How to reinvent your restaurant to stay in business during lockdown

The pandemic crisis we are going through is impacting the entire restaurant sector significantly. Safety measures and social distancing, curfews, closures etc. Faced with all these regulations it is not easy for restaurateurs to make the best of a bad situation and continue to practice their trade. But there are some alternatives to keep commercial activity going and maintain the relationship with your customers.

1. Prepare delicious dishes for takeaway

At this time, of course, it is impossible for you to welcome your customers in the way you would love to, around the table at the heart of your restaurant. Nevertheless, you can continue to satisfy their taste by preparing wonderful meals for them to go, which they can then savour at home, completely safe. If your food does not fit to be delivered in a box, you can pre prepare the meal and your customers can finalize it at home.

But how do you best respect the protective measures when taking an order from your customers? The safest way is to use QR codes, which allow your guests to view the menu via their smartphone where they also can order and pay. This way, there is no handling of physical menus, money or payment terminals, and you can continue to serve your customers in a safe way. To find out more about QR codes and how you can use this, click here. 

2. Use delivery services

Just like takeaway, using delivery to transport your food to your customers allows you to continue your commercial activity in a safe way. The orders are placed online, and the meals are picked up and delivered by specialised service providers. In this way, the physical presence of people at your business location is reduced, as are the risks of physical contact.

Moreover, being registered on various delivery platforms such as Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Foodora significantly increases your visibility, and therefore your chances of new customers discovering your business.

Wondering how you can manage the logistics of orders when you are available on several platforms? We have together with Deliverect a solution which enables you to connect your Trivec POS system directly to the various delivery service providers. This allows you to receive all orders in one and the same software system, no matter where they come from! To find out more about this click here. 

3. Transform your restaurant (temporarily) into a deli which matches your restaurant’s food profile

Since you are not able to cater for your customers around the table in the way that you would wish maybe you can temporarily transform your restaurant? What if you transformed your restaurant into a deli? That would enable you to build on the relationship and the trust you have developed with your clientele. It would also be a means of supporting your preferred producers and suppliers by selling their products directly to your customers! And you could sell your food pre prepared for pick-up and maybe also with delivery services as we talked about in the previous chapter.

4. Maintain the relationship with your customers through social media

It is true that this time of strict measures does not always allow you to remain in touch with your clients as directly as you used to when you would welcome them into your restaurant. Nevertheless, there is nothing stopping you from continuing to communicate with them through social media!

Tell them about how you are managing the restrictions (takeaway service, delivery options, products for sale, safety precautions, etc.), have them engaged by showing them photos or videos of a meals being prepared, etc. You can even suggest recipes which they can try at home to help them keep busy during the lockdown.

Whilst waiting for things to return to more normal circumstances, we would like to express our full support to the industry during these difficult times. In the meantime, do not hesitate to contact us!