Mass Return of Fine Dining
After more than a year, restaurants reopen for good this summer. California’s set to return to full capacity this month. Wine country will come roaring back alongside other businesses, and all the good that comes with fine dining. Customers can look forward to sommeliers at dinner, vineyard tours, and wine tastings. You just can’t replicate some experiences online, so although your sales channels may have shifted during the pandemic, now you can go back to business as usual.
Don’t completely abandon the customer base and sales tools accrued during COVID-19, though. Integrate any new sales channels you started alongside old favorites to create a better-than-ever dining experience. Your restaurant will appeal to a wider range of guests, thus generating more profit without affecting your reputation or brand association.
Customers and restaurants alike can’t wait to return to sit-down dinners. Bring back their favorite aspects of fine dining to greet them when they arrive.
Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash
Will Wine Country Boom?
Places like Napa Valley have two things that will work to their advantage during post-pandemic recovery. The high-end nature of wine country and fine dining in general means that tourism, eating and drinking, and expensive bottles are par for the course. Meanwhile, fine dining has an interactive aspect, especially with tastings. After a year of being cooped up inside with no one to talk to, customers are eager to chat. This will go double for the places in restaurants where conversation has already bloomed.
Perhaps your waitstaff pairs customers’ dinner with wine. To make a better combination, they’ll chat with the table to learn what they like, what they’ve tried before and other questions to narrow down what they’ll love. This dialogue may also extend to the meal, with customers interested in learning where their food came from and more about the chef. If this happens often at your establishment, buying or growing locally is a great selling point here.
Between expensive taste and good conversation, people are eager to splurge on experiences like this once they’re available. However, fine dining won’t look the way it did before the pandemic. When you picture a high-end establishment, most imagine a quiet atmosphere, perhaps with music playing. Now that people seek more interaction, though, even this might change. Turn your fine dining into a convivial experience and beckon in the new age of fine dining.
Wine and Fine Dining Go Together
As restaurants reopen, dining out won’t look the same as it did before. Many events were canceled this past year and a lot of activities remain restricted. One thing people can splurge on is a big, expensive meal. This is what catering to new needs looks like in 2021.
Create deals and specials aimed at bringing people in for this purpose. Of course, their experiences will be predicated on how well their interactions with staff go. Restaurants should hire smarter (and offer competitive benefits) because a content staff provides better customer service. When it comes to a smooth fine dining experience, upgrading to an advanced Point of Sale system makes workforce management and customer satisfaction easier than ever before.
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