How Curbside Pickup important for restaurant business during & after COVID-19
The global health crisis is impacting everyone no matter what business you are in and what industry you belong to every business is suffering and trying to find new ways to survive during and after this crisis. The businesses that are suffering the most are the brick and mortar businesses as many such business owners had to completely close or shift to delivery or takeaway only. Not only this, but people in the business of essential items that are not closed are also finding ways how they can protect their employees who come to work as well as the customers who come for purchasing.
A good way restaurant businesses can stay open as well as keep their employees and customers safe is by providing curbside pickup for food orders. There are many benefits of curbside pickup for orders as you can protect your employees who are working inside your store or restaurant and keep your customers safe from any kind of infection that can occur due to physical human interaction.
Apart from this, you can stay open and keep serving your community who are facing problems in getting food or essential items. Adopt a contactless way of doing business using contact less food ordering system.
What is Curbside Pickup?
Curbside Pickup can be defined as a safe and secure method to pick up orders from restaurants. It facilitates you to keep a safe distance from the staff of the restaurant handing you the order. You can order and pay for your food wait in your vehicle in the parking bay and you will be provided your order by a restaurant staff taking all the necessary precautionary measures in this COVID-19 outbreak.
Benefits of Curbside Pickup for Restaurant business
Let’s have a look at some of the benefits associated with curbside pickup for restaurant business:
- No human touch pure contactless
- Customers Receive Better Quality
- Easy convenience for Customers
- Brand Identity and Marketing Improves
- Safety of Order
- Reduces dependency on Third-Party Apps
- With Curbside Smaller Menus Work
- No human touch pure contactless: People are avoiding touching things or people outside during the coronavirus pandemic as a precautionary measure to be safe from COVID-19. Online food ordering through apps and websites has increased much more than ever due to lockdown as people are preferring to get their meals without touching or minimal touching. Curbside food delivery is the best no-touch option for those who are providing food service and the customers also. Customers can order their meal and pay in advance, drive to the restaurant, stay in the car, and your order is handed to you through a window or put on the curb from where you can pick your order without your order being touched by any delivery person. So, in this whole process, there is no human interaction therefore customers don’t have to worry.
- Customers Receive Better Quality: Consumers many times complain of not receiving fresh and hot food when they order food online as it is tossed around when delivered by a delivery person or if the order arrives late then it does not taste like freshly prepared food. While curbside on the other hand is perceived to be of better quality as the food comes directly from the restaurant there is no delivery person involved in it.
- Easy convenience for Customers: The customers find curbside pick-up more convenient as they do not have to wait in a long line for their order or wait for the delivery boy to deliver their order. Waiting in a long queue is something that customers don’t like at all because it can be frustrating for them as well as the employees also. With curbside pickup, you don’t need to worry about this because customers choose their convenient method and time to pick their order as opposed to standing and waiting for their turn.
- Brand Identity and Marketing Improves: There is more interaction with customers in curbside as compared to delivery as it is more personal as when you see a person smiling and handing your bag of your favorite food of your favorite restaurant or the person giving you your order through the window there is some special kind of interaction. If people post about their curbside experiences on social media, it urges other people to opt for curbside and eventually helps in your business. Although, curbside is in the beginning phase marketers are finding ways to make the curbside experience more enjoyable for the customers.
- Safety of Order: If you opt for order delivery then someone is going to take your order from the restaurant and then keep it in their car or bike and maybe even open it. These matters have become of much more concern due to the current coronavirus situation. Curbside is a good solution for all of this. Your order is provided by a restaurant employee directly to you and the food is packed in a tamper-proof package. Only restaurant staff has access to your order so your order is completely safe with limited touchpoints and human contact.
- Reduces dependency on Third-Party Apps: List your business on food delivery service apps gives you a chance to draw extra revenue but these third-party apps charge a considerable amount of money on every order which can decrease your profit. Providing curbside pickup on your website will give your customers the opportunity to avoid delivery charges which they have to pay for food delivery.
Above all, providing a curbside pickup food ordering app will provide your control over the service experience your customers are getting. - With Curbside Smaller Menus Work: Generally, operators feel that they will not satisfy their customers if they will opt for smaller menus but with curbside, this is not the case as small menus work and consumers move out from their comfort zone while ordering out of premises. For curbside success, those items that can be offered regularly must be present because with more menu options available there will be more chances of mistakes. Customers want that they have received what they have ordered and the way they have expected their order to be.
How to implement curbside pickup properly for your restaurant business
Few tips that can be useful if you are planning for curbside pickup are:
- Get A Pick Up Reservation App
- Plan for a Convenient Location
- Use Good Packaging
- Make sure that the Pickup is quick
- Follow Safety and Sanitation Policies
- Get A Pick Up Reservation App: First, get your own branded food ordering pickup mobile app for your restaurant business so that your customers can easily place their food orders from home to get picked up at the desired time.
- Plan for a Convenient Location: You must make sure that you have a convenient location for customers to park their vehicles and your staff can easily find them. The parking site must be near a window and easily accessible from your pickup station.
- Use Good Packaging: Use good packaging for the food so that hot items remain hot and cold items remain cold and the liquid items do not drop out. Make sure that the food containers are of good quality so that there is no contamination.
- Make sure that the Pickup is quick: Proper arrangements should be made for quick pick up and ensure that there is very little human interaction. A good idea is to drop the food order at the back seat so that there is minimal interaction with the customer. Enable online payments to make the payment process convenient and quick for the customers.
- Follow Safety and Sanitation Policies: During the coronavirus pandemic, following sanitization procedures and food safety guidelines are very important in order to make sure that your employees and customers are healthy and safe.
There is no doubt that it is a difficult time for everyone but by adjusting or modifying your business strategy you can keep your businesses stay open until the situation comes back to normal.
