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As Vietnam enters a new phase of the Covid pandemic, with the continuous rise in infections spreading across provinces, it's uncertain whether another round of social distancing measures will be imposed.
The food and beverage service industry, like most industries worldwide, has been severely impacted by the ongoing Covid crisis. However, in a time when people tend to stay at home, this presents an opportunity for online food businesses to thrive more than ever.
Here is a compilation of ideas from the PasGo Team to help restaurants and eateries increase their online sales during this Covid-19 pandemic. Feel free to explore these strategies and boost your business!
1. Craft a Simple Online Menu
Within your restaurant's actual menu, some dishes are frequently chosen by diners, while others may not be. To make an effective online menu, create a list of the most popular dishes and feature them for sale.
Remember the 80/20 principle; roughly 20% of the menu items are usually the most popular. A menu with the top 20% standout dishes from your establishment is sufficient.
Don't forget to store data on customers who make online purchases for evaluating the effectiveness of selling each dish. Optimize the menu based on this data to enhance efficiency, reduce ingredient wastage, and increase sales.
2. Efficient Operation of Restaurant Marketing Channels
At a time when minimizing, or even cutting, unnecessary expenses is crucial, allocating budget for restaurant advertising requires careful consideration. Advertising is undoubtedly a costly expenditure, but it's essential if you want to boost online sales. Online restaurant advertising is a must-do in this scenario.
However, this doesn't mean running advertising campaigns on every channel, adding financial pressure. Instead, it's an opportune moment for flexible restaurant advertising.
Here are a few ideas for marketing campaigns for your online restaurant during the Covid season:
- Select only one or two key online marketing channels that have proven effective for your business, such as optimizing existing social media channels, running Facebook ads, Google ads, YouTube, etc.
- Create enticing combo/set meal packages with attractive discounts to stimulate customer purchases.
- Focus on building ad campaigns based on understanding customer behavior. Targeting smaller, specific customer segments helps save costs. For example, leveraging data from POS systems allows you to run campaigns targeting specific groups, like meals for office workers or discounted meals during the restaurant's off-peak hours.
3. Collaborate with online reservation and food delivery platforms.
With an increasing number of people using online food delivery platforms like Grabfood, PasGo, Now, Foody, Gofood, Beamin, you can consider collaborating with these platforms to expand your customer reach, boost online sales, and save time and costs on marketing advertising.
Among the mentioned online food delivery platforms, you might explore partnering with PasGo. Apart from providing an online food ordering platform, PasGo specializes in offering a reliable solution for restaurant table reservations, catering to a diverse customer base interested in booking tables and organizing group events at upscale restaurants for occasions like birthdays, family gatherings, class reunions, etc.
4. Optimize Order Processing
Make full use of the technological platforms available to ensure orders are prepared immediately upon customer placement, rather than waiting for the delivery person to arrive before starting the preparation process.
Reducing wait times for customers is a highly favorable factor. In the long run, this is a key element that encourages repeat purchases, leading to a significant increase in online sales.
5. Streamline Delivery Processes
All activities from the moment an order is placed until the food is delivered should ideally not exceed 30 minutes for any reason.
To achieve this, a thorough evaluation of the entire online restaurant operation process is necessary. Additionally, consider researching and collaborating with reliable table reservation, online ordering platforms, or reputable delivery services.
Delivering late can impact the customer experience and result in potential future revenue loss.
6. Optimize the Restaurant Website
If your restaurant already has a website, renovating this digital 'home' is highly recommended at this time, given the uncertainty of how long the pandemic will last. You can start by optimizing SEO or adding functionalities like viewing the menu, placing orders, and making payments.
Optimizing website SEO is a long-term effort, and results may not be immediate. However, it's a task you should start today as it helps customers easily find your restaurant and dishes.
Here are some ideas to enhance your website and increase revenue for your restaurant:
- Visuals: Update with the latest, beautiful, eye-catching images
- Strengthen posts about dishes and the restaurant. Pay attention to using SEO-optimized language (frequently searched on Google) such as: delicious restaurant, tasty dishes, hotpot, buffet, takeout orders, etc.
- Update the latest and accurate information about the restaurant: Address, reservation/order hotline, operating hours, YouTube channel, fan page, Zalo, email, etc.
7. Prioritize Safety and Hygiene
- Consistently communicate how you prioritize health and safety during the Covid pandemic to your customers.
- Ensure all staff members are equipped with masks, face shields, and gloves throughout the food preparation process.
- Provide training on infection prevention for all delivery staff during the delivery process.
- Choose reputable online sales and delivery partners, ensuring strict adherence to hygiene and safety regulations, including delivery distance (if applicable).
8. Provide 24/7 Online Customer Support
Let customers know you are present on all fronts by responding immediately to calls, messages, or any interaction channel. This is a crucial factor in determining whether you can increase online revenue.
This doesn't mean you have to allocate dedicated staff exclusively for this purpose, incurring unnecessary costs. The idea here is to assign the task of 'online duty' at each shift to responsible staff members.
Above are some suggestions to boost online sales and contribute to increasing revenue for your restaurant. As you prepare to endure the challenges of this new phase of the Covid pandemic, rest assured you won't feel as overwhelmed as in the initial stages.
Wishing you successful business endeavors,
Best regards,
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