Our Guide for Restaurants During the Coronavirus Outbreak
What You Can Do To Mitigate The Impact of the Spread of the Infection
The rapid spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19) looks likely to have a big impact within the UK food and hospitality industry.
As the requirement for people to self-isolate becomes a necessity, this will have a direct impact on the amount of people that will be visiting establishments such as hotels, bars and restaurants.
As the virus spreads, it is likely that establishments will be forced to lose staff for a period of time, change operating hours or even close indefinitely which could have a serious impact a business’s bottom line.
So, as a small, independent hospitality business, how can you use effective marketing to help ensure your customers are well-informed and continue to shop with you in some way shape or form?
Simple Steps You Can Take to Help Your Hospitality Business
- Use your social media channels to inform and update your customers of your current hygiene levels, and what procedures you have in place to ensure they stay at a high level. Mentioning you have hand sanitiser readily available for both customers and staff, plentiful supply of fresh napkins, table wipes and disinfectant etc will put customers mind at rest and show that you’re putting excellent hygiene as a priority.
- To limit the amount of contact within the restaurant, consider removing printed menus from tables and making them available online for customers to view and use, or buy using scannable QR codes within the restaurant that will take viewers to an online menu.
- If you start to change the hours that you are going to be open, make sure that these are reflected on your Google Business listing, Facebook page and TripAdvisor account so that customers are well informed.
- Consider the possibility of delivering food to customers. As more people self-isolate, there will be an increased demand of takeaway orders, especially through portals such as Just-Eat and Deliveroo. Deliveroo have recently stated that they may put procedures in place whereby the delivery workers will leave food at a doorstep rather than hand deliver at the door. If you don’t currently have the facility to deliver, then a collection service may be an option where a customer can collect from the restaurant rather than dine in. Have takeout menus readily available to diners now, so that if they do want to make a takeout order, they’ll already know that you offer this service and have a menu to hand.
- Most establishments have the facility to take credit/debit card payments or contactless payment. If you don’t have access to this, then another option would be to allow customers to pay for goods via paypal using your email address.
- Think of ways in which you can productise certain aspects of your business. A good example would be to offer gift vouchers online through your website and social media. This will allow customers to purchase from you and give as a gift for Mother’s Day or a birthday, plus it gives you a continuous income on the side.
Our advice is simple – don’t stop marketing your establishment, just adapt to the current climate and approach it in different ways.
Please phone 01633 449885 or email hello@allianceagency.co.uk. We have the ability to work remotely so should we have to close the office during this period, we will still be operating.
