As the world reels from the coronavirus pandemic, restaurants are among one of the most affected industries, considering the need for social distancing and scarcity of resources. Sahil Jain, Cofounder of Dineout recently conducted an informative session with Rachel Goenka, Founder and CEO, The Chocolate Spoon Company. During this session, she talked about the current plight of restaurants, various business strategies, and the prospects owing to COVID-19. Here are the highlights of the conversation.
1. Prioritize Safety Above All
Brand loyalty and trust, post lockdown, will come from showcasing better service quality and brand value. People will slowly feel more comfortable about stepping out post lockdown, if restaurants assure them of all the steps taken to ensure diners’ safety and hygiene within the restaurant. Communicate the importance of proper sanitation and hygiene, routine temperature checks, and sanitisers made available for customers as well as staff.
Further, higher dependency on technology for communication, menu management, and posting awareness-centric content on social media platforms to educate diners’ on safety can prove to be a great method to restore the lost trust and retain brand loyalty.
Focus on Survival
Restaurants will run on a 50% capacity, while waiting for government directives. Self-policing by restaurants while waiting for direction from the government needs to become more stringent for the sake of both, employees as well as customers. New industry entrants must stay strong, as the market is sure to bounce back. Cut costs wherever possible, and shift from high-end imported ingredients (unavailable) to local materials.
Going local and curating menus out of locally available ingredients and items make sales more profitable and enables better safety measures. The future foregrounds practices such as cloud-kitchens, home delivery, and takeaways. Further, prioritising microwave-safe packaging due to higher safety (cold items sanitized from outside, hot items can be put in the microwave directly) can be one of the best practices to adopt as it can instil better trust from diners in restaurants.
Introduce Seamless Technology
Technology has proved beneficial for many industries worldwide. There are various touchpoints in a restaurant business where technology can work along with the staff and create a tectonic shift. Diner sentiments across social media platforms points at pre-order and table reservation being crucial. They no longer want to touch foreign objects and are willing to opt for digital menu as well as digital payment methods. DineIn by Dineout, will let diners place orders directly from their phones using a QR code.. Similarly, digital payments like DOPay will remove the need for diners to exchange physical currency. Table management will be crucial to maintain physical distancing. Dineout’s Reserve will simplify and automate this process with least human intervention. For such solutions and more, click here
Redesign your Menu and Offerings
Provision of special menu options to your target audience, based on customer feedback will ensure better walk-ins post lockdown. For instance, the Chocolate Spoon Company had created a special Parsi menu during the Parsi New Year at Nariman Point, which was a raging success.
Such novelty and inventive attitudes of restaurant chains will always attract customers. For instance, Rachel’s brand created an innovative menu based on gravy chocolate to entice audiences that were looking for chic cake options.
Additionally, introduction of cost-effective recipes that use minimal inventory to make delightful products to retain customer’s curiosity can aid in minimization of expenditure. This also creates more space to experiment and launch seasonal menus. Re-engineering the menu to provide more comfort food (made from available raw materials) can aid in better sales, especially for fine dine restaurants. With supply chains disrupted, there is a dearth for imported goods. In addition, customers are also opting for easy-to-prepare options such as burgers instead of heavy meals.
Adopt Changes to Retain Customer-base
Diners must trust and connect with your brand if you wish to retain their loyalty. Their feedback and your responses are integral to such retention and ensuring restaurant sales.
Further, dining out in local restaurants will be a priority, from a diner’s perspective, post COVID-19 lockdown. Customizing your restaurant in accordance with your brand will ensure brand loyalty.
Aside from this, employees must be empowered and trusted by managers and owners. Restaurant staff should be able to take daily managerial decisions without prior approvals. Creating consumer/employee awareness can also facilitate retention of brand value in these market conditions. Such awareness can be created through different marketing strategies such as informative videos on cooking and packaging processes, videos conveying hygiene measures taken by restaurants, efforts of delivery executives to ensure uncontaminated food delivery (by proper hand sanitization, double bagging each food order, etc.).
A brand must utilize its diner-base for survival as a whole business family. As Rachel assertively mentions, ‘If you have that brand equity and a loyal customer-base, make the most of it right now!’
