Covid-19 For Restaurants: What’s The New Normal?
Covid-19 has greatly impacted restaurant and takeaway ordering and this change will continue. Restaurants had to close their doors and were limited to providing only delivery and takeaway. In addition, they had to think outside the box, selling meal kits and using loyalty programs. All of this was done to keep their business going during covid-19.Therefore, the question here is out of what has changed, what will become the new normal for restaurants after covid-19?
Covid-19 For Restaurants: Aggressive Promotion Tactics & Merchandising
Simply put, restaurant owners are pulling out all the stops in order to hold onto traffic and maximize their revenue. We are seeing big discounts and creative merchandising offers and bundling offers. Another popular one is free delivery. New on-premise signage is popping up to remind diners that “We’re Open” and “Click and Collect” is available. Therefore, as we look forward, these new tactics will remain and expand.
Covid-19 For Restaurants: New Technology & App Modifications
Weeks into the covid-19 crisis, we were already seeing some operators using tech in a means to address the situation. One of the quickest tech fixes has been updating websites and apps to communicate with customers. In some cases, we have also seen new functionality around ordering, delivery, pickup and community support. However, these are only the quick fixes. They only scratch the surface of what post-covid technology can actually assist with. Therefore, looking forward, we can expect that tech companies will play a huge role in helping operators. They will help them to manage the challenges of distancing, sanitization, no touch and safety.
Embracing Employees Differently
The covid-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of employee support in restaurants. We have seen many new initiatives and programs to help those who have been laid-off jobs. For those still working, businesses have sought to look after them. Therefore, we can expect these new employee programs could signal a much larger shift in employee engagement for the industry. This could have a long lasting effect in a very positive way.
New Sources Of Revenue
Facing the reality of no dine-in business, restaurant owners had to venture into many new areas of revenue in a means to keep the lights on. As a result, creative approaches to new revenue sources have been tried with different degrees of success. We can expect post-covid that trying out new approaches in this area will continue. Therefore, new sources of revenue will be a must to make up for lost sales. This will help businesses to be better prepared. It will help cushion revenue in the event of another crisis in the future.
Conclusion
The restaurant industry has already been hugely impacted by covid-19 and we are not simply going back to normal. In addition, we are all eager to come out the other side of this and embrace our new normal. This article covers what worked during covid-19 and how we can expect these changes to remain post covid-19.
