When it comes to the restaurant experience, consumer expectations have been reprioritized in recent months, to say the least.
Safety − including everything from sanitation, employee wellness, food prep, air quality to ventilation − is top of mind. Even as restaurants reopened with reduced capacity, increased sanitation and contactless technology, diners have not rushed back to dining rooms.
About 33% of Americans are looking forward to dining out again, and one in four (27%) of Americans surveyed say they do not feel comfortable dining out until there’s a vaccine, according to the Restaurant Reckoning: Dynamic Diner report by SevenRooms.
Off-premises dining, including takeout, delivery and drive-thru, is capturing the lion’s share of restaurants’ current sales. It’s a trend that has been on a meteoric rise in recent months and will perhaps rise to new heights as seasonal, outdoor dining starts to dwindle in most areas of the US.
CHANGING CONSUMER EXPECTATIONS
Consumers are spending more time online, including ordering food. It checks two of consumers’ boxes: it's perceived as a safer alternative to in-store ordering and it is convenient. More than 60% of consumers have ordered online in the past 12 months, a 10% increase over the previous year, according to Tillster’s 4th Annual Consumer Survey.
Consumers are increasingly going mobile; 90% ordered through a mobile device — up 30% from last year, and 90% of consumers surveyed expect their restaurant apps to offer mobile ordering, up 14% from last year, according to Tillster’s research.
For restaurant operators in the fast casual and QSR space, a mobile app integrated with loyalty and payment is table stakes. “Since COVID-19 there is a massive uptick in making sure everything is talking to each other,” says Hope Neiman, CMO of Tillster.
By Anna Wolfe, Senior Editor - Restaurants - 09/29/2020
