What will be the scenarios of restaurants in the coming world? Will the pandemic effects bury the future of restaurants and our dining out experiences? Will our favorite burger joints or restaurants exist or go extinct in the future?
The restaurant industry has always been one of the fastest evolving sectors in the market. It has always surpassed consumers’ expectations with evolving tastes, experiences, innovation, and tools to enhance the quality of expectations.
Many research firms in the food and development sectors frequently predict the trends, market, future, evolving behavior, and changing usage patterns. Suppose you’re someone who wants to get into this business or are already in the sector. In that case, it is highly recommendable for you to keep track of data reports shared by Statista and NRA (National Restaurant Association) to know what the future holds for your business.
Last year before COVID19 took over the world, NRA released restaurant industry predictions and insights to work with for a decade until 2030.
Because the predictions were created before the sudden outrage of COVID19, some factors got withheld, but few predictions still stand. Predictions of technological advancements were a substantial factor even before, but now their value seems to increase multiple folds.
The coronavirus outspread brought in some changes, and now it has become almost impossible to predict any amount of changes in human behavior or industry trends soon. But, sectors that will significantly see a rise are takeaway, outdoor dining, and online delivery.
The restaurant business in this aspect is expected to see a considerable amount of downfall in the footfall in their arenas, but is there a possibility to improve it?
Find out the 7 new techniques you can induce in your current functioning to curb the impact of the pandemic and sail through it.
1. Induce Cloud Kitchens- Become More Accessible
Because going out in public without a mask has become no less than taboo (not literally, but hazardous), a lot of people prefer to either order online and dine-in or takeaways.
There is no significant evidence of coronavirus spreading through food, hence eating outside food is completely safe. Just reduced human contact is recommended.
This report by WHO makes it completely safe to eat well-cooked delicacies from your favorite restaurant. Now from a restaurant’s point of view, you need to reach out to your current clients’ needs. Opening a cloud kitchen for online orders, small moving food trucks, zero contact restaurant arenas, and ghost kitchens can work the right way for you.
2. Reduced Regular Interaction
You might find fewer hours spent sitting blatantly in a place by your customers and more movement of steps coming in and walking out after getting delivered with the menu. You will also have to consider the safety of dining in clients by giving them the desired amount of isolation that is required to avoid any chances of virus spread.
- Lesser human interaction by self-explanatory menu cards,
- the right amount of social distancing while interactions
- and more inclination towards the digital medium of communication
The above listed are some of the core changes that need to be incorporated at the earliest.
3. Fewer but Diverse Restaurant Staff
With a lot of thought going into meeting costs with the current supply of cash, cutting down costs has been pretty normal. The fact is, it is the hospitality and F&B sectors of the market that saw the most amount of layoffs. But, then, with zero inflow of cash, some segments had to suffer. Now when as an entrepreneur you’re planning to open, getting a multi-tasking team for yourself is the need of the hour. Therefore, you will find a lot of restaurant businesses working with chefs, who might also be at bars or managers who might take orders too.
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Also Read: Role of COVID19 in Accelerating in Online Payments
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4. Private Dining Arenas- Newest of Trends
In the scope of finding solutions to the current issues of finding isolation in gatherings, restaurateurs came up with the newest trends of isolated tents, pods, bubbles, or even igloos. This makes it safe to market yourself and even stop the spread of the virus while continuing to do the regular course of activities. This might require some amount of investment from you but can prove massive beneficial for you.
5. Restaurants are Working with Multi-Facets
Now that the restaurants are comparatively running low on maintaining profits, restaurateurs, who are also entrepreneurs, are focusing on integrating other segments of the market under one roof to keep the cash flowing. You will find a lot of restaurants selling ready-to-eat menus from their dishes. These are half-cooked, ready-to-eat packs that can be easily made at home with instructions, vegetables & essentials, and more. It has become seeling exactly what customers need and ask for to stay at par with cash flow.
6. Zero Contact Order and Payment
To avoid human interaction & contact, for safety purposes, restaurants are understanding the need to finding out a more digitized way of communication. Now how can that be done?
Most of all places you will find a QR code to scan for the menu, but invoices (cheques or bills) still come on paper. This is still a potential threat to pass on viruses.
How to overcome this?
Just like you ask them to scan codes for the menu, you can send bills on their mobile. How easy will that be! Simply send out bills on the phone, and accept payments online. And keep it safe. Also, implement text message marketing for restaurants to deliver a positive experience to the customers.
What else does e-invoice do for your business? It saves paper, costs, reduced the potential threat of virus spread.
How does it work? Digitization of invoices can happen in one simple step. All you have to do is just log in. Login to your Invoicera account, create invoices with our restaurant billing software and shoot e-invoices to your clients on a mobile number or email. With our invoicing software for restaurants, you can also receive payments from any mode that your client prefers. Cards, online payments, wallets, and more are acceptable with Invoicera.
Additionally, get more benefits with invoicing like vendor management, staff management, inventory management, financial reports, and overall business management in one dashboard.
7. Food Delivery Apps will Gain Popularity over Restaurants
With constant adaptation to the new normal and living more than one year in-home, many habits changed. Habits such as the continuous need to be out and eat have also seen a significant change. Now that things are back to normal, some patterns will still take time to get back to square one. Therefore, ordering in has seen a massive response. A lot of individuals now prefer to order their favorite food instead of going out. Thus, online food apps are gaining significant importance and downloads. It is vital to move online and reach your customers when they are hesitating to reach you. This switch can increase sales, reduce infrastructure costs, and help you save some extra profits if said from a business point of view.
Finally,
The market is changing because patterns of behavior are changing globally, constantly for the first time. It was never seen before and something that none of us would want to experience again, anytime soon. Now that we’re almost in the post-pandemic era, life is coming back to normal. But, you are nowhere close to witnessing normal behavior soon. It is advisable to abide by experts’ advice and predictions. Change and upgrade to stay relevant. Technological advances are always here to help; make sure you’re smart enough to make wise decisions.
Take a Technological Advancement Leap with Invoicera
Invoicera is a cloud-based restaurant invoicing software empowering cashflow and workflow management for over 3 million businesses worldwide for the last 17 years.
Invoicera helps to automate and simplify your business processes and communication with features like:
- Online invoicing & payments
- Expense tracking
- Client/Vendor panels
- Financial reporting & analysis
- Purchase orders
- Credit note management
- Support for 30+ payment gateways
- Comprehensive reporting
