The restaurant industry will see a new reality post COVID-19. The recovery and revamping process of this industry will be challenging for all restaurant owners both large and small.
Up to now, this COVID-19 pandemic has forced many restaurants to close their doors permanently. The ones that have remained open are struggling to survive by clawing to carryout and delivery services as their only lifelines. Restaurateurs face the fact that staying open and operating during this pandemic situation could mean risking everything they have built. As a nine hundred billion dollar industry in the United States, the local economies can’t afford to have these small businesses go bankrupt. In turn, they are supporting them with loans and other type of financing options. The question remains, will it be enough?
In an effort to reignite the economy, governments are slowly opening up to dining options at the restaurants and encouraging people to live amongst the virus. To be able to operate, however, restaurateurs have to abide by new business practices and guidelines of security, sanitation procedures and social distancing requirements. This new scheme, however, is one where the numbers simple don’t add up. The business model of a restaurant simply was not built to operate with a profit on thirty percent occupancy and a pivot delivery model. Let’s sum it up, what the new reality means for restaurateurs is more costs, more rules and drastically less income. The dilemma restaurant owners face is either stay open to survive and hope for the best or close permanently.
Could this be the final straw for an industry already operating on thin margins? We are living in the 21st century and the restaurant industry’s business model proved to be out of date. It is shocking how this pandemic highlighted the blatant deficiencies in the restaurant industry, especially on the technology arena. It is undeniable that this industry has remained stagnant and has yet to modernize its digital footprint. When the restaurants were forced to switch business models to take out and delivery services, many restaurateurs didn’t have a web page or a manner for their consumers to schedule their deliveries. They didn’t have a digital marketing strategy to promote their products. These deficiencies left the door wide open to predatory delivery apps that saw this weakness and took advantage of the situation.
Since the unprecedented deadlock spread of COVID-19, it is hard to predict what the future really holds; the only constant is change. Despite of these difficult times, as local governments in the country moved to the phase of opening restaurants, you may be one of those who have decided to open and keep your business operating. Be aware that you can take this uncertain situation as an opportunity to strengthen and solidify the pillars of your business. So equip yourself to emerge in better shape when this health crisis comes to an end. Implement the following four key measures:
1) Reinvent your brand. Build a stronger and a more solid relationship with your clients; get to know them, listen to them and learn how to communicate with them effectively.
2) Invest in training your employees, keep in mind they are your brand ambassadors. Remember that the only thing worse that training your team and losing them is not training them and keeping them.
3) Reinforce your organizational culture. Your workforce team must be one hundred percent committed to you and your brand; everyone must be on the same page, working with the same vision and goals.
4) Rethink how to deliver value to customers by exploring your options. Look back at the time of these unprecedented challenges from your old business model to this new pivot model and decide what to keep from each model and succeed while you make the inevitable transition to this new reality.
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