6 Post-Pandemic Dining Trends to Try

The pandemic in a lot of eyes is coming to an end. So now the restaurant scene is looking to see what the post pandemic dining scene will be. Plenty hoped things would return back to the way it was before, but it seems a lot of the pandemic dining trends we saw are here to stay. People are just not going back to the ways of sitting down in a restaurant at the same capacity they used to. 

Why is that? 

Take away is just easier and fits with the younger demographic in this digital era. You can even go back and see trends were slowly moving to a more digital era as it is. It is not that surprising these trends are here to stay. So, what do you need to recover and fit in with these “post pandemic” dining trends? You need digital optimizations to improve your take away dining experiences! Here are some  options you can adopt to keep your facility up with the trends.  

Enhance Drive-Thru Efficiency 

Drive-thrus are really nice when you’re getting an order to go, but you just do not want to make the effort of parking and getting out of your car. However, no one wants to be stuck waiting in an hour-long drive-thru line. You need to be able to streamline your drive-thru operations to be fast and efficient. Customers just expect it to be that way already. There’s definitely lots of options to help you do this for your restaurant’s drive-thru.

One solution is incorporating AI into your drive-thru. Now this is not meant to just replace your drive-thru employees. This is meant as a tool for them to work more efficiently. You can incorporate AI to help take the drive-thru orders to let your employees focus on giving your customers their food and still a more personalized experience. It could also potentially be more accurate since AI takes the orders without risk of human error. If you are looking for more information though on drive-thrus, check out this article.  

You can also give the option to order ahead of time and pick up through the drive-thru. With online ordering from a website or app you can give your customers the option to pick up the order in the drive-thru lane. This cuts down on time in the line since their order is placed and when they get there the food should hopefully already be ready. You could also potentially take orders for this over the phone, but for true optimization, online would be better.  

Offer Digital Ordering

There are a ton of different ways to let your customers place their orders without taking away time from your employees. This lets your staff focus on getting orders made and brought out quickly while giving customers a personalized experience too. Online ordering can be placed in a number of ways. Whether it’s an app, website or third-party ordering apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash, or Grubhub that still utilizes a pick up option, there are so many ways to let them order online. 

By letting your customers order ahead of time your staff does not take time away from completing orders to take them. This also lets your customers not sit around waiting after placing the order. They can place it from anywhere and come get it when it is actually ready for them to pick up. It leaves for a less backed up lobby of customers waiting. It can also potentially lead to more accuracy since they are punching in the order themselves instead of your staff trying to hear and put it all in correctly. 

Another digital solution that is growing in a post-pandemic world is ordering kiosks. You may have even seen these kiosks implemented in different fast food chains already. They’re screens where your customers can place the order themselves within your facility. These kiosks let your customers come into the store and digitally order their food at the touch of the screen. Plus, it does not require a human to place it, you can even let them pay via these machines with a card reader.

Kiosks are great to offer for someone who doesn’t own a smartphone or computer to place orders via apps or websites. There could also be potential as well to implement these kiosks in drive-thrus as well. 

Optimize the Menu

You can’t just make all these major digital changes without thinking about your menu. Digital ordering and take away requires certain specifications with your menu. Even Taco Bell made major menu changes during the pandemic to a more digital food era. Although this doesn’t mean you have to get rid of your restaurant’s Mexican pizza per say. 

You want food items your staff can efficiently produce so you do not leave customers waiting. If you have items on the menu that take 30 plus minutes to prep then it‘s just going to slow your operations down when someone goes to order it at the front of the drive-thru line. Try to find things that can be made quickly or ways to prepare ahead to cut down time.

You also want food that you can package and deliver well. Delivery drivers cannot always be relied on to drive with extra care to ensure your intricate food presentation remains intact. It helps to serve food items that are made to travel with the risk of sliding and can be packaged easily. In order to still convey a certain aesthetic in your presentation you can always explore packaging options more custom to your restaurant’s brand. Unique packaging can surprisingly go a long way too with customers to enhance the dining experience. 

Keep in mind what foods don’t get cold or soggy easily and which reheat easily at home should something get cold. Things like salads smothered in dressings or fried appetizers just don’t arrive nicely even with the fastest delivery driver. The customer ends up with food that is soggy or cold without a way to reheat it correctly. You need menu items that do not take long to make, can be a little jostled in route, and will arrive in edible condition. That’s why some might consider a burrito bowl over a burrito to prevent a soggy tortilla that just falls apart. 

Build a Website or App

You would be shocked how many foodservice facilities haven’t even bothered with a website yet. A website is just one simple way to best offer more digital options for your customers to improve their dining experience, offering options like digital ordering, pay online or even rewards programs. You could also do digital menus on your website to replace your in-store menus or let your consumers figure out what they want to order before they come in

It does not have to stop at a website though. Apps are great ways to keep up with the digital trends of post-pandemic dining options. With an app you can offer all the things a website has but even more. You can incorporate AI to monitor the user preferences and make recommendations accordingly to upsell, make a favorites list so they can easily reorder to make regulars out of casuals, and so much more. 

Apps are great for personalizing a customer’s experience more even if they are not coming in and sitting down. You can also fight back against losing in person upselling by just doing it via your app. A lot of food apps will have a pop up come up when the customer clicks go to check out so you can still upsell drinks and dessert. 

Utilize Third-Party Delivery Services

If the idea of an app or website is something you just can’t make happen, you can always use third-party delivery services. This includes apps like Uber Eats, Doordash, GrubHub, etc. You will want to keep in mind that these apps will take commissions from the sales whereas doing your own website and delivery team does not. This is still a good option to try since many people use these apps. It can get some added discoverability maybe for your restaurant via their browse page. 

So whether you just don’t have the staff or other requirements to have delivery drivers and your own app or website, these third-party delivery services are made for you. It lets you offer food delivery and even pick up options without the work of running a webpage and hiring your own drivers. The customers can place their orders digitally and all you have to focus on is making the order. Drivers for these services will take care of the rest for you. Now there is always a risk that the driver performs poorly and the negative experience impacts your customers’ review of your facility. This is a risk you have to be prepared for if choosing this route since you do not have control over the drivers. 

Here is a quick guide for how you can get started with a third party delivery service.

Invest in Ghost Kitchens

Ghost kitchens are really neat concepts that worked extremely well during COVID and still work after it. A ghost kitchen is a shared kitchen space where you can rent a portion to operate a restaurant that just takes takeout and delivery orders. This may sound crazy, but it’s a legitimate practice that even large chains are participating in. 

If you’re a facility that just no longer sees much sit down dining traffic, then it might be worth spending all that money on renting a large facility. You can cut your expenses on rent substantially by renting a space in a ghost kitchen with a number of different restaurants. Some even order their inventory together since they utilize some of the same ingredients to continue to cut down expenses. 

With customers continuing to make take out and delivery the preferred option, you just may not need a sit down section anymore. So take a survey of your locations and decide if just having a facility to offer takeout is right for you.