In this time of business turbulence, food businesses are being disrupted by the COVID-19 restrictions. However, restaurateurs are not ready to hang up their aprons. They continue to work hard and press on with their business, which is very admirable.

Here are some ways you can keep your business afloat in this phase of time.

Keep your menu simple for takeaways

It doesn’t have to be flashy or loud to be attractive. Sometimes, keeping the menu simple would be key to your success. Simpler menus mean lesser hassle when the customers order and lesser hassle in the kitchen when your staff prepares the food. This would get productivity rates up.

WATAMI Japanese Dining simplifies their menu with images and infographics for easy understanding

Reassure your customers

A simple reassurance may go a long way these days. They would feel safe knowing that their grub from their favourite restaurants will still be available for them to enjoy.

Say for example, by updating your operating hours and informing customers whether you offer delivery or takeaway would come in handy too.

Poke Theory shares their operating hours to give customers a heads up so they won’t come surprised

Get your customers in the mix

Get them to share your restaurant around. Be it by word-of-mouth of via social media, customers may just be the best form of advertising around. Make them feel included in your journey to overcome the circuit breaker and this COVID-19 phase.

Get them to share their posts of your food with your own hashtags and you can repost them! Sometimes, your customers may just be your best form of advertising.

Arnold’s Fried Chicken reposting their customer’s photos of their food

This would also make customers feel acknowledged and it would also increase your interaction with them. No harm being the people’s restaurant now, is there?

Other than just reposting their content, your interaction with your customers may also take other forms.

By even replying to their comments and questions on your social media, you get your interactivity rates up and people will eventually warm up to you as a business.

Offer delivery services

For the ones that don’t make an appearance at your store however, make sure that they’re not missing out. There are plenty of ways to get your delivery solutions sorted out. Aside from major food delivery platforms, you can source out for independent deliverers on Facebook groups as well.

The 'FOMO' Effect

To create a sense of urgency with your customers, consider offering limited delivery slots per district on selected days. While this may not maximise the potential revenue, it will help secure orders in advance, while optimising your delivery routes. The people at The Burning Oak have went on to adopt this tactic.

The Burning Oak updating their delivery slots on their social media pages

Meal Subscriptions

People want to enjoy food. That obviously goes without saying. But what about those who want to enjoy food, but at the same time are too lazy to call for delivery and leave their houses?

We suggest that you introduce meal subscription programmes that will enable the customer to get your dishes at specific days and times. The good people at Hjh Maimunah Restaurant have gone ahead and adopted this tactic.

Hjh Maimunah hosting their “Tingkat Orders”, or meal subscription plans

Preparing for recovery

While you are pushing for sales during this circuit breaker, you may also be thinking about the recovery. As the F&B industry recovers from COVID-19, new norms will emerge. People will still avoid crowds and dining in, and many F&B businesses will have to transform their traditional business with a stronger online presence. With this, it will be worthwhile to make use of the Enterprise Development Grant from Enterprise Singapore (ESG) which subsidises 90% of any software, equipments, and courses that you’re picking up to prep for digital transformation.

Here's a tip, both Lithan & Click Academy Asia are offering bootcamps & courses to upskill yourself and your colleagues. The best part, they are essentially free of charge if you look at the bonus credits that you will receive upon course completion:

1. For Lithan bootcamp on F&B Digital Marketing, you’ll only be paying S$510 (2 pax) for S$1,000* worth of Marketing Ad Spend and Zeemart vouchers for your food supplies.

2. For Click Academy Asia’s RAFT Professional Certificate in F&B Lead Generation, you’ll only pay S$428 (2 pax) with S$500 cashback & S$500* worth of Zeemart food supplies vouchers upon completion.

We hope that this article has been of benefit to you in helping your business stay afloat. We wish you all the best and know that we will always be behind you.