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How Your Restaurant Can Serve Customers Via Takeout and Delivery
The new mandate of no dining in restaurants has local eateries scrambling to rework their business model and stay afloat. We have gathered some tips and suggestions to help your restaurant or catering business capture your audience and make sales.
- Update your website, email list and social media pages with the news that you are offering meals for takeout or delivery. Update it frequently with the meal or special of the day to put your business in front of customers.
- Offer free delivery.
- Convert your staff to drivers.
- Let customers know what safety measures you have put in place to ensure the utmost safety and protection against COVID-19, such as:
- Requiring/providing gloves and/or masks
- Requiring employees to regularly wash hands for 20 seconds or more
- Requiring any employee who is ill to stay home
- Regularly cleaning restaurant/kitchen surfaces with disinfecting cleaner
- Providing delivery drivers with gloves and/or hand sanitizer
- Informing your staff and customers that according to the CDC, COVID-19 is generally thought to be spread from person-to-person through respiratory droplets. Currently there is no evidence to support transmission of COVID-19 associated with food.
- Offer contactless delivery. This means no one has to open the door or sign a receipt. The delivery person will call or text to let the customer know their food has been placed at the door. Social distancing means people do not want face to face interaction with a delivery person. Take customers’ credit card information over the phone. Ask if they would like to include a tip to the total.
- Offer easy and family friendly make-at-home meals that include fresh ingredients and the recipe. This is another great way to sell excess inventory. Promote it as a way for families to engage kids and give them an activity to do.
- Offer to sell fresh bread, eggs or other items that are in short supply in grocery stores.
- Put new pictures of meals/food available on social media daily. Check Pinterest and the Internet for ideas on food styling.
- Offer special deals and promotions.
- Offer curbside takeout so customers don’t have to get out of their cars or come into your restaurant. This will help promote social distancing. Ask for their car make, model and color when they order and include it on their order information. Provide the number they should call or text when they arrive.
- Consider partnering with delivery services like GrubHub, DoorDash or UberEats to get more exposure to customers in the area. Many potential customers may not be following you on social media, but they are scrolling through these online delivery sites looking for something delicious to eat. These services charge restaurants a commission for each order (usually around 20%), so investigate all fees and consider how that affects your profits before signing up. DoorDash is letting independent restaurants sign up for free and pay zero commissions for the first 30 days.
The World Health Organization has some workplace safety information here regarding COVID-19: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/getting-workplace-ready-for-covid-19.pdf
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has workplace safety guidelines for COVID-19 here: https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3990.pdf
Extra Steps to Ensure Your Takeout/Delivery Order is Safe
Dining out is so 2019 now that the coronavirus has shut down that option. But cooking in for every single meal is going to get really old, really fast.
You can safely order food from your favorite local restaurants for delivery or takeout, and here are a few tips to give you a little extra peace of mind. Plus, rest assured that the CDC has said there is no evidence to support that COVID-19 is transmitted through food. In fact, visiting a grocery store is likely to put you at greater risk because you are exposing yourself to so many people inside that store. Social distancing is not easy in congested aisles. If you follow a few simple safety precautions along the way, there is no reason not to order out.
- Order from the local restaurants you know and trust. If their cleanliness and quality have always met your standards, they still should now.
- Put small businesses first, not chains.
- If you prefer takeout, ask for curbside takeout so you don’t have to leave your car and enter a restaurant, avoiding exposure to other people.
- If you prefer delivery, ask for contactless delivery – tell the restaurant you want the delivery driver to call or text when he is at your door and then leave the food there for you to get. This avoids face to face contact and maintains social distancing.
- Use disposable gloves to handle takeout containers.
- Transfer food out of the boxes or containers and do not save them. Store leftovers in your own food containers.
- If food has cooled off, reheat to the proper temperature to kill any germs.
- Wash hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds before eating.
- If possible, don’t order via UberEats, DoorDash or other delivery services. Order directly from local restaurants that are providing their own delivery. This eliminates one more person handling your order, plus these services charge commissions to the restaurants. Ordering directly will put more of your money in the pocket of the local small business owner.
