Back to business: how to reopen on the front foot
By BigHospitality As restaurants and pubs begin to wake from enforced hibernation, here’s some things businesses should consider to help them get back to business
Streamline menus and keep competitive
With the uncertainty of al fresco dining due to changeable weather conditions and the reduced numbers of covers that businesses can do, many businesses will not be operating with full teams when they do choose to reopen, so ensuring that your operation reflects this is crucial.
One way to do this is through the streamlining of menus to ensure that kitchen teams can cope in the early stages and to keep ordering and overheads costs as low as possible to reduce waste should adverse weather hit. Gastropub Parkers Arms in Newton-In-Bowland, for example, has reopened its doors for al fresco trading with a tight picnic box menu that features dishes including a home-smoked peppered brisket bun with skinny frie
Collecting data effectively and using it intelligently can have a transformational effect on hospitality businesses.
A huge advantage to businesses that take a digital approach is the amount of customer data at their disposal that provides them with vital insight into their customers’ purchasing habits and helps them target them more effectively with marketing campaigns.
Prask Sutton, founder and CEO at Wi5 says the huge amount of data collected by mobile payment systems alone is already being used by operators to great effect. “Even something as basic as seeing which popular things are ordered together can help operators increase average transaction values by offering add-ons and creating offers,” she says.
With talk of the easing of lockdown and restaurants set to reopen sometime in the spring, we ve finally dusted down the crystal ball to see what 2021 might bring in terms of restaurant and eating out trends. Part one: lifestyle trends.
Wednesday is the new Friday
Past contenders for the new Friday have been Thursday (why wait for the weekend?) and Sunday (why let the end of the weekend stop the fun?) but hump day has always seemed a rather unlikely contender for this title. But then Covid came along and changed the game. Every day might feel like a wet Sunday at the moment but once offices finally reopen the after work meal and drink ritual will return. However, predictions that people will be in the office for fewer days, most likely at the start of the week, are leading some to predict that the new end of the office working week - aka Wednesday - will see the biggest spike in trade in the week. Michelle McIntosh, founder of the soon-to-launch restauran