The dust is settling on the monumental impact the pandemic has had on all industries, in particular the restaurant industry.
Restaurants across Central Florida are struggling to hire new staff, despite having many open positions. This problem, coupled with the increased number of people getting vaccinated who are now ready to get back to eating out, is creating a perfect storm.
To survive revenue disruption and other financial challenges, restaurants must find ways to adapt to the technology-driven future of meal ordering and delivery that seems to be here to stay.
The pandemic didn’t create technology innovation — it accelerated existing trends. A 2019 report found nearly 60% of restaurant occasions were already off-premises. Consumers said they used drive-thru, delivery and take-out more often than the prior year.
By the summer of 2020, hundreds of Orlando businesses had closed due to Covid-19, many of them restaurants. Those that survived relied heavily on technology to adapt to the challenges brought on by the pandemic. Orlando restaurants must focus on establishing a business strategy that intertwines convenience, health safety and technology.
Here are three steps restaurant operators should consider when future-proofing their businesses:
- Adopt a mobile-first approach: Innovations such as ordering meals through a mobile app or social media platform are not new, but adoption before Covid-19 was slow — only 18% of restaurants offered mobile ordering via app. The pandemic increased the urgency to upgrade. As customers continue to adopt mobile ordering for safety and convenience, restaurants that have yet to make the transition will have to prioritize investment in mobile ordering and delivery. Fortunately, launching a proprietary app doesn’t require custom programming or much time or money. Third-party services offer full branding and top features to get operators rolling with mobile, such as appypie and AppInstitute.
- Embrace contactless everything: Mobile ordering is part of the overarching trend in contactless customer interactions. This, too, was well on its way in 2019 — when over 100 million tap-and-go credit cards were issued in the United States — with the pandemic making contactless interactions essential. Restaurants that have NFC (Near Field Communications) technology need to promote it, and those yet to upgrade must do so quickly to remain competitive. Companies like Toast and Square make contactless implementation easy and can integrate with existing systems.
- Crack the QR code: The magic of QR codes is in their simplicity. Scanning a code with any smartphone gives guests access to touch-free menus, specials or virtually anything else the operator chooses to share, including multimedia content. While codes require websites to host content, you don’t need a web developer to get started. Beaconstac, for example, offers dynamic codes with customizable dashboards that can be modified anytime. Codes can bring up different menus for multiple locations, even bringing up the appropriate menu for that time of day. There are marketing benefits too, such as integrating guest surveys or offering newsletter signups -- all accessible via a device that customers already carry.
