Off Premise Dining and the New Normal
Just last year, it was reported that 78% of restaurateurs considered off-premise dining a strategic priority. The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically changed how the restaurant and hospitality industry operates now, from shuttering in-house traffic to limiting social gatherings in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. Businesses reported catastrophic losses early on, with the number of guests in a restaurant dropping to zero. In many places, part of the reopening strategy involves limiting in-house traffic to restaurants to around ⅓ of maximum capacity, which means that off-premise will continue to be an indispensable revenue stream. Our upcoming webinar Off-Premise Dining and the New Normal, explores the past, present, and future to offer tips for your continued success.
Off-Premise Today
Since state lockdowns were initiated, many businesses have had to pivot into an entirely off-premise model. Fortunately, the restaurant industry was already primed for this, with many already offering some variety of off-premise service before. Right now, the most common things restaurateurs have utilized are:
- Takeout options – Many restaurants are limiting customer access, by establishing literal lanes to and from the restaurant in an effort to minimize contact.
- Curbside – Some restaurants are offering curbside delivery, walking out their wares to your vehicle and delivering it to the trunk or backseat to avoid contact.
- Delivery – Enterprising owners and operators have shifted staff details from in-house to off-premise responsibilities, which includes enhancing their delivery fleet.
Tips To Enrich Your Off-Premise Channels
By now you are either already started or your business has shuttered. With margins tight, every little bit helps, and there are a lot of ways to go about improving your operations. Consider solutions that work with your existing technology stack to enhance your off-premise strategy. With Off-Premise Dining and the New Normal, we also look at:
- How capacity management can prevent your another Mother’s Day fiasco
- Engineering a leaner and meaner menu
- Streamlining your packaging
There are so many opportunities right now to build on your existing work. Let us take a short jaunt into the future to see what tomorrow might hold.
Off-Premise Tomorrow
Prior to the pandemic, the available stats promised rich possibilities for off-premise dining channels. Off-premise commanded around 60% of all dining occasions, with around 79% of guests ordering delivery at least once per month. If the future was bright then, imagine what tomorrow holds. With around 2 out of 3 restaurant team members laid off, restaurateurs are likely looking at rehiring staff, which is a sign of better things to come. To do that, you might look at quick training or analytic tools to help your team.
In fact, restaurateurs are investing more than ever in tech solutions, from automated systems to help process their orders, to guest management systems to help with their limited capacity. Did you know that investments in robotic delivery systems have risen? Or that drone delivery is becoming more of a possibility? We’re not too far away from the land of tomorrow that sci-fi has always dreamed, and the hospitality industry is at the front line of this innovation.
Conclusion
It is easy to get mired down in the day-to-day grind of quarantine, but as we slowly inch closer to realizing the end of the pandemic, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Want to hear more? We have got you covered. Just click the link below.
