Ken Loeb Speaks Out on How Restaurants Can Survive COVID

As a real estate executive and businessman, Ken Loeb understands what business owners are going through with the COVID-19 shutdowns. Restaurants rely on the public to stay in business and need technology that helps them keep customers safe. Contactless technology can help customers have confidence in their safety when they dine out and conduct other public transactions. With public health in mind, businesses need ways to avoid physical contact and still engage their clientele.

Here are six ways restaurants and other businesses can make their business contactless:

1. Although contactless payment options have been available for a while, the technology hasn’t been widely adopted. That needs to change, according to Ken Loeb of Ottawa. To use contactless payments, guests download an app such as Googe Wallet or ApplePay. Through near-field communications (NFC), they can transfer payment authorization by tapping their phone to a card reader. This eliminates passing a credit or exchanging cash. Consumers never even touch the card reader!
2. Ken Loeb also espouses the idea of using Quick Response codes. Smartphones use matrix barcodes to share information. Denny’s and Ruth’s Chris steakhouses are using QR codes to avoid exchanging menus, which makes servers and guests safer. QR codes on the tables allow guests to download meal choices to their phones.
3. Curbside Pickup keeps guests safely in their cars. Starbucks currently only accepts payment through their mobile app, and baristas bring the drinks to the door for pickup. Panera uses geofencing to let employees know when a guest has arrived to pick up their curbside order. Ken Loeb applauds these efforts and says that he has used them to keep his own family safe.
4. Subscriptions and Meal Kits have long been part of the online world. Panera and other restaurants are using them to entice the public in a safe way. Panera Bread has a $8.99/month deal on all-you-can-drink coffee. Through curbside delivery, guests can maintain their coffee habit without entering the store. Plus, they already made the investment, so they want to get their money’s worth. Ken Loeb calls the plan ingenious. Other restaurants are using meal subscriptions to provide customers with low-effort, delicious meals.
5. Ken Loeb applauds restaurants that use reservations to control the number of guests on the premises. Restaurants also have to use enhanced cleaning procedures to keep guests safe. In Italy, Burger King is asking guests to place their order online and choose an available time slot for a reservation.
6. Loyalty programs also encourage guests to return to restaurants where they get perks for being members. Ken Loeb believes that loyalty programs cultivate guest relationships and can help drive advertising in the post-COVID world.

Ken Loeb understands that guests to not want to come in close contact with restaurant staff. So, taking a few extra steps to order online doesn’t seem like a major inconvenience. Adopting contactless technology can help restaurants reduce the spread of germs even after COVID-19 is a distant memory.