As the world copes with how to respond to COVID-19, we know that restaurants are facing unique challenges. There are many ways restaurants can adjust to support their customers in this unprecedented time. Here are some tips and recommendations that restaurant owners and operators can use to reevaluate customer communication and ads messaging, as well as adapt to dynamic industry conditions.
Help your customers plan and prepare
- Proactively communicate changes that affect your restaurant, such as temporary closures or modified hours, in your Business Profile on Google.
- Restaurants can now add or edit dining attributes in their Business Profile to include “Takeout,” “Delivery,” “Curbside pickup,” or “No-contact delivery,” and indicate if “Dine-in” is currently unavailable.
- If you’ve reduced your menu selection or want to highlight deals or specials to your customers, you can update your Menu URL or menu data.
Communicate your new or alternative offerings
- Adjust your ad text to highlight how your restaurant has made changes to address current circumstances including alternative dine-out and contactless meal-time options.
- Keep your creatives up-to-date and customize your ads to include locations that are open, offer dine-out choices, or feature promotions by using solutions like Google Local campaigns.
- If your restaurant has a mobile app and it features online ordering, utilize App campaigns to connect your app with more customers and to drive in-app orders.
- As people are turning to online video to adapt and find community, leverage YouTube to visually share relevant information on how your restaurant is still serving customers (whether through takeout or delivery) during this time. You can also use TrueView for action to highlight prominent calls-to-action for customers such as "Order Now” and "Learn More.”
Reassure strict restaurant safety and sanitation measures
- Create a resources section on your website to reassure customers that you understand their concerns for safety and are taking precautions to protect your workers and minimize health risks.
- Post a COVID-19 update to inform customers of the important health and safety measures you’re implementing like applying more stringent cleaning procedures, increasing the frequency of hand-washing among staff, and updating training materials for employees.
Keep a pulse on industry changes and how your restaurant can help customers
- If you’re looking for a nimble food ordering solution, The Ordering.app helps you create a customized online ordering site and enables you to accept food orders for pickup and curbside directly from your website, Google Search, Google Maps and more.
- Use Google Pay for contactless payment for in-store pickup orders. Google Pay also gives your customers a fast, simple, and more secure way to pay online and in-app.
- Tools like Google Trends can help you stay abreast of insights specifically related to COVID-19 and restaurant industry-relevant trends.
- Learn how other thought leaders are coping with similar business challenges on Think with Google.
Find additional recommendations for Google Ads campaigns, resources for small businesses, and up-to-date information on Google COVID-19 efforts to help your restaurant through this challenging time.
