As the seating capacity of restaurants, coffee shops, food courts are getting reduced, long queues become a common scene.
For some of these venues, there is a QR code check-in and temperature taking at the entrance. And yes, all these procedures take extra time. I do believe that customers do not like the new arrangement, and no one likes to wait in queues, however, when I finally decided to eat out, I realized that there is no choice. The restaurants are packed to their new seating capacity and they cannot take in more.
New Restrictions
Restaurants need to follow social distancing guidelines, and a maximum of 5 guests per table. This new arrangement does create a situation where the reduced seating capacity causes the more popular restaurants and cafe to be very crowded.
Crowding outside restaurants and cafe can also get businesses into trouble as many of the crowds do not practice social distancing and potentially could spread the virus.
Business Pivots
Many businesses will need to leverage on social media and other digital means to reach customers. There will also be customers who will not visit the business due to the crowds. And with the reduced capacity, the business needs to find other ways to generate more income, which means they need to do more deliveries, takeaway or sell other products like their sauces or dumplings, etc.
I have seen other offerings like special wine pairing events that are pre-sold to their customers, and they can have the food and wine delivered to them, and watch the wine pairing live from their home to have the same experience as what the chef does in the restaurant.
There are many other interesting solutions that think out of the box to find ways to get their food to their customers in innovative ways. This is very challenging, but it is not impossible.
New Ways to Manage Queues.
There are also other ways to manage queues. For customers not to crowd around outside the restaurant and view the menu, or queue to get a reservation, there are queue apps that are readily available.
A lot of them have different pricing structure, and as for Visibility Design, we decided that we can create one for all the restaurants and solve the queue solution for restaurants for a very low price.
This QR-Queue Management system does not need any systems integration or hardware. You simply just need to print a QR code and place it at your store.
The customer can scan the QR code to join the queue or browse the menu. They can even decide what to order, and choose their meals, and follow your normal ordering or takeaway process to complete the order.
Simple and intuitive.
Tough Times Ahead
Things may look bad now as the infections continue to be present in the community daily. But consumers are coming out to spend. We need to do our part and create solutions to make the experience better, so that the consumers can return and use our service.
In times like this, we need to innovate and move forward. There is a new normal and it will be here to stay, and things may not go back to the way it used to be. You have to embrace change.
With more businesses providing better service, and focus on technology to solve the problems, we will only emerge stronger when we weather through this crisis.
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