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Digital Tools For A Successful Restaurant Re-Opening

By Sophie Rischmiller May 1, 2021

In the past days and weeks, there have been rumours about the slow and responsible re-opening of hospitality venues all over the UK. Having spent most of the lockdown clawing back business where they can through takeaways, gift cards and adapted or alternative services, the hospitality industry will be breathing a sigh of relief for the prospective re-opening of their doors to the public.

But now is not the time to jump the gun, now is the time to plan a strategic re-opening that will optimise footfall and ensure that customers keep coming back. A huge part of this will be making sure customers feel safe in your restaurant, but that is just half the battle. The real test is to pre-plan and pre-inform your customers, have them visit you, then make sure they keep coming back.

The Feebi team are spilling the beans on some of our favourite digital tools to use pre-re-opening to ensure a smooth transition into business as usual…more or less.

Canva – canva.com

Canva is a free, online design tool that can be used to create logos, posters, flyers, cards and more. They have simple template designs for you to create a number of promotional material that can be used both on your social media and website, and can also to be printed out and used in your venue. You don’t need to hire a graphic designer or have a great eye for design to choose one of their simple templates and insert some text.

Top Tip: When using deign programmes like Canva, or when you are considering any other type of design, make sure you use your logo and a consistent font and colour palette. Branding is a key area of marketing your venue; you want every visual asset you produce to relate back to your venue.

Capp – cappuk.com

Capp is a platform that will enable businesses and consumers to safely use hospitality services again. Capp will allow businesses to show, in real-time, their capacity and how many spaces they have available, all in compliance with government guidelines. Consumers will be able to instantly select a more or less busy area of their choice using the live tracking system. Capp is the solution to a logistical and schematic problem we are facing these days that will help everyone go back to normality.

Their key feature is that you are able to live track capacity numbers and data for business. Capp was born to help people going back to normality and feel safe to use hospitality again, to enable the government and NHS to track a case and relate it to other people and places they have been to as well as providing a data pool of trends for business and government to use for future planning.

Feebi – getfeebi.com

Yes, we know! A shameless plug over here! Feebi was built with the restaurant industry in mind, so when you are thriving so are we. Our simple-to-use chatbot is ever-expanding with new features to allow your customers to get in touch with you more effectively. Our chatbot operates on both your website and your Facebook page without you having to lift a finger once set up is complete.

Customers can ask questions, ask to see menus, book tables and so much more with instant responses. When the re-opening date comes around, rather than spending your time responding to a number of questions about your reopening, Feebi can respond for you so that you can focus on the more important tasks at hand. Check out our other recent blog posts to see what Feebi is capable of.

Mailchimp – mailchimp.com

Another handy tool to kick start your digital marketing prior to your re-opening is Mailchimp. This is a fully integrated online marketing platform, one of their key features being their email automation services. Even their free version could help take your restaurant marketing up a level.

Top Tip: If you want to inform your customers about when you are reopening, put a form on your site for them to add their contact details if they want to know your re-opening date. This way you can utilise their email address to send them information about what you have to offer, or even discount codes for being a loyal customer.

We could think of plenty more digital tools to get your restaurant on the road to re-opening digital success, but we don’t want to bombard you. Instead, follow us on social media (@getfeebi) where we will be sharing more of our favourite tips and tricks to support you during the re-opening phase.

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