Australia begins to shutdown
Scott Morrison’s statement over the weekend, 22nd March, is the biggest jolt to the hospitality industry yet. The prime minister announced increased social distancing restrictions including:
“Restaurants and cafes will be restricted to takeaway only.”
These new developments bring with them two main concerns:
- a blanket restriction on operating solely on takeaway and delivery;
- and the second, which is what businesses can use to inform their next step, is a greater shift in customers’ behaviour
Over the past week, there was a clear division between customers who were completely self-isolating and others who would still venture out but practice social-distancing. Morrison’s announcement will skew that ratio.
Particularly for restaurants and cafes, there will be heightened caution and potential reluctance on picking up food and placing food orders.
Peace of mind – your best product
To adapt to this growing concern, it is absolutely essential to give your customers peace of mind. Communicate and reassure your customers that you have measures in place to address the perils of this pandemic. Because at this point, your most important product is peace of mind.
Creating a safe space with online orders
One way of ensuring that your customers feel reassured is by creating a safe space, which can be done by cutting down on physical contact. Deliveries and online ordering platforms achieve that but they come with their fair share of costs.
There have been growing concerns across the industry about the pay rate charged by popular delivery platforms, usually set at 35%. So how do you make this a viable solution that serves both your needs and your customers?
An online ordering platform that doesn’t break the bank
Kounta Ordering, powered by Bopple, could be an option to consider which has a payment rate of 5.9%. Your menu is published to a personalised web page (and app marketplace), and promoted to the public with options of takeaway or in-house delivery (i.e. delivery done by yourself or your staff).
How does it work?
- customers can browse your menu, place their order and make their payment on Bopple itself
- orders are pre-paid, and land on your Kounta POS system to be accepted, then sent to the kitchen
- customers pick-up food in store or, if you like, you can deliver the food yourself
The benefits in the face of Covid-19
On top of payments being processed online which reduces contact, Bopple also has the option of self-delivery where you drop-off orders yourself. By taking deliveries in-house, you can keep your floor staff employed by assigning deliveries to them. You can also adjust your delivery prices based on your margins.
To maintain a relationship and experience with your customers, you can share your online listing (via your own unique URL), to keep your customers’ experience hassle-free and consistent with no additional apps.
Kounta & Bopple
To play our small role in supporting our community during these difficult times, we are arranging partnerships within the tech industry to help in any way that we can.
Together with our friends at Bopple, we’ve waived the $299 setup fee and the first 3 months of your Bopple subscription ($69/month). To activate this, select the ‘Kounta Intro’ offer during your setup when you enable Bopple from the Kounta add-ons marketplace.
To learn more about getting started, read our step-by-step guide here with detailed instructions and images. If you’d prefer to speak to someone directly, please contact your Account Manager here if you are a Kounta customer, or contact our team of experts if you are new to Kounta.
We will continue to do our best to support our community with regular updates on our Covid-19 Resource Hub, where we'll also share tech solutions that could help you business.
