Ready to Go From FSR to Casual Restaurant?

As a long year finally comes to a close, the restaurant industry looks back on the toll that COVID-19 took on entrepreneurs. While any business that relies heavily on facetime with customers has struggled especially with the pandemic, full service restaurants have suffered more than other restaurant models.

With few revenue streams besides dine-in service, FSRs have also had sales drop faster and further than QSRs or fast-casual concepts. If you’re like a lot of full service restaurants, you might be considering turning into a casual restaurant, opening takeout and other services, and doing all you can to weather this storm.

With cutting-edge technology and an online ordering system to tie business together, you’ll be up and running with a new restaurant concept in no time.

With dine-in capacity restrictions (or the complete elimination of sitdown service in certain states), social distance regulations and overall fewer in-person interactions, FSRs experienced a worse financial bind than other restaurant models at every turn. Capacity rules guarantee that you can’t serve all the customers needed to turn a profit, or at least not enough to take in the revenue that you did before these mandates. Many shops are closing entirely as a result.

But they don’t have to. If you’re in a similar situation, you can pivot: Casual restaurants offer takeout, delivery and curbside service options which are safer, contact-free alternative revenue streams that keep many business afloat. There’s no limit to how many guests can order takeout at a time, unlike the rules about dine-in seating; thus no matter what unexpected occurrence takes place with this virus next, your restaurant can continue to lean on its off-premise services for life-sustaining profit.

Since casual restaurants are built for speed and convenience, you can think of it as simply meeting your audience’s shifting priorities rather than a concession.

Now you know what to do, and all that’s left is to actually do it. Having already opened at least one restaurant, it can be daunting to make such a sharp pivot; you know how much work goes into the endeavor. Fortunately, eatOS is here to make life a little easier.

Going from an FSR to a casual restaurant isn’t easy, but it is possible. Budget out the costs (time-wise and monetarily) of such a transition and see if you’ll need to increase revenue, if you have what’s needed in savings, or if you’ll have to drum up investors to fund the venture in a different way.

Now all that’s left is to spread the news far and wide. Take to social media and announce the changes, and even hold a (socially distanced) grand opening with press and great special offers to build excitement.

eatOS is here to ease the transition into a new, casual concept. Advanced restaurant technologies exist to make service times faster, workforce management better, communication more efficient amongst staff to give your operations the overhaul it needs.

What do you get when you invest in eatOS? For starters, we give you an online ordering platform and branded merchant app so the switch to delivery and takeout is easy, and unlike third party services, you keep all the profits on both. Get greater search engine exposure with the relevant landing pages and expand your customer base even more with QR codes, which link guests directly to a mobile-optimized menu they can use for self-service inside the store rather than sharing menus and exchanging payment methods directly.

Manage your customer relationships more effectively too. With integrated loyalty programs customers are encouraged to build a profile and come back after every sale. Modifications and personalizations encourage extra spending while those guest profiles tell you all you need to know for better marketing tactics.

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