Reopening after Shutdown due to Covid
2020 has been a year full of unexpected twists and turns, if we’re putting things mildly. Restaurants all over the world have been wading in uncharted territory due to regulations placed on businesses in response to efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Across the United States, restaurants are getting the green light to open up in varying capacity, and across the board we are seeing new policies and procedures implemented to ensure that reopening goes smoothly. We have a resource below and some highlights from what we have learned.
When reopening your restaurant, it is critical to look at national guidelines as well as your state and local recommendations. The National Restaurant Association has released a guide to reopening and has continued to update that guide as information has come in. A couple things to consider during this time are sanitation practices and employee health screenings. Will your restaurant check the temperature of its employees when they report to work each day? That has not been an uncommon adaptation. Sanitizing – oh, the sanitizing! Many restaurant owners and employees have obtained their sanitation certifications, and now the whole world is getting on board, sanitizing surfaces like never before! While we may have a leg up on the competition here, you will likely need to be more specific than ever before about when sanitizing occurs, who is in charge of which portion of the restaurant, and how frequently these procedures are to occur. We have included a link at the bottom for the National Restaurant Association’s guide.
To face cover, or not to face cover? Some states and cities are exclusively allowing outdoor dining, with recommendations that guests wear face covering if they enter the physical restaurant to use restroom facilities. If your restaurant is in a city or state that chooses to adopt this practice, or your restaurants adopts this practice independently, will you notify patrons via social media, so they can be prepared before they arrive? Social media has been a powerful communication tool for some during this time, as it allows you to connect with customers and keep those lines of communication open.
Finally, can new technology in your restaurant help with adapting to these new practices? We think so. Many restaurants that had never before envisioned online ordering as a need are working to get that up and running. Mobile Point of Sale devices, say an iPad or even smaller unit, now may be critical to a newfound carryout segment of a business. Focus POS, the hardware and software utilized by Alpha POS, already has many features that have been useful to existing customers during this time. As per usual, the team at Alpha POS is hard at work getting further systems up and running to help this particular technology bridge any gap that restaurants need in order to be successful when relying more heavily on technology than ever before. In the coming weeks and months look out for updates from Alpha POS regarding new integrations to serve the evolving climate.