off premise best practices
1. Revise your menu
- Focus on menu items you can prepare and package easily for drive-thru, pick-up and takeout. Some restaurants continue to offer their entire menu for takeout. Others are limiting items due to the high cost of maintaining inventory when sales are down.
- Think about menus items that are popular, quick to serve, travel well, and fulfill the needs of homebound families and individuals.
- Create Family Meals Deals, that feed the entire family at priced at a value
2. Enforce food safety training
Just because the focus of operations is moving to a drive-thru, curbside or delivery framework, essential food handling practices in the entire restaurant MUST remain excellent. ServSafe has released two new training videos, free to you, your employees, and the industry, to reinforce safe food handling with a focus on practices to keep food and employees safe during coronavirus outbreak. Click here for the ServSafe Takeout video.
Click below to find an overview of these new courses:
ServSafe Takeout: COVID-19 Precautions – 10 Minute video
ServSafe Delivery: COVID-19 Precautions – 10 Minute video
In addition, to support restaurant workers on the front line, ServSafe is making its standard, ANSI accredited, online ServSafe Food Handler training program available free of charge through April 30, 2020. ServSafe Food Handler - Free Through April 30
It is recommended that wherever possible that all employees and management take this free online education and continue with consistent food handling procedures:
Based on current Coronavirus conditions it is imperative that your off-premise operations build a model that creates distance and minimizes customer contact. Having consistent off premise measures in place and communicating these to your customers will build credibility and trust in these transactions.
Let people know that you are open for business.
Let people know that you are open for business via social media, balloons. flags, signs, etc.
Get set and staffed for curbside pick-up.
Use appropriate staffing levels for projected sales and adjust with history.
For drive-up service, designate a parking space curbside or in your parking lot with signage. Some restaurants ask their customers to give a quick honk, while others ask customers to call when they arrive to pick up their orders (ask them for the make and color of the car). The tech-savvy will use location technology to identify customers picking up orders. Work with your local municipality to designate public spaces for curbside pick-up if you need them.
Rethink payment options.
More restaurants are opting for cashless transactions (which are often touchless) through mobile payment apps and credit card readers. If they’re willing, customers can pay by giving their credit card over the phone, as well. Don’t use payment methods that require a pen signature. Ultimately if you can have the payment completed over the phone, and you have established curbside pickup, you have minimized customer contact significantly.
Take care with cash.
If you do accept cash transactions, designating a single person to handle transactions, and allowing employees to wear gloves reduces risk. Remember, gloves need to be changed between transactions! Reinforce your strict employee handwashing policy in place and sanitize the POS components often.
4. Streamline your drive-thru
Recommendations include:
5. Packaging recommendations
6. Communicate with customers
Get your restaurant registered on www.CarryOurMA.com. It had become evident there was no central location where customers could identify who was open for carry out, curbside and delivery. The MRA launched as a centralized platform for restaurants across Massachusetts that are open to serving the public through both carryout and delivery. This new platform allows for each restaurant owner to register and update their own listings with a direct to consumer marketing tool. You can register right on the site and it takes about 5 minutes.
7. Set Up to Sell Product as Groceries
A restaurant’s common victualler license permits the sale of food and provisions to the public. In addition to prepared meals, such sales can include meat, fruit, vegetables and cheese purchased by a restaurant from a supplier in their original packaging for preparation and consumption at home. Other sales may include household items such as toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies and frozen and canned food products.
Operators should work with their suppliers to maximize this sales opportunity.
Just because the focus of operations is moving to a drive-thru, curbside or delivery framework, essential food handling practices in the entire restaurant MUST remain excellent. ServSafe has released two new training videos, free to you, your employees, and the industry, to reinforce safe food handling with a focus on practices to keep food and employees safe during coronavirus outbreak. Click here for the ServSafe Takeout video.
Click below to find an overview of these new courses:
ServSafe Takeout: COVID-19 Precautions – 10 Minute video
ServSafe Delivery: COVID-19 Precautions – 10 Minute video
In addition, to support restaurant workers on the front line, ServSafe is making its standard, ANSI accredited, online ServSafe Food Handler training program available free of charge through April 30, 2020. ServSafe Food Handler - Free Through April 30
It is recommended that wherever possible that all employees and management take this free online education and continue with consistent food handling procedures:
- Ensure foods are prepared and held within safe time/temperature parameters.
- Prevent cross contamination.
- Follow cleaning and sanitizing protocols.
- Tell ill employees to stay at home.
Based on current Coronavirus conditions it is imperative that your off-premise operations build a model that creates distance and minimizes customer contact. Having consistent off premise measures in place and communicating these to your customers will build credibility and trust in these transactions.
Let people know that you are open for business.
Let people know that you are open for business via social media, balloons. flags, signs, etc.
Get set and staffed for curbside pick-up.
Use appropriate staffing levels for projected sales and adjust with history.
For drive-up service, designate a parking space curbside or in your parking lot with signage. Some restaurants ask their customers to give a quick honk, while others ask customers to call when they arrive to pick up their orders (ask them for the make and color of the car). The tech-savvy will use location technology to identify customers picking up orders. Work with your local municipality to designate public spaces for curbside pick-up if you need them.
Rethink payment options.
More restaurants are opting for cashless transactions (which are often touchless) through mobile payment apps and credit card readers. If they’re willing, customers can pay by giving their credit card over the phone, as well. Don’t use payment methods that require a pen signature. Ultimately if you can have the payment completed over the phone, and you have established curbside pickup, you have minimized customer contact significantly.
Take care with cash.
If you do accept cash transactions, designating a single person to handle transactions, and allowing employees to wear gloves reduces risk. Remember, gloves need to be changed between transactions! Reinforce your strict employee handwashing policy in place and sanitize the POS components often.
4. Streamline your drive-thru
Recommendations include:
- Making sure the drive-thru station hand sink is clear and accessible so employees can wash hands often. It should be stocked with soap and paper towels.
- An air curtain keeps temperatures in and insects out, but it’s also an added barrier between customer and employee.
- Adding or restocking an undercounter fridge, because some customers are asking for bottled beverages instead of fountain drinks.
5. Packaging recommendations
- With more restaurants moving to off-premises, packaging supplies are critical, entree containers might need to be able to hold the integrity of the food (hot, cold, crisp, etc), for longer than normal, especially if they’re being delivered, due the increase in delivery demand.
- Clear lids: Being able to see the food after it’s packed keeps employees from opening to verify what’s packed and helps keep orders straight. This also reduces deterioration and contamination risk. Using sticker systems can help identify orders without reopening packages as well.
- Bags need to be sealed in some way. There are bags that have sticker seals for tamper-proof delivery, or you can use the old faithful stapler to staple the bag shut.
6. Communicate with customers
Get your restaurant registered on www.CarryOurMA.com. It had become evident there was no central location where customers could identify who was open for carry out, curbside and delivery. The MRA launched as a centralized platform for restaurants across Massachusetts that are open to serving the public through both carryout and delivery. This new platform allows for each restaurant owner to register and update their own listings with a direct to consumer marketing tool. You can register right on the site and it takes about 5 minutes.
- Let your customers know on your website, social media channels and through emails what your hours, menu and policy will be for takeout, pick-up and drive-thru service.
- Promote across platforms. Promote Often. Promote 1-3 Hours before each projected guest meal period.
- Use both stories and static posts. Stories have a better chance of being seen in the moment, static posts have a better chance of overall search if you use proper hashtags.
- Use Hashtags properly. There are numerous hashtags being used in the current environment, find them all and use as many as possible (you can also hide hashtags in IG stories if you make the text the same color as the background, this will keep your posts from looking like a racecar). Also, think regionally. #Boston, #BostonRestaurants #BostonTakeout put your mind in the mind of the customer if they are searching. Or, think how they will discover you.
- Promote! While funds are tight, allocating even a small amount to your social spends will give you a better chance at discovery. It is better to promote daily in small amounts with each new post. Also tag media outlets! They are seeking content and creating lists. Boston.com, Bostonmagazine, @Diningplaybook, etc. Try tagging influencers as well!
- Be creative! Don’t hide behind a brand. Shoot real video of you and your staff, speak directly to your customers and motivate with new options and deals if possible. Everyone is feeling the effects of this and a little personality and fiscal ease can go a long way when a customer is deciding.
7. Set Up to Sell Product as Groceries
A restaurant’s common victualler license permits the sale of food and provisions to the public. In addition to prepared meals, such sales can include meat, fruit, vegetables and cheese purchased by a restaurant from a supplier in their original packaging for preparation and consumption at home. Other sales may include household items such as toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies and frozen and canned food products.
- A restaurant must follow the same guidelines as it does when selling prepared meals:
- No on-premise seating or gathering and should enforce or encourage social distancing. This can be achieved by:
- Call ahead ordering
- Time windows for pick up
- Guests calling when in the parking lot or at curbside for pick up
- An online order system on a restaurant’s website
- Ensure employees practice proper personal hygiene and use gloves
- Create policies to limit guest interaction such as encouraging credit card payments over the phone or online ordering.
- No on-premise seating or gathering and should enforce or encourage social distancing. This can be achieved by:
- Additionally, restaurants engaging in bulk selling of product to customers shall:
- Not perform bagging if re-usable checkout bags are used
- Not charge a fee for recyclable paper bags, compostable bags or single use plastic bags.
- Any cleaning items should be intended for household, not commercial, use and be in their original containers with directions for use and any manufacturer or supplier’s warning.
- Bulk dairy products such as cheese, milk and eggs require refrigeration and must be kept at 41 degrees or lower until they are picked up by the customer
- Similarly, fresh or frozen meat should be sold in original packaging or in sealed food grade packaging to prevent contamination
Operators should work with their suppliers to maximize this sales opportunity.