Post-Pandemic Restaurant Trends Archives - Online Ordering For Restaurants | ActiveMenus

4 On-Location Dining Changes Customers Want to See Made Permanent Post-COVID

Ben Beddow — Thu, 13 May 2021 08:47:24 +0000

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Whilst many are looking in the rearview mirror at pandemic with relief there’re some who are, instead, looking keenly to the future, trying to discern what a post-pandemic world of restaurant service looks like.

The wants and needs of customers evolve over time, and restaurants evolve to meet them and keep their customers satisfied and loyal. The unique situation of the pandemic, and the preventative measures which came with it, have thrust a wide variety of changes upon restaurants. Many of these changes will fade into the past along with the memories of 2020, however there are four, pandemic based changes which customers are going to continue to appreciate, and even demand, in the post-pandemic era.

Quality Outdoor Seating

Once the first lockdown had ended the availability of outdoor seating was enough to bring patrons streaming back to a location. But, as the seasons changed and more and more locations reconfigured their spaces, finding the best outdoor restaurant space became a fixation of many customers.

Now customers no longer want to just be outside, they want to be comfortable outside. Whilst furniture is a major part of comfort, the quality of an outdoor space isn’t solely judged by the comfort of the furniture. In the summer customers want the option of shade and, vice versa, during the colder months heaters are their main desire.

Providing heat in the winter and shade in the summer not only makes an outdoor space more appealing by anticipating the customer’s needs, but it is also a smart business move. Guests who are more comfortable are likely to spend more money, and they’re also likely to stay longer into the afternoon or evening with the protection from the elements provided to them.

Taking the attention to craft a comfortable outdoor space could mean that a certain location becomes someone’s new favorite “spot”. Allowing a restaurant to create new regulars by being the one who best accommodates their needs and wants.

Spacious Dining Rooms

Restaurant margins are thin, and the preventative measures of capacity limits and distanced tables put in place during the pandemic put a heavy dent in those margins. Thankfully, some saw their revenue sustained by new and innovative outdoor spaces, others by a rise of takeout and delivery orders, and others by the more innovative means of ghost kitchens. As many states return to allowing restaurants to operate at 100% capacity there’re some who are wondering if packing their restaurant full of tables again is best for business.

There are a few questions for restaurant owners and managers to consider when discussing a return to 100% capacity: will the kitchen be able to handle the increase in orders alongside the new takeout business? Does the return of these seats, along with the extra ones now located in an outdoor space, strain either the service staff or the kitchen? Here we’re talking about not being able to keep up with orders, and the result of this is a lower standard and speed of service.

The final argument for not returning every table to a location is: do customers want to be packed in together again? Over the past year guests have become accustomed to having much more space around them when dining in a restaurant, resulting in the feeling of a more personalized experience; much like that which fine dining creates by spacing out their tables.

Some are happy, and even want, to return to packed spaces, i.e. “the old norm”. The “new norm”, however, will have many guests preferring restaurants which provide them with the spacious dining rooms they’ve become accustomed too and those guests many vote with the wallets, preferring to frequent the locations which provide them with a more spacious area in which to dine.

Digital Menus

Digital menus are one of a number of new methods of ordering which customers have become accustomed to at most restaurants and we discuss all of these options here. Digital menus are one of those options and they do have great benefits for the customer, but most of their benefits actually run in favor of the house.

Customers who choose digital menus may do so for several reasons, the two most popular being that they are conscious of sanitation or that they see a benefit for the environment by using a digital menu over its physical counterpart. Providing customers with digital menus also gives them access to the menu throughout their meal, allowing them to peruse it at their leisure when, say, they’re thirty or thinking of dessert.

The benefits of digital menus for restaurants run alongside the benefits which customers get from them. The first benefit is that it is an in-your-face, visual aid for their customers that displays the restaurant’s commitment to reducing their environmental impact. The second benefit is that they are often cheaper in the long run and editable at a moment’s notice. Finally, supplying guests with access to a digitized version of your menu means that they always have access to your menu, increasing the possibility of spontaneous wants being followed through quickly with orders, thus increasing sales and saving crucial time for service staff.

Heightened Sanitation Standards

The pandemic brought about more rigorous cleaning standards for restaurants, and many chose to highlight these during the pandemic as a way to display to their customers that they’re taking their safety seriously. These measures that were put in place for the safety of customers and staff in restaurants are now being relaxed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that cleaning standards should return to their old level.

Regressing on things such as standards of cleanliness can send the wrong message to patrons for whom high standards of sanitation have now become a must. The pandemic has made many guests more conscious of the cleaning which goes on around them in a restaurant, and if it isn’t as visible a practice as has become the norm during the pandemic there’re many that will question if it’s happening at all.

Continuing with heightened standards of cleanliness is not just good hygienic practice, it can now help you keep customers who feel safer and more cared for in your location, and may also lead to positive reviews as a restaurant is compared with others who have let standards slip to old levels.

To Close

In its wake the pandemic has left some new and, under any other circumstances, unexpected needs and wants from customers. Even though the pandemic might soon be behind us the effect that it has on customer’s needs and wants will be long lasting, and restaurants can expect to have to accommodate what would before have been strange requests through the months and maybe even years to come.

Restaurants are a customer service orientated industry and a successful restaurant will do more than accommodate their customers wants and needs. Successful restaurants will, instead, anticipate and react to those needs and wants before the customer even knows what they need or want.

The post 4 On-Location Dining Changes Customers Want to See Made Permanent Post-COVID appeared first on Online Ordering For Restaurants | ActiveMenus.

COVID-19 Restaurant Trends Here to Stay Post-Pandemic

Ben Beddow — Sun, 02 May 2021 15:46:32 +0000

The global pandemic helped to accelerate the adoption of many technologies that were under utilized by the restaurant industry, such payments methods. Alongside this accelerated adoption the COVID-19 pandemic shepherded in a stream of new restaurant trends, brought on by the sudden changes consumers and operators had to incorporate into their lifestyles and their businesses.

Some of these coronavirus food trends will fade along with the restrictions that have become commonplace in restaurants over the past year. There are, however, others that both operators and consumers will want to see preserved as restaurant future trends. We discussed a major one of these trends, digital ordering, in a piece a few weeks ago, but there’re many other evolutions which have happened throughout the restaurant industry over the past year that customers are going to want to see persevere into the future, and these are the latest trends in the restaurant industry.

Post-Pandemic Consumers Demand Meal Options

Prior to the pandemic, meal options we’re usually limited to the quick service and fast casual segments of the restaurant industry. During the pandemic many full service restaurants, of all styles and cuisines, expanded their offering to include meal options for their consumers.

This COVID food trend extends from the growth of prix fixe menus in higher end restaurants, to the offering of cheaper, daily changing options in full service, casual dining locations. These more affordable options, which still allow restaurants to flex their creative muscles, are going to continue to be looked for in a post-pandemic world by consumers who’ve become accustom to their availability.

High Quality Takeout Food Packaging

For many venues takeout food was their saving grace through the pandemic. It kept regular customers loyal and, for some, offered expansion into a new revenue stream and takeout is here to stay. What many venues and, more importantly, many consumers noticed was that all packaging wasn’t created equal. The styrofoam and cardboard containers, which delivered moister-than-meant-to-be food, no longer cut it for customers who wanted the fresh restaurant food experience at their own dining table.

As a result, there was rapid growth in the availability of innovative packaging which helped to keep food, such as wings and bread, crisp. This means that carefully designed and prepared dishes now arrive at a customer’s front door just as the restaurant would intend them to arrive at a table inside their location.

With some restaurants offering these improvements to their takeout food customers will be quick to lean toward ordering from venues which they know produce high quality takeout food. This means that they might forego ordering from venues who’s offering come in outdated and lower quality food packaging.

Cloud Kitchens are Here to Stay

A growing concept before the pandemic, cloud kitchens, also known as ghost kitchens, were helped by the move to online ordering and delivery based consumption of restaurant food; spurring the emergence of many new restaurants in this sector. Their growth was accelerated by the pandemic and now it seems that, with takeout and delivery service being very commonplaces, they’re going to continue to grow.

Whilst these businesses may not offer physical locations in which to eat their food other restaurants still need to be wary of these new competitors whom they may brush over as operating in another segment. If a cloud kitchen is offering the same cuisine as a brick and mortar venue then they are going to be competitors, not only for delivery and takeout food but, if the cloud kitchen’s cuisine is cheaper and/or better than a brick and mortar location consumers may prefer to order from the cloud kitchen; especially as they are now so used to eating restaurant food at their own dining table.

Cloud kitchens also offer a revenue opportunity for restaurants. Some venues have rented out their kitchens, when they’re not using them, to cloud kitchen operators so they can prep or cook meals. Others have taken the opportunity to, metaphorically, expand their kitchen from one into two, servicing their venue with the dishes that are on their menu whilst also offering a whole other selection of items online under a different name, sometimes of a totally different cuisine.

Keeping Pandemic Based Cleaning Regimes

When restaurants were allowed to reopen at the beginning of last summer there was a huge emphasis placed on COVID-19 measures, and many venues chose to spotlight their expanded cleaning practices.

With mask mandates and capacity limits being dropped many customers are relieved to return to some level of normality when it comes to dining out. However, in a recent survey 80% of participants said they were going to continue to be extra cautious of germs in restaurants. This shows us that, as a public space, restaurants and their cleaning practices are going to just as scrutinized going forward as they were at the height of the pandemic.

Returning to old practices, now standards have increased, seems to be against sensible thought. Also, knowing that customers will have a keener eye on a restaurant’s cleanliness than before should infer that restaurants continue with these elevated standards. Not doing so may not seem to have a direct effects on business, however, much like with food complaints, there will be some customers who take their thoughts home and share them with their family an friends whom, in turn, may be deterred from visiting a venue or may even pass these stories of cleanliness, or lack thereof, onto their family and friends.

Fine Dining To Go Food Will Survive the Pandemic

Pre-pandemic very few people ever imagined ordering high-end food and, in some states, wine to be delivered to their front door; sometimes course by course. More than that, many didn’t expect the manager of the restaurant to be checking in with them via video link after they’d started each course. Such ideas and concepts are some of the many to have emerged from the changes in lifestyle everyone had to adapt as a result of the pandemic.

Such offerings, whilst maybe not as sought after as some other trends mentioned above, are going to become a permanent part of many fine dining restaurants offerings. Not only does this expand the number of customers they can serve in an evening but it also allows them to explore the avenue of delivery, which was not a viable option for them to use to increase their revenue stream before the pandemic.

A Final Word

Whilst inherently a bad thing, the pandemic can be said to have had a positive influence on the restaurant industry. In restaurants after the pandemic, improved takeout food and improved cleaning practices are some of the immediate and positive takeaways of the pandemic. Whilst high-end food delivered to your home, expanded meal options, and the growth cloud kitchens are exciting new COVID food trends which will continue to evolve as time progresses.

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