Running a restaurant can be stressful. Running a restaurant during a global pandemic is a whole other story. What with forced closures, reduced capacities, redundancies, COVID-19 regulations, and whole new ways of operating, there are many things to think about all at once. To try and make things a little simpler, in this post we’re going to run-through 5 things that need to be considered when keeping restaurant visitors safe during COVID-19.
5 Things To Consider To Keep Your Restaurant Visitors Safe During COVID-19
01. Restaurant Capacity
Whilst your restaurant might once have had capacity for 100 covers, with the newly-enforced social distancing measures this is likely to be much lower. It’s vital to reconfigure indoor and outdoor seating to maintain social distancing between customers of different support bubbles. As it stands, the guidelines currently outline that 2m is necessary, or 1m with risk mitigation where 2m is not viable.
When considering numbers it’s also important to consider adverse weather conditions when calculating total capacity. Whilst customers sitting outside might once have nipped inside during a period of rain, this is now not doable unless social distancing can be maintained. Hence, those with a larger outdoor area should consider this as the seasons begin to change.
02. Additional Handwashing Facilities
Not only do staff members need to be on top of their handwashing and hygiene, it’s vital that these facilities are always available for guests. Staff members should also encourage customers to use hand sanitiser or handwashing facilities on arrival to help reduce contamination.
Ensuring that bathrooms are adequately stocked with hot water, soap, and paper towels or a working air dryer, has never been more important. Linked to this, providing signs and visual aids in bathrooms is also a good way to remind people how important thorough cleaning is for reducing the spread of COVID-19.
03. Queuing Systems
During busy times, having a queue outside your restaurant can be fairly common. With post-lockdown measures, however, managing a queue with social distancing can be more of a challenge. Because of this, many businesses are choosing to swap to pre-bookings only or a virtual queue. These are a great way of managing footfall and ensuring that busy times aren’t swarmed, allowing people to keep a safe distance from each other.
If this isn’t an option, creating a one way system is a good way of managing footfall. Keeping one door as an entrance and one as an exit greatly reduces the chance of customers coming into close contact with each other and allows you to manage how many people are in the building at once.
04. Condiments, Menus & Other Shared Items
Sharing items between tables is a contamination hazard should they not be cleaned thoroughly between each use. For this reason, many businesses are choosing to opt for single-use items such as sauce sachets as well as digital menus. This helps to avoid people from different support bubbles having to share things within the restaurant.
Should you usually leave napkins or cutlery on the table, taking them over to diners when you give them their food stops the chances of them being touched by other guests and hence reduces potential contamination risk.
05. Track & Trace Solutions
Restaurants should be collecting contact details for each of their guests as part of the Track and Trace scheme. This information should be kept for 21 days as stipulated by the NHS and passed on should an outbreak occur. There are many ways to collect Track and Trace information, but a digital solution is definitely the most efficient. Unaro Connect integrates a Track and Trace form with your guests WiFi meaning that visitors can input information straight from their devices without needing their own internet connection. This method also captures their date and time of arrival making it easier to work out who was at your business at a specific time.
So, there we have it, 5 things to consider when keeping your restaurant visitors safe during COVID-19. Interested in hearing more about Unaro Connect? Click this link to Contact Us and a member of our team will be in touch with you shortly!
