How to get your business ready for the reality of

COVID-19?

Download the FREE handbook with ideas, recommendations and guidance on how you can adapt your bakery, pastry, restaurant or sweet business to get through the COVID-19 storm. The handbook will be updated regularly – based on new insights and the changing business reality.

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DELIVERY? TAKEOUT?
WE ANSWER ALL YOUR QUESTIONS

Keeping your business up and running, and organizing that in a safe way is not easy. Below we bundle frequently asked questions and a few recommendation and best practices that might help you in organising it in a safe way!

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Delivery

take away

food safety

menu

communicating

ANSWERS

Pick-up or take-away definitely open up possibilities to keep your business up and running during the Corona crisis. For bakery, pastry and chocolaterie shops, it is the most common way to continue serving customers. For restaurant kitchens, it can only happen behind closed doors (in most countries) – to avoid traffic in the restaurant.

 

Organisation is everything. To secure a safe environment for your team, we recommend working with a minimal team in your shop and kitchen to guarantee social distancing. Therefore, many shops and restaurants prefer to:

• offer a more limited selection of the regular offering: your best sellers! Restaurants can adapt their take-out menu to only a few, yet daily changing options.

• bakeries, pastry shops and chocolateries often offer packages that have been pre-packed already: it limits queueing and shopping times to a minimum.

• many shops arrange specific times for pick-up during the day: that way they can organize preparation, packaging and customer service better.

 

To organize this is in a safe way, we recommend to taking strict precautions (compatible with those issued by your local authorities):

 

In kitchens

• Regularly (every 15 minutes) wash and disinfect your hands.

• Work with disposable gloves and change them regularly.

• Wear mouth masks if available and possible.

• Respect social distancing: make sure you and your staff can keep at least 1.5 m distance between the different working stations.

• Clean work surfaces, equipment and tools regularly – disinfect with alcohol.

• Reassure your customers with the hygiene and safety measures you’re taking: communicate in your shop and on social media.

 

In shops and restaurants

• In case of fresh, unpacked products: serve customers yourself using disposable gloves. Ask them not to touch any product (unless they’re pre-packed already).

• Hand hygiene is crucial: ask your shop assistants to wash their hands every 15 minutes and change gloves regularly.

• In case of self-service: offer disposable gloves to customers.

• Protect your products as much as you can behind glass or in the counter.

• Create a temporary screen or window between your cashier desk and the customer area to protect your staff.

• Ask your customer for cashless payment only: preferably contactless. In case customers use and touch the payment terminal, clean it with alcohol immediately after.

• For small shops with less than 10m2: put up a window sign asking your customers to queue outside in open air when one customer is in.

• For big shops: mark the floor with self-adhesive strips that indicate the safe waiting spots (1.5 meter in between every line) at the counter.

• If possible, indicate markings outside as well with 1.5 meter between: it helps customers to understand where they need to wait.

 


 

When organizing pick-up or take-away, we recommend taking the necessary precautions to protect your team and your customers in the best way possible. Some ideas that seem to work quite well:

• For small shops with less than 10m2: put up a window sign asking your customers to queue outside in open air when one customer is in.

• If possible, indicate markings outside as well with 1.5 meter between: it helps customers to understand where they need to wait.

• For big shops: mark the floor with self-adhesive strips that indicate the safe waiting spots (1.5 meter in between every line) at the counter. Whenever the maximum number of customers is achieved within a confined space, ask customers to queue outside: one customer out, is a new customer in. Markings to indicate the safe waiting lines help too.

• Ask customers to enter the shop alone: avoid families and couples to enter as much as possible.

 


 

Ask your customer for cashless payment only: preferably contactless. In case customers use and touch the payment terminal, clean it with alcohol immediately after each use.


 

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