How Pop-Up Restaurants Can Fine-tune Their Service

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, pop-up restaurants have seen a resurgence in growth.

While pop-up restaurants are not a new dining concept, they are an ideal retreat for customers looking for the fun of dining out, but in a socially distant way. They’ve been found in parking lots, barns, and recently in empty hotel rooms.

Pop-up restaurants that fine-tune their services can offer dining experiences that are both convenient and contact-free.

Embrace New Customer Expectations

During the current health crisis, pop-up restaurants find themselves facing a variety of requirements, guidelines, and mandates to ensure the health and safety of patrons. Even after we have overcome this crisis, trends suggest that customers will have new expectations of their dining experience.

In the past, customer expectations of dining included a good atmosphere, quality food, fair prices, and excellent service. Now, customers also want a sanitized environment, contactless service, minimal interactions with people, and to feel secure when they dine.

One-Dine offers easy-to-adopt, app-free, guest-side solutions for pop-up restaurants to safely and conveniently serve guests, reduce labor costs, and optimize menus.

Encourage Online Ordering

Pop-up restaurants are seeing a flood of patrons and high foot traffic, and no customer wants to wait for service. Reduce wait times by encouraging customers to use mobile and online ordering.

OneDine’s Online Order Ahead is a convenient option for customers to place their menu order directly from their mobile device wherever they are. These orders are delivered straight to your POS system or to a management tablet used by a team member.

Once a guest reaches your restaurant, you will get an SMS alert of the customer’s arrival, so their food and table can be ready immediately.

Customers can also pay directly from their mobile device for a full-circle contactless order and payment solution.

When patrons order ahead, it saves you time and makes it easy for you to deliver meals quickly with as little contact as possible.

Allow Patrons to Check in With Ease

With OneDine’s contactless check-in, patrons can be seated and place their order without waiting for a team member to arrive. Customers can independently select menu items on their mobile devices, and orders are delivered directly to kitchen staff.

Sanitize Regularly

Health guidelines advise frequent hand washing and sanitizing. In light of the current health crisis, pop-up restaurants need to stay on top of sanitizing all surfaces.

These surfaces include kitchen equipment and your POS terminals, tablets, or any devices touched by patrons.

Remember that when customers see you sanitizing, it demonstrates to them that you are committed to their safety.

Offer Mobile Menus

Consumers and operators are moving away from traditional multi-use menus, often in accordance with local policies. Mobile menus offer a cost-effective and user-friendly option for customers to browse mouth-watering images and place orders.

OneDine is enhanced for on-premise mobile menu browsing and ordering. This means that your guests can interact and enjoy looking through your menu.

With a mobile menu, the customer dining experience can be tailored to each individual with “favorites” marked, special promotions, and loyalty programs.

Mobile menus also provide you with a way to get to know your customers through surveys, feedback, and ratings.

OneDine’s mobile menu can connect patrons to the pop-up restaurants they love.

Manage Customer Traffic

All restaurants are being called to limit their capacity and to follow social distancing guidelines.

To have a better understanding of your seating capacity on a given day, encourage customers to call ahead and make a reservation for a table.

Make seating options available on your website or app, and allow patrons to choose a preferred dining table or time frame to alleviate any overcrowding problems.

Focus on Staff Solutions

With OneDine, staff can now place orders that are sent directly through the POS system using a mobile device or digital tablet.

With no more running back and forth to receive an order or collect a payment, staff can focus on delivering a quality dining experience. Contactless order and payment solutions save both labor resources and money.

Offer Contactless Payment

Guests can enjoy meals and experience a safe, contact-free payment transaction in various situations. Whether it’s table service or pick-up, guests can easily split the check, pay per menu item, pay in full, and add a tip without unnecessary contact with credit cards, pens, or receipts.

OneDine’s PurePay™ technology has two different options for customers:

  • Text-to-Pay: Customers receive an SMS message sent directly to their mobile device from a restaurant team member. This SMS link prompts them to pay via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or credit card on their mobile device.
  • Scan-to-Pay: Customers can use their phone’s camera to scan a QR code from a receipt or your management tablet, or by checking-in using the table sensor.

Depending on your pop-up restaurant’s needs, OneDine has a contactless payment solution for your customer.

Takeaway

Advancements in technology are making it increasingly easier for pop-up restaurants to serve high-quality food safely. By investing in contactless solutions, you can take high-volume payments, orders, and receive customer feedback to make informed business decisions to meet customer dining expectations.