent cleaning of premises are mandatory.
  • Restrictions discouraging children under the age of 12 and old people from dining out should be in place.
  • Usage of disposable cutleries and crockery for diners, and masks and gloves for staff.

Contactless Dining | The Way Ahead for the Restaurant Industry

As COVID-19 impacts all sections of life and people have been introduced to the new social distancing practice. Dineout, India’s largest restaurant tech platform recently introduced the country’s first end-to-end ‘contactless dining suite’ for its partner restaurants to put in place the right seamless plug-and-play technology and sanitation requirements to support limited-contact dining for the foreseeable future.

The brand’s inresto Contactless Dining suite covers the entire dining experience from

• Pre-ordering – To cut the wait times at the restaurants, diners will now opt for pre-ordering to ensure that the food is ready by the time they reach.

• Contactless Valet – To cut the wait time down at the restaurant lobby. Diners will have their vehicles to be brought in just as they complete payments. Digital valet will cut short the time spent at community areas to curb the spread of infections.

• Contactless Seating – To make reservations online and facilitate digital table allotment. Reservations and waitlist management software will ensure that restaurants aren’t reserving more than what the social distancing norms will dictate. For example: Having a 2m distance between tables.

• Contactless Menu – inresto`s ‘Dine-In’ digital menu solution will use Data Analytics and AI to offer dynamic pricing and customized offers at partner restaurants besides offering diners the options to place an order without handling physical menu cards

• Contactless payments – To ease the payment process for both the consumer and the restaurant. Digital payments via e-wallets will avoid the exchange of cash and cards, thereby forcing social distancing.

• Feedback – Online feedback systems will collect real-time feedback on the dining experience

The goal behind this movement is to enable restaurants to reopen their businesses soon while making restaurants a safe harbour for diners. The role of tech in this post-COVID-19 era is to establish trust and build confidence in the minds of consumers.  The new inresto Contactless Dining Suite would help the F&B industry adjust to the new normal in a conducive environment. 

It’s time to grab the opportunity and let your diners experience exceptional dining and create new memories with a side of confidence and trust.

Contact us to make your restaurant a safe harbour for diners.

Dineout’s Instagram Live With Gauri Devidayal: Celebrating The Mother Restaurateurs |The Double CEOs

Posted on by inrestoblog

This Mother’s Day, Dineout conducted a ‘MOMs for CEO’ campaign to celebrate mothers’ journeys of motherhood and work and their contributions to all our lives. 

Gauri Devdayal spoke to Dineout’s Sanjula Miglani about her journey as a mother and a restaurateur, future plans, and strategies post lockdown. In addition to being a mother to a doting daughter, Gauri is one of the 50 most influential young Indians according to GQ, partner at Food Matters India, and the face behind many of India’s most celebrated restaurants – an inspiration to all working women! 

Here are the excerpts from their Insta Live.

Motherhood And Work: Finding The Perfect Balance

Being your own boss allows more flexibility but makes one deeply invested “24×7” in business; perhaps a double-edged sword. Gauri’s company allows her ample space to devote enough time to family matters. Every mother will find work-life balance on her own terms, which is easier said than done. A “pivotal” moment is when you realise and accept the best that you can do and what you can’t, thereby striving towards your own work-life goals. 

The World Is Not Enough

After her astonishing academic, business, and corporate achievements, she devoted herself full-time to her restaurant project and has achieved immense success over ten years. Her background in law and finance aided her in partnering up with her entrepreneurial husband. From an employee, she donned the restaurant entrepreneur’s garb; every step has been a learning curve.

Introducing The Concept Of Casual And Chic Restaurant

Gauri’s restaurant The Table offers small and large shared plates and community dining tables to encourage and interact with each other. Inspired by Californian dining, ingredient-driven menu and community-style dining; this idea was inspired by dining experience from all around the world and which then gained popularity in Mumbai.

Dining Plans Post Lockdown 

  • Restriction on capacity allows the spacing out of tables
  • Increased use of technology; QSRs will be heavily tech-reliant; restaurants driven by human dining experience will be more tech-reliant but cannot be entirely replaced by technology
  • Key for restaurant hospitality is transparency, honesty, sincerity, and integrity; steps towards customer reassurance about sanitation and hygiene steps will be crucial
  • Flexibility in order placement: via apps or social media platforms will be the next step
  • Along with staff training on sanitation and hygiene, mental well-being, and financial stability of staff are essential. Organising interactive sessions with experts to address and alleviate anxiety and sensitise people to the “new normal.”

Measures For Safe Delivery

Inspired by the magazine street kitchen, the delivery team has moved to the kitchen. The dining room has been converted into living space for the entire restaurant team, to reassure people that staff remain in-house and feel less alienated. Hence, minimised the risk of external contamination. Usage of masks, gloves, and regular temperature checks is mandatory. Delivery partners have been advised to maintain appropriate distance by marking standing space. An extra layer of protection is ensured by double packaging, contactless handover of products picked from trays by riders, riders leaving packages with apartment guards to be picked up by the diners.

We Miss You | A Letter to all the Restaurants

Posted on by inrestoblog

While the world is dealing with the COVID pandemic, many businesses like restaurants have shut their services as a safety measure.

And as we sit inside our homes binge-watching movies, all we can think of is the delicious food from our favourite restaurants; we will be having once the lockdown is lifted. Our ears long for the sizzling of pan-fried noodles, whirring of milkshakes with ice creams churning, conversations over coffee and kids haggling with their mothers for one more scoop at the ice-cream parlours.

The world will get it’s pizza, burgers & momos back. There will be date nights at bars again, Salsa Sundays at Summer House, live music at Music & Mountains, and people will grab their fav McDonalds meal while going back home from a tiring day. That would be a day to rejoice for the entire restaurant industry. Restaurants will witness happy faces dining out, moments brewing & beginning of love stories over coffee. 

Good food and good dining experiences are addictive, and you would know why we say that. 

Even during this quarantine, people are learning new recipes in the memory of their favourite dishes. They are trying to recreate the magic served by their favourite restaurants. 

Restaurants surely are facing the biggest crisis, with revenue curves declining.

These are grim times for many such industries. But don’t lose heart as the world is dearly missing you. While pondering upon the state of affairs, we asked the diners to share the names of the restaurants they are missing the most. And we just wanted to stop by and send this letter of love, warmth and hope to all the restaurants. 

Sit back and have a look-

and there is more.