How Our Restaurant Ordering System Will Help Prevent the Spread of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to some big challenges and big changes for people up and down the UK. Not only have social lives changed thanks to a ‘new normal’ of social distancing, businesses across the country have needed to pause operations, or have even encouraged people to work from home. One industry which has really felt the pinch over the past three months is hospitality – and pubs and restaurants were forced to shut. However, with a new restaurant ordering system, you could help to re-establish your diner in the post-lockdown normality with ease.

But how will a restaurant online ordering system help you to keep customers and staff safe? Moreover, how will it help to drum up extra custom? Let’s take a closer look at why this hardware and software could help to transform the way your bar and restaurant operate for the better in the coming weeks and months.

Hands-Off Ordering

Even before lockdown measures hit the hospitality industry, our restaurant ordering system standards were leading the way for socially distant ordering. Instead of having to get up close and personal at the bar, a flexible EPOS and bar ordering system will allow patrons to choose their dishes and drinks from their tables. This means that, crucially, there will be no need for people to get up close and personal when ordering!

Combined with social distancing measures, you could use a hand held electronic order pad to take all the information you need at the point of table service. This means that, while you can still communicate with your diners at their table, you don’t have to touch a thing apart from your own device, which you can keep on your person and ready to sanitise at any given moment.

Contactless Payments

Of course, contactless payments have been a key part of the restaurant and retail industries for some time. Banks introduced a temporary increase on how much you can feasibly pay through contactless cards per transaction as a result of the pandemic. Therefore, your guests and visitors won’t have to worry about paying a thing with physical money – they can simply scan their cards at the table, and you can process all their wants and needs at your own station.

In the current climate, contactless payment processing is the absolute norm. This means that all good pub food ordering system services should integrate contactless as a priority. As mentioned, our leading EPOS choices were already making contactless a big draw – it’s hugely convenient, and what’s more, it’ll make sure that there is no risk of viral transmission, either.

If your restaurant ordering system is not yet integrating contactless payments, the COVID-19 crisis is going to need to ensure you make that a priority.

Ordering From Afar

One of the key moments from the pandemic so far in the hospitality industry has been that some restaurants have been opening up as takeaway services. Already, takeaways and fast food services have been setting up restaurant ordering systems to ensure that their customers can process their orders before they arrive. Ultimately, this helps to make the process all the quicker. What’s more, by ordering food and drink before they arrive, your patrons will be able to cut down the need for, and risk of, face to face contact even further. It seems like a depersonalising of the pub and restaurant experience, but at the moment, it is wholly necessary.

Implementing pre-orders through a restaurant ordering system will also ensure that you can process requests quickly and easily. Instead of keeping customer waiting around for their orders, you can be working on their food and drink while they are on the way to you. It also adds to the accuracy of the experience too.

A restaurant online ordering system will make sure that the requests you receive are precise. There is no miscommunication or order fumbling which you might sometimes experience when speaking to customers in a pub or restaurant. Therefore, not only is an EPOS service that communicates with online menus likely to help keep things clean and hygienic, it’s also going to mean that you can keep things speedy and efficient, too.

Keeping Customers Happy

Speed, efficiency, and accuracy are all elements which are crucial to the hospitality customer experience. Therefore, instead of risking all three through clumsy new social distancing trials, it makes sense to hit the ground running with a safe, compliant EPOS that really helps to support you and your patrons alike.

Customers will be looking to enjoy their first night out of lockdown in style. You’re going to need to keep them safe, as well as to ensure that you are staying protected, too. There are few better ways to do this, initially, than with a socially distant ordering system and service which really helps to drive up customer confidence.

Challenges Ahead

Of course, setting up a bar ordering system or restaurant ordering system post-lockdown is only the beginning. When you do open your doors to the public once again, you are going to need to make sure you have a series of stringent safety measures in place. This will likely include social distance markings, screens and guards, and sanitisers available on tables throughout your venue.

Crucially, you’re going to need to think carefully about how you are going to keep things safe, yet appealing, to your customers. You should also work hard to keep your team safe, too!

However, it’s likely many restaurants and pubs are looking forward to getting back open again post-lockdown. Thousands of hospitality businesses are crossing fingers that lockdown measures won’t hit second time around – and that we have seen the end of the curve for good.

In the meantime, do make sure to set up a plan for social distancing that your pub and restaurant patrons can rely on – and start by setting up a flexible, reliable restaurant ordering system which is going to make a huge difference to the safety and confidence of your clientele.