Many restaurants have added long new lists of sanitary guidelines to their operations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak to keep both staff and guests safe. These include more frequent handwashing, mask-wearing, and more frequent disinfecting. How can restaurants ensure that they are meeting guest needs for higher hygiene standards, while still keeping their operations efficient? Technology can ensure compliance with these new standards, and give both staff and guests more peace of mind.

Minimize Human Contact

Guests may feel uneasy about handing their credit card to a staff member. Pay-at-table technology enables guests to pay for their meals on their own. Guests can easily disinfect these devices before use.

In addition, guests will likely be more wary of all interactions with other people. Pay-at-table devices that include order functionality can ease guest anxiety by enabling them to order on demand without needing to speak to a server.

Self-service technology that allows guests to order and pay for meals via off-premise means eliminates the need for human contact completely. For example, a Drive-Thru Kiosk can be placed at a drive-thru window to enable guests to order and pay. Similarly, a To-Go Kiosk can be placed in the restaurant lobby, alongside wipes and hand sanitizer.

Technology Devices are Easier to Clean

Technology devices are much easier to clean and disinfect than multiple menu pages, cash, credit cards, receipts, beverage playbooks, and other items with more surface area. Staff can place wipes and hand sanitizer next to devices, encouraging guests to disinfect them before use. Alternatively, staff can clean the devices after use and place a plastic cover on them, with a note to guests that the devices have been disinfected. Some devices can also offer antimicrobial coatings.

Lessen Crowding

Rather than hiring more people to help enforce new social distancing measures, restaurants can use Computer Vision to monitor guest and staff movements for their health and comfort. Presto Computer Vision collects proximity metrics that can be filtered to highlight staff-guest interactions to ensure they are at a healthy distance from each other. It captures traffic flow and spots areas that lead to crowding, allowing the manager to optimize the restaurant layout for a more sanitary experience. In addition, Computer Vision allows for occupancy threshold monitoring.

Improve Sanitary Measures

Computer Vision can be installed in the kitchen to improve back-of-house sanitary measures. Proximity metrics can be filtered to highlight interactions between staff and confirm social distancing in the kitchen. Computer Vision can capture the frequency at which staff members wash their hands and how long they wash their hands for. Additionally, the technology provides insights into face mask usage by staff in real time, allowing managers to remind staff on personal protective equipment usage.

Restaurant brands that provide for guest needs proactively will be quicker to regain consumer confidence. Technology is a cost-effective way of boosting your restaurant’s hygiene practices, showcasing your efforts to guests, while offering them a personalized experience even without human interaction.

How to Get Started?

We want to help restaurants during this difficult time, which is why we are offering our technology for free without any contractual obligations. Contact us at info@presto.com so we can get our contactless solutions running at your stores in just a few days.