Covid-19, the worst nightmare for the entire world, not only affected the health of the people but also brought a huge downfall in the global economy. Bounded to stay indoors due to shelter-in-place orders, many business owners had to suffer huge losses due to the forceful shutting down of their shops. Covid-19 hugely impacted the supply chain of various industries. The food and beverage industry isn’t untouched either, in fact, it is one of the most affected industries during the pandemic.
From cafes, restaurants, to food trucks, everyone is trying to adapt their working models to the current needs and situations. The best and only way to deal with the crisis is to prepare yourself and find a viable way that can help you to get through it. This is the time when each one of us including our customers is bewildered about whom to trust in terms of our health and safety. This could be a great opportunity to gain your customer’s confidence, by serving them quality.
To help you with this, we have compiled some extremely effective tips to handle the food and beverages safely during Covid, regardless of whether you’re already serving, closed, or planning to reopen your restaurant.
Contents
7 Most Important Factors to Consider Before Reopening Your Restaurant After the Pandemic
- Clean and Sanitize Your Space
Cleanliness and hygiene have always been crucial to the food and beverage industry. Now that the situation is so critical due to Covid-19, the necessity deepens. The expectations of the customers have reached new heights. Now, they only prefer the places that take care of their health, which is directly proportional to the cleanliness and hygiene of the place and food.
Hence, whenever you are reopening your restaurant, or if it is already functioning during Covid-19, make sure you and your staff are following a strict cleanliness routine. Sanitize your place frequently and clean every area as well as things thoroughly especially the ones that are most exposed to the general public, such as the serving tables, restroom areas, floors, etc.
- Check Your Equipment
If your restaurant was not open for some weeks or months, the electronic equipment might not have been maintained in a while. So, before you reopen your restaurant, do not forget to check all the equipment in your restaurant.
If your restaurant was already closed, this could prove to be a fresh start for you. So, do not leave any space for errors or mistakes. Keep all your dining area equipment including the air conditioner, water coolers, as well as cooking area equipment including refrigerators, ovens, etc. up to date to serve your customers well.
- Check and Refill Food Inventory
One of the most important parts of your restaurant, the food inventory, is something that should be top on the checklist when you reopen your restaurant. Containing the edibles, your food inventory is the most sensitive area of your restaurant.
Check your inventory stock for the availability of the products. Jot down the necessary things that are out of stock. And do not forget to check the condition of the food products that are already there. Whether they can still be used? Or are they expired or damaged? Based on the condition add the product to the list of restocking the product.
- Train or Hire Staff
As you know, change always starts with you. The same is true for your restaurant. So before guiding the customers to follow certain rules, you need to make sure it is followed at your restaurant first. Train your staff on how to keep the place clean and maintain hygiene and how to handle the crowd so that they keep a safe distance from each other.
- Enforce the Necessary Social Distancing rules at your Restaurant
With the outbreak of the coronavirus, nothing has remained the same. You can no longer be carefree about certain things like hygiene, cleanliness as well as social distancing. So when you reopen your restaurant, keep a close eye on both customers and staff on following the social distancing rule.
To enforce social distancing at your restaurant you can follow the below rules-
- Reduce the number of dining tables.
- Make marks on the floors, each having at least a 6-foot distance from the other, for the customer lines.
- Reassess the order management process in a way that helps for the same.
- Ask the customers to sanitize their hands before entering the restaurant.
- Follow the use of use and throw practices.
- Enable an online payment system to reduce the interaction.
- Do Not Forget to Announce Your Reopening
The restaurant has been closed for quite some time. So, it is necessary to make an announcement to all past and future customers that the restaurant is reopening. You can make use of advertisements to convey to your customers how you prepared your restaurant to deal with the situation and made it safe.
Announcing your reopening is important because if you do not do so, the customers might remain under the impression the place is still closed. Therefore, they might reach out to your competitors. So, it’s better to keep your customers well informed about the status of your business. You can announce reopening through custom made banners from customsignsaustralia.com.au. Also, you can announce over social media, through messages, posts, etc.
- Start Online Ordering and Delivery Services
As the situation is still not completely in control, there are some that do not feel comfortable going outside. You can create an online portal for your business if you don’t have one yet so that people can place orders as well as make payments online. Or you can start a calling facility so that people can place their orders through calls. Online portal and the calling facility helps them to maintain social distance and stay safe. Along with the customers, this approach will also help your business to run smoothly, not only during the pandemic times but also in the long term.
Wrapping up
It is critical, especially in the Covid-19 cautious world we find ourselves in, to take extra precautions with both your establishment and the handling of the food you serve. To ensure the proper upkeep, the Utah Online Food Handlers course provides training to the food handlers on various food handling related factors-
- How to handle the food safely, abiding by the rules and regulations of the government?
- How to maintain cleanliness during the food preparation as well as the place?
- What kind of illness or health symptoms do you need to pay keen attention to and take action?
- What should be the appropriate temperature a food should be kept at?
Once the training is completed, you are awarded a Utah Food Handlers Permit and certificate. The certification course not only trains you to be a better food handler but also creates confidence in your customer. They tend to trust the certified food handlers more than the non-certified ones.
