The Covid-19 pandemic has altered the way we do business and shaped a new concept for servicing consumers. What comes post the pandemic might be similar to what we experienced before but one thing will remain valid, and it is the contactless dining option.

The concept is simple and convenient.

You deliver food to the customers’ doorstep while they view their orders and choose them online, pay online or cash to receive their purchases.

Aside from business, contactless dining became a need as precautionary procedure recommended by the world health organization to limit the impact of another pandemic if anything.

And your key success behind contactless dining is choosing the right POS software tailored to your business.

What is contactless dining?

Contactless dining refers to dining with limited physical contact with servers, menus and surfaces. Which means that the whole dining experience begins and ends with a smartphone.

It is becoming very popular in the food & beverage sector as more restaurants are investing in this technology.

How can you introduce contactless dining seamlessly with the right POS?

Drop your paper-based menu cards and embrace the online world

A contactless menu is what you need to start your contactless dining journey. Your software enables you to adopt a contactless QR menu that can be scanned easily by customers to browse the menu and the prices. With the digital menu, you can alter prices and menu items across different outlets effortlessly saving yourself lots of money and time.

It’s quick, easy and convenient for all parties.

Makes it simple for customers to place their orders with less errors

The process is very clear, customers browse the menu and instantly place their orders. Errors made by waiters are limited in this case since customers themselves are processing their orders that go straight to the kitchen to be prepared.

Streamlines the payment process

What’s better than payment integration options to instantly pay bills? Customers can pay through the application avoiding the hassle of waiting for a waiter to approach their table and get them the bill.

Reduces your table turnover time

It’s all logical. A faster ordering and payment process results in faster turnover time. Tables are cleared quicker for new customers.

What does this mean to you?

It means several things.

First, you deploy your employees where they are needed the most.

Second, the costs you are saving in contactless dining can be invested to attract new customers whether for dining in or for online orders.

Third, you can benefit from faster table turnover to host more promotional nights or events to increase your footfall.

Saves your labor and operation costs

When everything is integrated into one POS software and directly processed from the customers’ end to your kitchen and then to the payment process, you wouldn’t need as much labor as in conventional dining.

You can staff your employees efficiently to cover all your operations and departments rather than focusing or investing in a single area.

How does contactless dining work?

Set up your integrated POS solution

Needless to say, you need to start with an integrated POS solution that connects your digital menu to your kitchen to process orders. Once the order is placed, it is automatically recorded in the POS system and then sent out immediately to the kitchen.

For a seamless process, enable a wi-fi in your restaurant with the contactless dining feature. It is crucial that the system asks them about their personal information for an enhanced CRM.

Create an online menu

After the installation of the right POS software, it is time to set up your online menu that must be easily viewed depending on items’ profitability.

Since paper menus are among the highest touched surfaces in restaurants, online menus are the most significant part of contactless dining.

Keep in mind that with online menus, your employees have less contact with customers so you may need to adjust your regular menu to be more comprehensive. You need to include all information about each platter so customers wouldn’t need any intervention.

Include modifiers so customers can customize their orders or upgrade.

Add written description to your online menu and pictures so they can decide on a platter without needing to ask waiters.

If you serve daily platters, adjust your menu accordingly.

Set up your QR code for ordering

After setting up the menu, customers need to actually access the menu by scanning a custom code with their mobile phones and here where the QR code comes in handy.

Once scanned, the digital menu will pop up without the need to install any application.

Contactless dining has many benefits aside from safety requirements, it improves order accuracy and yield higher check size and leads to faster table turnover.