For the last year, the U.S. restaurant industry has survived by any means possible, enduring against some of the most challenging market conditions in modern history.
According to the National Restaurant Association (via Fortune), more than 110,000 U.S. restaurants closed temporarily or forever in 2020.
To survive, many restaurants had to redefine everything about themselves. But, first and foremost, they had to become more flexible to fit into the patchwork of laws that guided (and continue to guide) our states and our cities through the rising and falling swells of the pandemic.
Depending on where a restaurant operated, pandemic restrictions may have wholly closed a brand’s doors to the public for some time, limited it to outdoor seating, or mandated that all storefronts transition to a to-go-only model or to half-capacity limits indoors.
What are other restaurants doing to build fast, easy, Covid-19-safe takeout windows? Can a Mexican restaurant sell to-go margaritas? What are the pandemic's implications for our food suppliers? Can we set up a delivery program between dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow? How long can we make it at 60% revenue? What can I do to help my furloughed staff and their children?
As the chief marketing officer of a restaurant technology company, I know there are no words to adequately express what it took for many American foodservice establishments to stay open for one more dinner shift, to make another month’s rent and to keep the lights on long enough to see the pandemic end. In addition, as one CNBC report describes, the staff of America’s restaurants and food-service companies have suffered, including front- and back-of-house employees, managers and executives at restaurant groups, food service vendors and even owners.
While battles were waged on a medical battlefield far from the shops on Main Street, I've heard that life in food service was frozen in a permanent state of limbo; it was an industry in suspended animation dishing to-go quesadillas from behind a table turned on its side to barricade its front doors.
But a funny thing happened along the way, a thing that offers promise to me as the first rays of vaccinated sunlight break through the storm clouds: Many restaurants survived, learned and even grew.
They learned how to operate with a lot less in-person foot traffic. They learned how to tackle demand generation online and even “talk” directly to their customers. They learned about third-party delivery vendors and how to use mobile applications for food service. They learned about loyalty programs and coupons. They learned about their place on social media, the angles a drink looks best at and making their businesses members of a neighborhood.
Many restaurants finally adopted a decade of digital footprint expansion in a few weeks last March. All of the tools they used existed before the pandemic, of course. But suddenly, there was a reason to become more digital, more omnichannel and more agnostic.
Now, as the world re-emerges and foot traffic slowly but surely returns, restaurants should ask: "How much of the 2020 stuff stays?"
Are we going to keep serving up QR code menus in 2022 or go back to something more tactile? Do we continue to expand on our app-based ordering programs, or is in-person dining all we want to focus on? In a post-Covid-19 world, is my DoorDash partnership really all that worthwhile?
As the world gets back to normal, people will likely assess whether the new way is something we gained or a symptom of something we lost.
In my opinion, any online tools that helped keep a brand alive through a pandemic are very much something to keep alive in an offline world. And, in areas where restaurants have opened back up, they can likely retain that added business. Sure, you could go back to print menus, but then you likely wouldn't have things like user profiles, email addresses or a guest's phone number.
No, I think the digital tools are here to stay. The social media followers aren’t going anywhere. The email list isn’t shrinking. The push notifications will keep on working like a charm.
So, for the savvy restaurateur projecting out into a post-pandemic food service economy, here are a few suggestions for iterating and improving on the digital tools you adopted last year:
Keep the lines of communication open. Offer your customers opportunities to use more than one channel to order to accommodate those who return to in-person dining alongside those who continue to desire takeout or delivery.
Reward those who used takeout or delivery during the pandemic for returning in person for a treat. Incentivize that first return to in-person dining while thanking those who supported your establishment.
Continue to use your digital tools to learn about your guests. It’s a great idea to ask your customer base for more guest data a few times a year. A well-written request can show them you care about them while simultaneously letting you build a marketing database.
See if there are any opportunities to use digital tools for low-value tasks. In a post-pandemic economy, you may be able to find tools that free up your staff to focus on the hospitality your guests want from their restaurant experiences.
The restaurant industry just survived what was likely the most challenging year it could have imagined. And though we lost much in the fight, when the world "comes back," I think we’ll be more ready than ever to thrive.
