Foodservice Updates is designed to help foodservice operators keep on top of all the industry news and provides tips for keeping business running smooth. We endeavor to provide the latest tips and solutions to keep you in the know.
Is it time for radical reinvention?
By now, you likely know the approved COVID-recovery playbook for restaurants: Fine-tune your off-premise menu, offer digital ordering, make your pick-ups low-touch, etc. But restaurants aren’t all alike – thankfully – so a cookie-cutter approach to COVID survival and success isn’t going to work for everyone. If this sounds like you, what could work for you? What might inject your business with enough lifeblood to keep it going until spring, when the environment may look a whole lot better for restaurants? A recent New York Times report profiled the Brooklyn restaurant Gertie, which serves updated Jewish-American deli food and has embraced reinvention mode. When the pandemic hit, the restaurant had no takeout or delivery operation – the one thing believed to be a must for operating in these times. So the owners created one. Far from being a saving grace, it was a “dead end.” So instead, the restaurant has focused on nonprofit work – partnering with a range of meal programs around the city that distribute meals to the hungry. Prior to the election, they planned a weekly event designed to boost business while encouraging support for candidates running for office. So far, it’s keeping them going, and they continue to look for ways to reinvent themselves. The environment for restaurants is severe – but money is still flowing in this economy. What organizations in your community could be critical partners for you right now? What causes might inspire your best customers to support you? This isn’t what you’ll be doing forever but it may help carry you through these next few months to a point next year when life feels a bit safer, people want to get out and support restaurants, and yours will be among the ones there to serve them.
Give your loyalty program a COVID update
Does your loyalty program look different now than it did in February? It should. The kinds of promotions that were central to your loyalty program back then – along with your method of operating your program – might come across as inappropriate now. It’s especially critical that you’re using your loyalty program to fuel the parts of your business that need support in the current environment and to collect information about how, when and what your customers are ordering. This will help you to keep business coming in now and provide a more secure bridge to operating post-pandemic. So what do you want people to know about your restaurant? In what areas of your business do you want to build awareness and generate more sales? Your loyalty program is a great vehicle for directing customer focus. Incentivize people to place their order via your website or app and pick it up curbside. Integrate contactless payment with your loyalty program so you’re automatically generating data (and at a time when safety is the new hospitality, also ensuring your guests don’t have to swipe a physical card to earn points). Increase the appeal of your program by creating joint offerings with partner businesses and offering more flexible terms. Stay in contact through email and social media – posting daily on social media is important for awareness right now – and make sure to promote your safety practices.
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COVID-19 Statement
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to develop, Team Four/Value Four is continuously monitoring this unprecedented situation and making adjustments in the tools and methods we use to serve our customers. We are 100% committed to serving you with the service and attention to detail that you expect from our company. While we have temporarily suspended all travel and are now telecommuting, please be assured that we are squarely focused on helping you keep your business working. We are in constant communication with our business partners; vendors, suppliers and other providers; to ensure you get the products and services that you need to continue operating in these unchartered waters.
While we have adjusted to telecommuting, we have put the proper IT and telecommunications systems in place at everyone’s homes so we can seamlessly serve your business as always. We are available via email, telephone, text, conference calls, and video calls. We are 100% committed to being there to assist you in your time of need.
The suspension of travel and the introduction of telecommuting were implemented to protect our employees and their families and to do our part in the social distancing program to help prevent the spread of the virus.
We believe that our employees are our most valuable asset and the most important part of our service to you; therefore, we have given our employees additional paid sick leave and family leave in the event they need that benefit. In addition, we have NO plans to reduce staff or reduce hours and we have communicated these facts to our staff so they can serve you and care for their families without concern for their careers or their ability to pay their bills.
The health and safety of you, your families, your employees and their families are in our thoughts and in our prayers. We are a resilient country and people; we will get to the other side of this crisis together and we will rise and eventually be stronger than we were before we went in. In fact, we have formed a working group to develop customer-centric strategies and services to create positive momentum as we return to a more normal world.
Thank you for your friendship, our partnership and the business you do with our companies.
While we have adjusted to telecommuting, we have put the proper IT and telecommunications systems in place at everyone’s homes so we can seamlessly serve your business as always. We are available via email, telephone, text, conference calls, and video calls. We are 100% committed to being there to assist you in your time of need.
The suspension of travel and the introduction of telecommuting were implemented to protect our employees and their families and to do our part in the social distancing program to help prevent the spread of the virus.
We believe that our employees are our most valuable asset and the most important part of our service to you; therefore, we have given our employees additional paid sick leave and family leave in the event they need that benefit. In addition, we have NO plans to reduce staff or reduce hours and we have communicated these facts to our staff so they can serve you and care for their families without concern for their careers or their ability to pay their bills.
The health and safety of you, your families, your employees and their families are in our thoughts and in our prayers. We are a resilient country and people; we will get to the other side of this crisis together and we will rise and eventually be stronger than we were before we went in. In fact, we have formed a working group to develop customer-centric strategies and services to create positive momentum as we return to a more normal world.
Thank you for your friendship, our partnership and the business you do with our companies.