The graph of the online food delivery industry was growing at a staggering rate until the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus. Not only the food delivery businesses but also the restaurants witnessed a huge drop in the customers. People preferred cooking their own meals instead of stepping out of their houses for eating at restaurants or ordering from restaurants.

Currently, as more and more countries are implementing mandatory social distancing policies and limiting the non-essential movement to contain the spread of the virus, people are now gradually switching to online food delivery services. This rise in demand for online food orders requires a full-proof plan for restaurants and food ordering market players like Uber Eats to make sure the customers, as well as the staff workers, remain safe and healthy.

There are a number of challenges the restaurants and food ordering platforms have been facing during COVID-19 to make sure they deliver safe and non-contaminated food to the customers for consumption. Let’s discuss some of them here.

Practicing Social Distancing

Practicing social distancing is one of the significant precautionary measures to avoid the spread of the virus. However, in a restaurant where there are multiple staff workers handling various operations, taking this precautionary measure becomes difficult and almost impossible.

The Solution – Limiting the Number of Staff Workers: At the initial stage, when the food orders are less, restaurant owners can limit the number of staff workers working in the restaurant. This will help them to maintain social distancing and prepare safe and healthy food for the customers. Later, when the customers and number of orders increase, they can inform the customers that there will be some delay in the food orders due to the limited number of staff workers.

Following this approach will not only help them keep running during the pandemic but also build trust among the customers towards the brand.

Customers Limiting Physical Exposure to Outside World

In the present situation, where people avoid contacting and meeting outsiders as a safety measure, receiving food from an outsider and exchanging currency notes is a big NO.

The Solution – Contactless Delivery and Payment: Restaurants and online food ordering platforms can offer contactless deliveries to customers. Customers should be allowed to mention the place to leave the food order at the time of ordering to limit contact with the delivery personnel. Also, offering an online payment option will help the customers make the payment without any hesitation.

Changes in Consumer Behavior

As the COVID-19 cases started to increase globally, people chose to eat home-cooked food and refrained from going or ordering from outside. Many of the restaurants had almost no customers and food ordering platforms were idle generating almost no income.

The Solution – Notifying Customers About Safety Measures that are Taken: While restaurants take complete safety measures to provide safe and healthy food to the customers, they also need to let the customers know how concerned they are about their safety. Restaurants and food ordering platforms can notify the customers through their website/app or SMSs about the safety precautions they have been taking to contain the spread of the virus.

Although it is not known how the graph of the online food ordering and delivery trend will perform post COVID-19, many service providers are working hard to meet the challenging requirement of the customers. To remain in the market providing excellent services to the customers, restaurants require a platform that helps them stay relevant to the current times. The online food ordering businesses also require a portal that fulfills the requirements of the present situation instead of a portal that only manages the food orders.

There are many other precautionary measures to be taken during COVID-19 to keep the virus at bay:

  • Temperature tracking
  • Face masks compulsion
  • Regular cleaning & disinfecting

A feature-rich and fully customizable food ordering and delivery solution like Yo!Yumm is ideal for any business that is keen to keep its food ordering platform running smoothly even in COVID-19.

Originally Published at: https://medium.com/@purnima.chauhan/challenges-online-food-delivery-challenges-in-covid-19-and-their-possible-solutions-40a6ef6eb4ee