Think Outside the Chair
By: Laurie Gelb
Tags: Restaurant Business, Eating Out, Retail, Covid 19, Dining

Think Outside the Chair

Photo by Pablo Merchán Montes on Unsplash

The data are in. They were never in doubt.

Maskless diners are breathing, talking, eating, sneezing, coughing time bombs in less ventilated settings.

A tent that’s ventilated enough to keep COVID at bay and affordable for restauranteurs, generally won’t be warm enough for comfortable seated dining this winter. Even when households eat together, they are entering an enclosure in which others have eaten, staff will enter, etc.

Indoor filtration systems don’t have time to intercept droplets between diners at the same or adjacent tables, nor interactions between kitchen staff, wait/host staff, or between staff and customers.

For now, we need to transcend the conceit that indoor seated dining is a safe option. While jurisdictions fiddle and follow the squeaky wheels, enabling a conceit only delays economic recovery and costs lives.

Ask What Your Assets Can Do For You

What assets does a restaurant bring to takeout and delivery?

A location that presumably someone can find

Staff who need work

Credit card data from past transactions

The same good food and customer service they already have

Neighborhoods can be targeted through news and existing social network accounts, by zip code mailings, affinity portals, community announcements, joining delivery cooperatives, and so much more.

Since “listing” sites like DoorDash take a hefty cut, many will be better off using services such as ChowNow, or limiting the likes of DoorDash to a fulfillment role. Facebook, IG, Yelp and other social platforms can also be viable order intake points.

Using in-house staff for everything from geographically-rational deliveries to staffing neighborhood markets outdoors should be on the table. And staff know their neighborhoods, so they should be the ones to suggest opportunities, from working out a display with a local grocery to offering a discount to a neighborhood association that can work out a pickup point.

Instead of using public street concessions for tents and picnic tables, restaurants and producers can, with others or alone, develop a pickup and/or on-demand takeout setup with greater visibility and convenience for drivers. Options include curbside or drive-through pickup, a locker or rack setup for contactless fulfillment, and/or local hubs for neighborhood distribution.

Merchants near each other and potentially their local jurisdictions, as some already do, can and should collaborate on a more welcoming sidewalk/curb/streetscape for customers. Given that not everyone drives or wants to, and that we are encouraging neighborhood pedestrians, walk-up options should be available as well.

And retailers should jump on board. Maybe customers can’t try on $100 dresses in a parking lot, but they can flip through a rack of $19 specials. Not to mention the fact that an online video featuring a local “model” (real person, like a staff member or the owner’s daughter) showing off the $100 dress’s features and fit might actually sell some.

Back to the Bricks

Most of all, restaurants and retailers can drive sales by reconnecting with what might have considered quaint entities in the past — neighborhood associations, libraries, social agencies, cultural attractions and so much more. Besides cross-posting/linking, soliciting reviews, etc., neighbors are often very willing to post unsolicited recommendations on Facebook neighborhood groups. And business owners should be doing the same thing for each other. There is a strong current of “let’s keep our businesses open” that need not be left to major media. It works best on the ground.

The pandemic has forced or enabled — take your pick — hyperlocal marketing to again take its place among tactics of necessity. The need for connection, collaboration and a feeling of “neighborliness” that can be supported without risk has never been greater.

Ask your customers what they think you can do. Ask your suppliers what their customers are doing. Read. Interact. Post. Review. Repeat.