3 tips how to sustain restaurant business after COVID-19

The crisis situation with Covid-19 can have disastrous consequences for a lot of restaurant businesses. Overcoming this difficult period will be a long and complex process. What can help venues to deal with the crisis after Covid-19 is a well structured strategy. The passive behavior expecting that everything will come back as it was before can’t be a solution. There is a need of proactivity and creativity to attract again the previous clientele and encourage people to dine outside.

Here are some suggestions that we have prepared for you on how to support your business and increase sales during the reopening.

Vouchers with discounts for your clients and their friends

First of all, it is very important to address the clients who first dared to visit your venue after the quarantine. The fact they did it makes the probability to visit you again very high. In this moment, however, there are also many other venues which are about to restart their activities and compete between each other to regain the clientele. So, it would be great if you can offer to your customers an additional incentive to visit your restaurant again.

Prepare vouchers with discounts valid for a certain period of time, which you can distribute to your clients. Highlight them the fact that they can offer the vouchers also to their friends. There are a lot of people who are afraid to dine out because they are not sure of the quality of the sanity measures the restaurants have implemented. However, if their friends reassure them explaining how safety is the environment and that the necessary measures are taken, then this can be a good reason for them to try it out.

The truth is that after the period of such crisis, when the restaurants have lost some of their clients and didn’t have no revenue for many weeks long, it would be difficult to give discounts. But it is also true that the re-opening could be a very long process and some business perhaps can be ruined.

Social media

The communication with customers is crucial in this period, moreover when you have to convince them that you can offer a secure environment and have implemented all hygiene, cleaning and sanitation measures. It would be great if you succeed to convince more of your customers to follow the social media profiles of your venue in order to stay in touch with you. By publishing every day posts in social media, you can remember about your brand, attract clients through the nice pictures of your tasty menu or communicat the safety hygiene measures you have taken. Put posters on the walls in the venue and leaflets on the tables and the cashier desk giving information about all your social media profiles. Add a message why customers should follow you online. For example, they can be informed about the actual discounts and promotions, new menu items or the best sanity practices used in the restaurants. Add, also, messages to encourage customers to tag themselves at your location and take and publish pictures when there are in the restaurant. Their posts will be visible for their friends and there is a great probability to motivate some of them to visit your venue. So, you can gain new customers.

Be active in social media, because this can have a positive impact on your sales during the re-opening period.

Make a special discount for all takeaway menus

In the Corona virus period, each venue needs to make its revenue stable and everything that can contribute to this will be welcome. One of the ways to do so is to announce special discounts for all takeaway menus. Even if you don’t have the possibility to make home deliveries, there is still a target of clients that can take advantage of your offer. These are people who live or work close to your restaurant and don’t have time to prepare fresh meals every day at home. Or, they don’t want to go very often to the supermarket because these are areas with a higher concentration of people. So, such an offer by your restaurant can be very attractive for a certain audience of customers. The most important thing is to communicate this offer very well. Announce it on posters pending on the windows of your restaurant, or publich them on your social media profiles. Always add to the communication some messages about the safety environment you can assure because this information is crucial during and after the quarantine.

The panic and the fear for sure are not good alies in whichever situation. Despite the crisis in the restaurant sector, try to be positive and creative when restarting your activity. This can benefit you, as well as your customers.