Despite the uncertainty restaurants are facing, one thing is clear: the full-service food industry will look and feel quite different in the coming months.
The question is not only how we’ll go about reopening, but how we’ll survive in the mid- to long-term. There are several areas restaurants must focus on in the now, next and beyond including employee and workplace safety, guest hospitality and cost optimization.
Employee safety, trust and workplace readiness
Restaurants must prioritize the safety of their physical environment as well as the physical and emotional well-being of employees and customers.
More than ever, strong leadership is needed to win the hearts and minds of employees – many of whom have been furloughed. Leaders must exhibit resiliency, empathy and agility to strengthen employee trust and engagement.
They must also be transparent with employees about how safety will be prioritized upon the return to work. Guidance must be established around clear sanitation (not just cleaning) practices, mask wearing, hand washing, socialization and even traffic patterns.
In accordance with local government requirements, a testing mechanism should be established to ensure confidence and trust from with employees. In fact, when and how you reopen the workplace must be closely aligned with government mandates.
Some things to consider are assembling barriers, laying down floor tape indicators and providing proper personal protective equipment. Safety and sanitation protocols must also be established for those who plan to deliver products or services to your restaurant.
In such a fluid environment, employee and workplace safety will require constant revisiting. There will need to be continuous feedback and meetings (or huddles) among workers who are on the front lines. The objective should be to check progress against goals, report new issues and discuss any forthcoming changes. The plan-do-check-adjust (PDCA) method should steer much of the decision-making.
Consumer confidence, safety and a new style of hospitality
In a recent Ernst & Young survey of 5,000 consumers, 50% said it would be extremely important to maintain public health precautions once the COVID-19 outbreak is over, while 46% responded it would be somewhat important.
In the near-term, customer experience will be largely based on how confident your guests are in your ability to deliver a safe experience. Ironically, the most hospitable environment will be one that limits personal touch points between guests and customers.
Alternative approaches must be considered for all personal interaction points, from greeting the guest to handing them their receipt. For example:
- To eliminate the spread of germs through menus, distribute disposable (single-use) menus or encourage guests to view menus on their personal devices.
- Consider eliminating the need for paper receipt transactions by encouraging guests to pay through their personal devices or any other digital self-serve methods you can offer.
- Establish a “reservation only” policy to better manage the traffic flow of people (and walk ins) in your restaurants.
With an onslaught of additional rules and processes in place, restaurants need to think about how to remain flexible and hospitable in a strange new environment. For example, when a guest sits down, will they be welcome to place their mask on the table? Or will a server swing by with a sanitized bag for the guest to place their mask in? To the extent possible, restaurants need to anticipate how they’ll address these unique scenarios and retrain their staff as appropriate.
Given how long we’ve been “social distancing,” it may take a while for guests to ease back into the idea of eating out at a public restaurant. To encourage them to dine out at your restaurant, communicate the stellar safety protocols your restaurant has put in place through multiple channels (e.g. social media, email marketing). In the coming months, a focus on health and safety of guests will be paramount.
Cost optimization
Given the economic situation, restaurants need to consider how they can optimize costs across their entire organization – from back to front office. This includes rethinking workspace, design-layout, menus, delivery systems and hours of operation.
For example, when designing a menu to offer upon re-opening, consider limiting to items that deliver solid profit margins, are relatable or comforting and require less labor. Traceability of your ingredients will also be an important factor in ensuring food safety – thus it may make sense to source local ingredients as possible.
Recommendations for the now, next and beyond
Now: 1-3 months
- Focus on establishing new sales channels (e.g., take out) and building brand presence through good will and community service. Share positive news about how you’re keeping employees safe and preparing for the return of guests via social media and local media outlets.
- Upon reopening, limit the volume of menu and drink offerings, only serving high-quality food with an emphasis on local ingredients. A daily menu is an opportunity to share with guests freshly made dishes handled with care and sourced from the community.
Ask questions to help understand your current state, envision where you want to go and identify how you’ll close the gap. For example:
- How do you prepare dishes to closely meet demand, so you’re not overproducing or wasting perishable items? Similarly, how do you structure labor to meet demand?
- How can you improve inventory turn times (e.g., how fast items are sold versus sitting on the shelf)? What influences inventory buildup? How can you better meet demand in real-time to reduce waste?
- What will you do to ensure the emotional and physical well-being of your employees? How often will employees receive communications, and how will they be delivered?
- What creates value for your customer? What is the adequate work needed to create that value in the most effective way? What can be omitted, automated, simplified or reallocated to align with creation of value?
Next: 3-6 months
- Continue to recover and stabilize your business. Organize a taskforce dedicated to adjusting safety measures, protocols and policies as they evolve.
- Refine and set standards for the “new normal” way of working. Continue PDCA experimentation, mindful observations and visualizing progress to create purpose-driven work. A continuous improvement mindset is needed to transform operations and increase effectiveness.
- Cross-train employees so that more tasks can be completed with less people. This will help to reduce foot traffic from staff and promote social distancing.
- Plan for a nimble pivot if the outbreak returns and the government mandates a shutdown. Identify alternate revenue streams so your workforce can quickly adjust.
- Continue to challenge the status quo of tight margins, high rents, frequent deliveries (avoid big batching), wait staff tipping system, state and federal regulation and even insurance policies. Maintain a simple menu and avoid added complexity.
Beyond: 6-12 months
- Catastrophic disruption like the COVID-19 pandemic can help accelerate change and enable enterprises to transform with more urgency. Along with rebuilding and recovering, restaurants must prioritize the digitization of their services. Moving forward, this will help them improve customer experience, operate more effectively and maintain revenue streams in response to future pandemics and crises.
- While processes, policies and social habits will be altered, people will always need food, drink and socialization to fuel themselves both physically and emotionally. The full-service food industry must continue to reiterate its value and strengthen its reputation for bringing people together throughout any circumstance.
- Restaurants – just like corporations – must develop thorough business continuity plans to ensure smoother operations and employee effectiveness in the face of future crises.
Those of us in the restaurant industry have a “full plate” right now as we consider how to reopen and reestablish sales while maintaining employee and guest safety. However, we must not lose sight of longer-term imperatives, as what we do in the next and beyond will be integral to creating a more sustainable industry.
