With the days of quarantines, closures, and social distancing rules gradually waning, restaurant owners are anxiously waiting to see what the future holds for their businesses in a post-COVID-19 reality. Forward-thinking restaurateurs, however, are taking things into their own hands, exploring any and all means of staying one step ahead of the competition in 2021. If you own a food or beverage ‘biz and are looking for practical steps to help your eatery thrive in the aftermath of corona, you have come to the right place.
Foodservice Crystal Ball
The good news is that according to industry experts, many of the restaurant trends that were born out of pandemic necessity are expected to stick around. Top of the list? Continuing to offer your customers the safest and most seamless eating-out and ordering-in experiences. Here are some ways to satisfy customers’ demands and drive traffic your way:
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- Provide Takeout and Delivery: If you thought the proliferation of takeout was a passing phase, think again. Although in-house restaurant dining is on the rise, takeout is slated to remain the most preferred paradigm for eating out. Can’t afford the high-end third-party delivery systems utilized by the big guns? Rest assured that your local eatery can still compete by simply investing in a small van and doing the deliveries yourself. Not only will you save a pretty penny, but your customers will appreciate the lower service rates and keep coming back for more.
- Curbside Pickups: You might also be worried that popular curbside pickup services are out of reach for your modest neighborhood operation. Good news is that no matter how big or small your coffee shop, pizzeria, ice cream parlor, fast food truck, or smoothie stand is, all that’s required is that your customers’ phone or online orders are pre-paid and ready to go. When customers pull up in their car, they simply pop open their trunk and your staff delivers the goods without anyone leaving the vehicle.
- Contactless Continues to Reign: Remember that contactless remains king and that its prominence as your business’s golden standard will significantly influence customers’ purchasing behavior. If you want the masses to bring their ravenous appetites to your eatery, don’t hold back in promoting the many safety precautions you are taking to both please their palates and protect their health. Think flyers, social media, tweets, radio ads, and more. Similarly, consider strategies such as mobile ordering, cashless payments, distancing-friendly seating arrangements, online table reservations (allowing you to stagger arrival times, minimize crowding, and create virtual waitlists), and smooth transaction experiences. The goal, in a nutshell, is to bridge diners’ online and offline presences in the most satisfying ways.
To-Go Foods and Beverages
Off-premises dining (where food is delivered straight to customers’ front doors) is not the only winning formula on the horizon. Global trends indicate that food and drinks “to-go” will be another recipe for business success in the coming year. Particularly in demand are grab-and-go snack foods, breakfast items such as hot cereal in a bowl, precut salads, fruit salad to-go, portable meal kits, and more.
Cashless Payment Alternatives
An absolute must in the future of foodservice is the provision of cashless and contactless payment options. The more alternatives provided, the better! Examples include:
- Credit cards
- Debit cards
- Smart cards
- EMV cards
- Ordering directly from a website
- POS terminals
- Smartphones/mobile devices featuring near field communication (NFC) or radio-frequency identification (RFID)
- Key fobs
- Samsung Pay, Fitbit Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay (whereby handling cash and card swiping are both avoided)
- Mobile wallet apps
- Loyalty cards (offering customers a cashless way to handle purchases in the future while supporting you as their preferred local business)
Flexibility is the Name of the Game
If you want to give your restaurant ‘biz a boost and stay a step ahead of your competitors while jockeying for position under the new reality, think open-mindedness and innovation. And we’re not just talking about a new online menu, one-of-a-kind takeout meals, or creative packaging. Rather, according to Joe Pawlak, managing principal of Technomic (the research and consulting firm servicing the foodservice industry), the way to make it in 2021 may be to rethink your entire business model. For example, take a bite out of the pie baked up by a leading Swedish hotel which transformed its bedrooms into private dining spaces so that customers could dine at socially safe distances during corona. The paradigm was so popular that the concept will be continued even post-pandemic.
Then there was the business buzz created when a Michelin two-star restaurant began selling low-cost burgers and snacks in lieu of its famous twenty-course meals. In the words of one chef: “We are one of the best restaurants in the world and we are opening up with burgers and ice-creams for kids. How much more different can it be? We are doing the most casual thing of all the good restaurants. Later on, we will have a few more wine-bar type snacks crudités, vegetables. This is a new experiment where the door is open to everyone and it feels quite exciting.”
Bottom line? Don’t be afraid to diversify your business scheme or evaluate new concepts. Now more than ever, regardless of the size of your food or beverage operation, boundless opportunities are yours for the taking. All that’s needed is a dash of creativity, a pinch of ingenuity, and a heaping tablespoon of boldness.
Maximize Marketing
Whatever culinary path you decide upon, the icing on the top of the cake is shameless advertising. All marketing schemes are on the menu: online, offline, and word-of-mouth. Remember that a strong online presence and an active social media account are no longer luxuries but a priority. If you run a local business, get to know the neighborhood customers and their personal preferences so that you can cater directly to their pallets and earn their loyalty.
Restaurant Strategy Success 2021
As we wrap up this crystal ball into the future of restaurants and the success strategies that could take your ‘biz to the top, here’s some more food for thought. Technological tools such as automated kitchen operations are another recommended ingredient, helping simplify operations, improve communication, minimize contact between waiters and kitchen staff (i.e. orders are sent directly from tableside POS to screens in the kitchen), streamline food preparation (orders are automatically displayed in the correct prep order) and ensure that takeaway food is ready-to-go for specific delivery times.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, remember that as in life, some things in the restaurant industry never grow old! We’re talking about continuing to put superlative customer service at the top of your priority list. Then, all that’s left for you to do is take a load off your tired feet and enjoy the view as the crowds once again begin to shuffle in, keep coming back for more, and your sales records go off the charts.