Anybody who has ever worked at a restaurant knows what a challenging industry it is. Then came COVID-19. To allow for social distancing, some regions only allowed restaurants to operate at half capacity. Others forbid them from serving indoors at all.
Many restaurant businesses shuttered but more survived. The ones who did are likely in a considerably more precarious economic position than they’d be normally. They could probably use some recommendations to boost their business.
Contents
1. Employee Scheduling Software
Running an efficient and streamlined business takes on added importance during a pandemic. Employee scheduling software can shave up to 80% of the time it takes to create restaurant schedules for your employees, leaving them free to focus on critical work-related tasks.
Plus, employee scheduling software has powerful and intuitive communication tools that keep teams connected on the fly and give all staff more control over their work schedule and personal life. It even has manager-facing dashboards that give a micro and macro perspective of the entire business.
2. Utilize Google
You need to understand how your customers are finding your business, then exploit this knowledge. In most cases, Google directs them to a “restaurant near me,” or some other search term.
If you’re wondering how to add your restaurant to Google Maps to make it easier for your community to find you, there are many online resources to help you out. Most restaurant businesses can’t afford to sit back and hope people walk in from outside — they need to harness the power of the internet, which means utilizing Google.
3. Make the Food Purchasing Process Safe and Easy to Understand
There are encouraging signs that restaurants are coming back to life, with an increase in sales, the number of restaurant employees, and shifts scheduled since the summer. The truth is people are desperate to eat restaurant food! Your job is to make the act of purchasing safe and straightforward for your customers to understand.
People may be understandably confused right now. We are still learning new things about COVID-19, and legal restrictions about things like indoor dining change according to fluctuating rates of spread. Plus, some businesses have convoluted processes for making orders, how to pay, and how to physically receive the product.
Bypass these problems by ensuring that your patrons always feel safe, and that the ordering process is foolproof. If your customers know they can have a safe no-contact delivery or pickup by just pressing a few buttons, they’ll come in droves.
Create meal subscription boxes or whatever new approach is suitable for your restaurant. The flipside of people being cooped up indoors and not in restaurants is that they are extra eager for restaurant food — make it as easy and safe as possible for them to get it.
There is no doubt that this is a more challenging time than restaurants have faced in ages, but there are still ways to achieve success. Remember these three tips, and your restaurant will enjoy an immediate boost.