Make your changes appealing to potential customers
You know that that it is important to enhance safety and sanitation protocols to defend against the spread of COVID-19 and build trust with potential customers. While great communications and marketing can help draw in customers, their experience once they’re there is what will ultimately bring them back. Ensure your customer experience is safe and fun with these changes:
Dress up your signage
Having signage throughout your space is a must, but as with many things in life, it isn’t just what you say but how you say it that counts. Instead of using signage to simply check a box, consider dressing up your message in a fun an upbeat way. Could that plain black and white mask reminder at the front door be more appealing with an upbeat poem or colorful imagery that mirrors your restaurant’s atmosphere. Use that same approach with handwashing reminders in restrooms. These visual cues are often new and can be unwelcome reminders to customers that things aren’t as they once were.
Fit hand sanitizers into your space
Having hand sanitizer on hand is a basic requirement. While having a simple dispenser on your hostess stand may work well, consider building additional sanitizing stations in your existing setup so they are out of the way but still convenient. For example, you might incorporate a simple touchless dispenser into a wall display or in a grouping of foliage (keep it visible with an upbeat sign). Alternately, build a surround that will help it fit into your aesthetic. A bit of creativity can turn this practical must-have into an integrated part of your space.
Consider the full customer experience
While that’s incredibly important to keep up with regulatory requirements to provide a great customer experience, restaurant owners also must remember that customers come to them to escape. Help them do that by looking at every aspect of their experience through a customer lens. How are they greeted when they enter your door? If they’re using curbside or to-go service, how does your process make them feel? Would live music or a reimagined outdoor space enhance the experience? Integrating changes to enhance the customer experience can be the difference between a customer that tries you and one that returns again and again.
Entegra’s team of procurement specialists implement strategic sourcing through our many supply chain partners to bring the most value to your business. Entegra Procurement Services is more than a group purchasing organization (GPO) with contracted cost savings. We help our clients, in segments ranging from senior living to lodging to restaurants, to cut costs and consolidate their portfolios.
November 03, 2020