The hospitality industry was the fastest growing in the world before the COVID-19 pandemic came and put an end to all the progress it had made.
The economic recession to follow the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an even bigger impact on productivity, as hotels look to navigate the new landscape in an effort to save cash and grow revenue.
In this article, we discuss some valuable tips you can follow to neutralize the recession in the current situation and also practical tips you can follow to tackle the virus and increase your revenue over time.
Make Your Restaurant a Safe Spot for Guests
The first step in combating the impact of coronavirus is to make your guest experience restaurant as clean as possible for guests. There are numerous online platforms that mention a list of disinfectants that can come in handy when it comes to eliminating the virus and the strains that it leaves behind.
Regular soap can also prove to be effective here, as the oily membrane around the virus can be tackled with regular hand washing soap.
You should provide anti-bacterial gloves to employees that are tasked with collecting cash as well. While some restaurants are going cashless, others that are still collecting cash should provide the necessary equipment to employees.
Finally, you can prioritize a clean environment in house using team members and daily professional cleaning services. Schedule the cleaning and disinfecting of all heavily used products and equipment almost twice or thrice a day.
This initiative can help keep your restaurant clean and will ensure that your customers remain satisfied. You don’t just have to make your restaurant safe, but also have to assure customers that your restaurant is a haven from what is seen outside.
Identify Opportunities To Save Money
All the precautions you follow to make sure that your restaurant is safe from the coronavirus will eventually inflate your expenses and reduce your revenue.
To ensure you don’t waste a lot of your resources protecting yourself from the coronavirus, you should implement some cost-cutting strategies:
Analyze POS Data To Reduce Food Cost
You can analyze data from your POS system to identify where you can make eventual cost savings. Remember to keep constant contact with your suppliers so that you order and procure supplies according to demand.
Look for two things on your POS menu; food items that happen to be in greater demand and food items that aren’t being ordered currently as a way to save food costs.
It’s a case of using relevant information regarding menu items, to guide your decisions in practical ways to cut down expenses.
Partner With Nearby Restaurants
Everyone is in this together. Knowing that you will be losing the economies of scale you enjoyed previously, you should look to partner with a nearby restaurant to reduce costs, among many other things.
Share kitchen spaces, staff members, supplies and other resources with each other to save on labor costs and food.
Stay On Top Of Options
Many governments realize the impact suffered by the restaurant industry, which is why there will be relief plans and subsidies announced for businesses in the restaurant industry.
As a restaurant owner, you should be on the lookout for such options so that you can benefit from any assistance being offered to you. Assistance can be a lifesaver as every bit of extra money helps!
You can contact the local Chamber of Commerce in your area to find out about any such relief plans.
Promote Food Holiday Events
While individuals will feel some reluctance in heading out to restaurants during this period, they will definitely come running for notable calendar events such as Passover, Mother’s Day, Easter and Christmas, among a few.
You should focus on building a marketing theme for these events to generate attention from the masses.
Encourage your target audience to make direct bookings and fill up as many seats as possible in advance. Being reactive is not always going to work so reach out proactively and take bookings.
Social Media Campaigns
With increased traffic and growth, social media sits at the center of the coronavirus pandemic.
You can use social media to stay at the top of your followers’ minds. Make sure that loyal customers see your sanitization efforts and come by for a visit.
Keeping up to date with your audience is one of the most effective revenue management strategies as customer loyalty is paramount to success.
Turn Your Restaurant into a Community Hub
Businesses continue to operate in a remote manner currently, and employees are still working from home. This gives you a population of confined people stuck at home, looking to go out.
Think of this unique crisis as an opportunity for you to target customers and position your restaurant as a community hub for customers.
Customers can come out and gather in your safe haven and interact with each other as a means to divert their minds from the work from home responsibilities.
Implement Solar Solutions
Solar solutions are the future of energy. The upfront cost might be a bit hefty but think of all the money that solar solution providers like Social Energy can save for you.
A simple switch to LED lights throughout your hotel business or a restaurant business can cut costs dramatically.
Take it a step further and install solar panels to aid in food production and lower food cost.
Give people a refuge from their lives currently to form long term connections with them. Go for these solutions and create a long-term saving option for your restaurant.