As we all know by now, the hospitality industry has been hit very hard by the pandemic. Forced closings, severely reduced capacities, new, strict health code guidelines and a very limited food supply are just some of the daunting tasks that these businesses face. Some have faced this trying time head-on and have come out on top while others have decided to just close up or worse, try to limp along without a clear plan or with their “reserves” drying up fast.
Being the eternal optimist that I am, I try to see the opportunity in everything. And believe it or not, there is opportunity to be found here.
Some restaurants immediately jumped on the “Take Out” bandwagon. This, to me, is a no-brainer. Afterall, 33% of consumers say they’re getting more takeout than before the pandemic (Restaurant Business) and 51% of consumers have downloaded at least one new app to purchase food and essentials since COVID-19 (Bluedot). People need to be able to order takeout from restaurants and they are doing that more now than ever before. And there are so many easy ways to better their takeout experience and make your customer feel special that this is an absolute win-win scenario.
Dining-In Experience at Home
One example is to try to recreate the dining-in experience at home. That’s where the restaurant offers their full menu, including all condiments and utensils, well, you guessed it, to-go. In this example, customers feel like they’re still getting part of that “restaurant experience” while being able to eat in the comfort of their home and without the grocery shopping, prepping, cooking and cleaning. Plus, the whole family doesn’t have to eat the same thing, all the options are there, so no complaining from the kids or spouse when the inevitable “what’s for dinner” question gets thrown out there. However, this is my least favorite option. Some restaurant food is just not made to travel well. Whether the food gets cold and doesn’t reheat well, or the buns get soggy or the salad wilts, it pretty much can ruin the whole experience and not just tonight’s dinner, but it could also change the way you feel about that dish or even that restaurant. So, while this is the fastest and generally easiest way to keep the lights on, I don’t feel it’s the best or most effective way.
Menu Revamp
Another example is to revamp or streamline the menu for a couple of reasons… one is to address the food item availability issues. Nothing worse than getting a ton of inventory in for a dish to only then find out that one of the main ingredients is no longer available and you’re stuck figuring out a new way to use all of those items that did come in. While it’s great to be innovative and try new things, I would say that maybe now is not the time for that. Instead, now would be a good time to focus on streamlining the menu to be able to cross-utilize more ingredients that you know are, and will be, available as well as use ingredients that have not experienced significant price increases. If you have established relationships with your main food vendors, and I sure hope you do (right now is the BEST time to forge those relationships), a simple phone call to ask them what’s available and will continue to be available and price-stable, should do the trick.
Family Meals
And then there are family meals… This, to me, is a gold mine. Creating larger portions of the same items takes less labor, less packaging units and you can charge more! If done well, this is a no-brainer. From the customer perspective, this still creates the internal allusion of having provided your family with a wholesome, delicious dinner, but again, without the grocery shopping, prepping, cooking and cleaning. The family still gets excited because it still feels like “eating out”, it still has the allure of restaurant quality food, and parents can still feel good about their parenting because you can sit at the table and “break bread” as they say by passing the food and filling up your plates all while hearing about how great remote schooling went that day (ok, possible slight exaggeration there.)
Another fantastic benefit I love about offering family meals is that you don’t have to get crazy with the menu choices. As a matter of fact, simpler is better! Think about it… with everything going on in the world right now, more arguing with our kids about what’s for dinner is just not at the top of the list. And kids, most kids, are picky. Picky in terms that they need to easily be able to identify their food and want to eat it. I am talking chicken fingers, hamburgers, simple pastas, etc. with easy side dishes, mashed potatoes, tater tots, cut cucumbers, plain rice or pasta, mac n cheese come on… it doesn’t get much easier than that! Can customers buy all this at the grocery store and make it at home? Of course, they can! But the point is they don’t WANT too. They want to pay YOU to do that. They want to support a local business while also supporting their family by feeding them with minimal to zero effort and they will pay to do so. Like I said, WIN-WIN.
SLOW DOWN…
I have a family of 6. That’s 2 adults and 4 kids ages 10 to 14. And I can cook. Sometimes I even like to. But MOST of the time, these days, I just don’t want too. I want to support a local business whose business is to make the food that we want to eat. And so we order out – A LOT. And more often than not, I am overwhelmingly disappointed by what we are getting. And it’s not always about the food although – there are many times where I am not feeling the love in the food – but I would say more so in the packaging and presentation of the food. It can be messy, disorganized, WRONG, you name it – it just sucks. And I see no good reason for it. If the issue is that these restaurants that I am ordering out from are so slammed that they’re literally throwing the food in takeout containers, and legit running out the door, and speeding down the roads, taking corners at 70mph just to keep up with demand, then I say slow the f down. According to Restaurant Dive 20% of diners are willing to wait beyond 40 minutes for food delivery anyway so take it easy.
Take less orders. Spend the time to fulfill each order accurately, with love, the way you would want it if you were bringing it home to your family. If you do this, it will show.
An Unexpected Gift
And last, but most certainly not least, add some unexpected to the orders. “For free?” you ask? Well, yeah, that’s what I am saying – but it shouldn’t cost you anything, or very little if anything. Here’s what I mean by that…
- For family dinners, throw in some printed-up tic tac toe games, word searches, or any other games that you may have used in-house or that you can easily find online and download. If you have any of those packaged crayons laying around you can throw those in too but it’s not necessary. I mean, they’re eating at home so chances are good they have something to write with, but it is a nice little touch if you happen to have those crayon packages laying around. I would stay away from just throwing in unpackaged pens or pencils or crayons at this point.
- I am not sure if these have been banned or outlawed or what but what about some dinner rolls or bread? I say this because of all the different restaurants we have been ordering from, every one of them has stopped serving rolls. Of course, these need to be packaged separately, a nice, simple brown paper bag would work, perhaps stamped with your logo or sticker, and warm rolls even better, but given that no one is doing this right now, it’s a great way to stand out and get repeat customers.
- Similar to #2 above, how about you throw in a small snack for the kids? Or kid-like adults? Pretzels, popcorn, chips, crackers, M&M’s, the options are endless, but the sentiment is priceless. If you have kids, you know what I mean… if they’re hungry and yet you want to keep them from tearing open every package you just picked up from the restaurant, then throwing some pretzels at them and telling them to sit-down at the table while you organize the food is easy-breezy.
- Need some more love on social media? Add in a promotion where if they take a picture of their family enjoying the meal and tag the restaurant, give them something off their next order – and make it worth their while… nobody is busting out their phone for 10% off.
- Speaking of promotions, “Loyalty” Promotions are HUGE for repeat business (and for loyalty) and yet not many places do this well. And I am not saying you have to invest in some crazy expensive CRM program where there are loyalty cards and software and all that jazz – those are great, but not necessary for what I am talking about. How about this, For every $10 someone spends, you give them $1 in Reward Money. And this “Money” can be something as simple as fake Monopoly money that you print up in-house with your logo, or even real Monopoly Money that you’re able to stamp with your logo, and you provide that with the receipt or stapled to their take-out bag. Make it somewhat colorful so they have something to hold on to and it will also help them to remember you for the next time they order.
