As this pandemic virus continues to spread worldwide, governments are shutting down public areas, including malls, events, stadiums, nightlife, bar scenes, and in many cases restaurants, to cope with the health crisis. According to Hotelier Middle East, more restaurants are closed or in the process of closing down across Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, and Lebanon.  To help restaurateurs navigate through these turbulent times and ease their losses, we have compiled some tips that might be useful in surviving this crisis.

High Hygienic Practices for Staff

Since safety of their staff and customers is the most essential, you must always adhere to high hygienic measures to ensure their wellbeing. Once your restaurant re-opens, we suggest to always carry out short Do’s and DON’T’s during the pre-service shifts to regularly update your staff on any new changes and policies to adhere to and that affect their daily operations and guest interactions. Equip your staff with sanitizers installed in conveniently located areas around the restaurant and ensure your staff is using gloves and face masks at all times, specifically in the kitchen. Make it a regular matter to clean and disinfect frequently touched objects. We also recommend using a thermometer gun screening to continually check if your staff have a fever and offering your in-house guests with sanitizers as well. Finally, staff members that are feeling sick should stay home and report daily to management on their health status. 

Cost Savings – New Menu Engineering

It is imperative to think about lowering costs without affecting the quality of food. With country borders being closed off or limited across different continents, it may be difficult to continue importing international produce. Think about cutting costs by purchasing local products and perhaps creating a new menu that can be prepared reasonably quickly. For restaurateurs who operate serVme’s table management integrated with their point of sale system, they can take advantage of exporting customer data matched with the most ordered menu items to re-engineer their menu and target the customers living in the same area. 

Communicative Marketing

Many businesses are turning to delivery services. serVme’s marketing products are flexible and empower you to speak with your customers when they need you most. To do that, you need to tap to your data and target your loyal customers by sending personalized email marketing campaigns. By using serVme, we provide you with multiple templates to choose from, along with segmenting your audience to inform your guests of your new delivery menus, offers, or any pressing announcements. Interact with your customers and reach out in a timely fashion from an email and SMS campaign portal to truly connect with your customers. 

Delivery and Takeaway Dining

Many customers are working from home and may not have time to prepare meals for themselves or their families.  Nowadays, restaurants’ survival depends on delivering food to your customers rather than dining at your venue. To do that, you can start by looking for third party systems that provide such service on a commission basis, or you can utilize your workforce for delivery.Now even though delivery might be your first choice now, you need to make sure that your delivery staff is taking the appropriate precautions by wearing gloves and face masks at all times. An extra tip, always sanitize your delivery bags, add the food in two bags so that one is sanitized coming from the kitchen, and the other the customer will throw away once he/she receives the food. Another solution is providing takeaway service, however, making sure to keep safe distancing between each customer. 

Offers and Discounts

Extending discounts and offers may also attract more people especially those bargainers. To do so, start by taking advantage of creating easily prepared menus for the upcoming occasions, such as Ramadan, Easter, and many other holidays that are around the corner. You can benefit from these occasions by providing specific discounts designated for every event.You can always send a dessert with every ordered meal. Your customers will appreciate this!Undoubtably, the restaurant business is facing a difficult situation. However, it is also essential to understand how we can overcome it and grow once again. We’ll keep sharing opinions, insights, tips and tricks to help your business get through this phase. Lastly, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to receive more updates on our product and services!From our family to yours, keep safe.