Six tips on how restaurants can survive during the Covid-19 pandemic. fighting for every sale, but what can be done to keep the money coming in?
We are living in unprecedented times in world history. These times have called for businesses to adapt and re-strategize their models in order to thrive and stay afloat in the midst of all the chaos. As a Restaurant, your priority is the safety of your team and your guests. In order for your business to survive this you need to get creative and be proactive. This article presents a few tips for Kenyan restaurants to survive the pandemic and help you minimize the revenue impact of corona virus and help you drive new revenue where possible.
The goal is to make your customers feel that your restaurant is a safe spot. Ensure it is as clean as possible at all times. Provide soap and running water for your guests that they can use any time they walk in, before they have their meals and after they are done eating. In order to cut costs you can use regular soap instead of sanitizer as it is affordable and effective. The virus is coated in an oily membrane which is disintegrated by soap and water.
Constantly clean the surfaces that they come into contact with such as door handles, tables, washrooms, taps etc so as to reduce any risks of exposure to the virus. In case your staff still handle cash, provide antibacterial gloves for them. Have a cleaning schedule set for specific times of the day where you can disinfect the whole restaurant.
Always remember that out of sight, out of mind. Frequently communicating with your customers will help you stay at the top of their minds. Each time they think about eating out or ordering in they will consider you. Also, it is one thing to maintain the highest standards of hygiene but it is another to inform your customer base about the measures that you have put in place to ensure that they are safe within your space. For example, if you choose to put more space between your tables, speak about it on your social media so that they are aware.
Provide a way in which your customers can reserve their sitting space before they arrive. Having information about this will ensure that you are in control of the number of people that you can allow at your restaurant at a particular time. This will go a long way in ensuring that there is proper social distance between each guest. Enabling a guest to reserve and include the particular meals they would want to take will reduce the customer wait time and this will enable you to serve more customers in a day. To minimize no-shows, communicate with your guests closer to the day so that they can confirm their existing reservations.
Enable digital payments at your restaurant so as to reduce in-person contact. Communicate to your customers that you have done this so as to ensure that they are safe as well as to protect your staff. Pesapal facilitates digital payments for restaurants using the Point of Sale terminal that offers your customers a variety of payment options which include Visa, Mastercard & mobile money. Diversifying will give you a higher chance of ensuring that most of your customer’s payment needs are catered for.
As of April 27th The Government of Kenya allowed restaurants to re-open in the country under strict measures aimed at maintaining social distance and high levels of hygiene with their customers. Restaurants were allowed to operate between 5am and 4pm. One of the measures that the government is keen on is demanding that every restaurant owner facilitates testing for all their employees before they are given another license to conduct business during these times. Every restaurant should maintain a distance of 1.5 metres between each table, temporary closure of self-service provision of ready-to-eat foods, installation of a contact-free thermometer to record the temperature of every person walking in and provision of adequate running water and soap for the customers. These are among many measures outlined by the Government to ensure that every citizen is protected. For access to more guidelines click here.
One of the ways of doing this is finding affordable vendors or places where you buy your groceries. In case your restaurant has not yet adopted this, getting a reliable wholesaler will help you save up some coins as well as time.
