Dining out is certainly going to look different. Safety, hygiene and trust will be the key factors to lure in customers after the ongoing lockdown is lifted on May 3.
To this end, food technology startups Dineout, Zomato and Devourin have recommended that restaurants adopt contactless dining products. This is meant to eliminate the need for diners to touch valet receipts, menus and bill copies, when they resume eating out.
“The role of tech in this post-Covid-19 era is to establish trust and build confidence in the minds of consumers,” said Ankit Mehrotra, CEO of Dineout, owned by Times Internet, part of the Times Group that also publishes this paper.
Dineout’s latest contactless dining product offers consumers an option to discover a restaurant’s safety measures, enables in-app booking of a table, pre-ordering and takeaways, in-restaurant ordering, valet services, digital payments and feedback without manual intervention.
Zomato, too, has launched a similar feature, Contactless Dining, which includes contactless menu, ordering and payment.
Restaurants have been hit hard due to the pandemic fighting and are expected to continue facing a challenge in getting customers back as social distancing becomes the new norm.
Before the outbreak, the restaurant industry recorded an annual turnover of Rs 4 lakh crore and provided direct employment to over 7 million, according to data from industry body National Restaurant Association of India.
Zomato will start reaching out to restaurants in the coming weeks, while early adoption from national chains has already begun at Dineout.
Olive Group, Cafe Delhi Heights, Fio Restaurants and Massive Restaurants have signed up for Dineout’s contactless dining program, the company said, adding that among the 20,000 restaurants on its platform, nearly 50% have asked for product demos in the last 3 weeks.
Both Dineout and Zomato say eateries will need to go beyond contactless dining and promote additional health and safety standards.
These may include certifications on hygiene, protective personal gear for staff and spacing out seating in a bid to regain trust.
Dineout, for instance, will provide a PPE safety kit for restaurants, and facilitate Covid-19 free certification for restaurants through a licensed lab in order to ensure that all the tests are in place before restaurants restart.
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