How foodservice businesses can save customers during the coronavirus self-isolation

5 min readApr 1, 2020

The restaurant industry provides people worldwide with exclusive foodservice locations that are always a great place to gather with friends and family. The restaurant industry hires millions of trained and skilled employees across the world serving the public every day. But, within a few weeks, the situation has changed dramatically.

In the period of the coronavirus epidemic, companies worldwide are asking their employees to work from home. However, for the restaurant industry, remote work is merely impossible. What to do?

Starting a restaurant delivery service, implementing/developing an online ordering system will ultimately help combat the spread of the virus. Let’s find out how foodservice businesses can survive during the coronavirus epidemic and even benefit in this challenging situation.

Sanitary tips for fine-dining establishments during the epidemic

The COVID-19 is spread either from person to person or by touching the objects/surface that has the virus on it and then touching mouth, eyes, nose. Therefore, your main task as the food provider is to ensure that you and your staff takes extra measures to make your fine-dining establishment as sanitary as possible.

Foodservice industry workers are at higher risk of catching the coronavirus because of close proximity with customers. Hence, keeping to preventing actions and following the sanitary procedures can mitigate the spread of the virus and protect both staff and clients:

the staff has to avoid close contact with people who are sick;
everyone in the kitchen has to wash hands with soap and water for 20–30 seconds on a regular basis;
kitchen workers need to use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol;
everybody has to wear respiratory protection masks and change them every 2 hours;
bathrooms must be cleaned every 15 minutes;
all the surfaces must be wiped down regularly;
working areas have to be ventilated at least several times a day;
employers need to provide the staff with all the necessary items for hand hygiene (antibacterial soap, gloves, wipes, paper towels, etc.).
all the instructions to the proper handwashing and the usage of antiseptic need to be printed and posted as a reminder.

By doing this, you prove that foodservice businesses are as prepared as anyone to minimize the impact of an outbreak.

Don’t allow the disease to annul the gains you have made in the food service business

Maximum creativity helps foodservice businesses to keep the head above water during harsh times. Rethink the concept of your fine-dining establishment, adapt new ways of communication and interaction with customers. Put yourself in their shoes and analyze the pains they have. Make eye-catching and profitable offers that will help you stand out from the crowd, e.g. coupons for a special menu.

There are some ways to keep up with the ongoing situation:

Set up a delivery service.
Update your website design with online ordering.
Make a restaurant app with online ordering.

In terms of coronavirus self-isolation, online ordering is one of the safest ways for people to get food avoiding crowded public places.

Online ordering is in great demand even more than ever before. As a business owner, you can do it in 2 ways — find a delivery company for your restaurant or make a restaurant online ordering app.

The collaboration with a delivery company provides foodservice business with trained couriers, convenient logistics and access to a greater customer pool, whereas creating an app is time-consuming but offers long-term benefits.

The stages of collaboration are the following:

Fill in the contact information on a food delivery website;
Sign an agreement with the terms and conditions of cooperation;
Upload a restaurant menu;
Install a food delivery service application;
Monitor orders.

Who delivers food from any working restaurant during coronavirus? We’ve rounded up the most popular US and European food delivery services you can collaborate with right now.

Uber Eats

Uber Eats is a worldwide delivery service. It has a mobile-friendly app that is simple in navigation. Many restaurants work with Uber Eats, and the number tends to grow especially in terms of self-isolation, despite its high commission — 25–30% extra for each order.

GrubHub

GrubHub is a popular US delivery service and an official partner of many US restaurant chains (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell). Its commission is lower compared to Uber Eats — it takes 5–15% for each order. Moreover, customers can choose the restaurants in the area they live that speeds up the delivery time greatly.

Takeaway.com

Takeaway.com is an online food delivery marketplace that connects fine-dining establishments with customers within 10 countries of Continental Europe and Israel. The commission rate is 13% per order. The marketplace has both a website and an app, so the customers can check it out and make orders anytime.

Food delivery services benefit you enormously during the self-isolation time. Another way to remain in demand is to make a restaurant online ordering app.

Whether you have an upscale restaurant or local cafe, the visitors that used to eating in before quarantine started, will be very glad to have their favorite dishes at home. And an online ordering app is the best tool to stay in touch with your customers these days.

Making a restaurant ordering app and your own delivery service are examples of the greatest customer care you can provide your clients with. Moreover, it’s a good start for business scaling.

Come up with tricky ways to attract more customers. Include special offers, gift certificates, bonus system and discounts to your app. You do really care about clients, they have to know it for sure.

Summary

In terms of quarantine, strictly follow the sanitary protection of your staff and make the dishes properly. The times are harsh but foodservice businesses are in great demand. Cadabra Studio can help you find the solution and jump over the obstacles.

Cadabra Studio wishes you to be healthy, wealthy and wise.