The COVID19 pandemic has got us all thinking of new ways of moulding our lifestyle.Businesses across the world have been impacted by it and are constantly working towards reevaluating and revamping their business strategies. While things are gradually falling into place and adjusting to the new normal, people in certain parts of the world have started eating out, shopping and travelling, and as things ease and people will get back to their usual routines, while fighting the pandemic. Countries like China, Germany and Vietnam have started their usual routine of going out as the lockdown has lifted. Normal life activities continue but with the utmost precaution.Restaurants have adopted contactless dining to eliminate high touch elements and take care of the safety of everyone.
Back home we are contemplating and fighting against the irresistible urge of travelling, dining out with our friends,and shopping for the latest collection and the dreadful thought of catching the virus and getting sick. People are looking for a safe way to experience outdoors and socialise. COVID19 certainly has brought a lot of change in diner preferences and thereby, in the way a restaurant business operates. And this can be made possible by adopting a contactless way of dining out that reduces touchpoints for both diners and staff and enables the restaurant business to flourish again.
Speaking of going contactless at your restaurant, here is how you can do that-
1. Pre-Booking And Contactless Seating
We are very well acquainted with the concept of reserving tables at restaurants beforehand via calling or reservation apps. People used to do that to get their favourite table at their favourite restaurant even during the busy hours and weekends. In the post COVID19 world, the significance of it goes even further. Restaurants will accept limited bookings to maintain physical distance, and diners also want to visit less crowded restaurants. Pre-booking via apps like dineout, makes it easier for both the parties to uphold the new norms. Diners who walk in can self-check-in by scanning a QR code, entering their details. This removes the need for a manager to personally take their details by exchanging a paper and pen thereby eliminating unnecessary contact. During this process, you as a responsible restaurateur can ask necessary arogya setu questions to make sure that people entering your restaurant are not a threat to other diners and your staff.
2. Contactless Valet
Here diners hand over their cars to the valet at your restaurant with the utmost trust and security. In order to service this part of the diner journey better we need to understand a diners need. While handing over the keys, and the car, their major concern is of hygiene and safety. The valet comes in contact with hundreds of people in a day, and non of them want to be in close contact. In this case a valet must follow all the necessary safety guidelines. He must be wearing gloves and a mask. Additionally waiting for the car to arrive in a packed lobby is something diners are averse to now. This can be avoided simply with the adoption of technology. Here valet can accept a parking request and diners can initiate a recall vehicle request from their own devices. Using this service a valet can manage the vehicles using a handheld device, this includes both incoming and outgoing cars, thereby reducing the waiting time and overcrowding at the lobby.
3. Contactless Ordering
In what was known to be normal, diners arrived, were led to their table, and handed over a menu card. This menu card went through multiple hand exchanges.Which is unacceptable now. Like many other high touch elements, a menu card is a carrier of germs from one person to another, and the diners want to avoid coming in touch with such elements. But a restaurant is not a restaurant without a menu. So what do you do here?
Digital menus are the answer here. There would be no passing on of paper menus, or going to the counters for placing orders. The diners can just scan a QR code placed on the table and the menu will pop open on their phones, and they can directly place their orders. It is that simple 🙂 A restaurant also had the added advantage of changing it as per their convenience, cross-sell and upsell items to increase their revenue.
4. Contactless Payments
currency is an element that comes from many strangers, a vegetable vendor, hospitals or places you can never guess. Transmission of germs through cash has a higher probability than anything else at your restaurant. And you don’t want that. And just how many times has anyone made a run to the ATM in the past few months? As per trends, digital payments have hit the ceiling. So why shy away? Paying bills digitally involves no touch and does the job seamlessly. Diners can use dineout Pay or just scan a QR code, and the bill is cleared.
5. Contactless Feedback
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For every consumer-centric business, feedback from their diners is really important. Feedback is even more important now, cause everyday is a make and break situation. Diners do not touch anything that a lot of people have touched before them or use a pen that someone else might have used to fill those forms and you would not want to miss out on the feedback.
And we already have a solution for that, digital feedback forms. This way the diners can share their feedback digitally using a link directly from their phones. A restaurant can track these in real-time and correct any untoward incidents that might escalate into a terrible experience for a diner. This will help build confidence amongst diner, ultimately restoring faith in the restaurant’s service.
By adopting these services at your restaurant, you can go contactless and make it a safe place for your diners and staff. By reducing unnecessary touchpoints and replacing it with technology, you can maintain proper hygiene and build a #SafeToEatOut environment for your staff and a trustworthy relationship with your diners.
Stay responsible, stay safe 🙂
