After more than a year spent at home, many consumers are excited to head back to their favorite bars and restaurants this summer. But when it comes to their experiences dining out, consumers will be focusing on different things than they did prior to the pandemic. For instance, where consumers may have been looking for an exciting menu or great atmosphere as their only needs when choosing where to dine, they may now be looking for other things, such as tables with more distance between them, staff wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) or visible cleaning schedules.
Operators have certainly adjusted the way they do business since the onset of the pandemic; pivoting from dine-in to primarily takeout and delivery was just one aspect of what changed. Cleaning processes, including sanitation and disinfection, have ramped up considerably for many foodservice establishments. For operators looking to reassure their guests and demonstrate safety, highlighting processes that reinforce cleanliness is key.
Meeting consumer expectations
According to Technomic’s 2020 Future of FSR: Family and Casual Dining Consumer Trend Report, a little more than half of consumers say that when choosing where to dine, it’s important to them that restaurant workers wear PPE, and about a third say it’s important for the restaurant to have readily available sanitizing options for customers (such as hand sanitizer, for instance).
Operators have been abreast of the new demands; 67% of full-service operators have introduced new food safety and sanitation measures since the onset of the pandemic, according to Technomic, and 28% added technology to adapt to the current environments—adding online ordering, mobile ordering, contactless delivery options and more. As diners slowly return to dining rooms, the importance of keeping up with cleanliness demands will be as critical as ever for operators.
Easy-to-use, effective solutions
After the last year, single-use products such as masks and sanitizing and disinfecting wipes became an easy way to maintain cleanliness and safety, and that’s still true today. Operators looking for a convenient, easy way to keep up with cleanliness and sanitation demands need look no further than PURELL® Foodservice Surface Sanitizing Wipes. A one-step product, these wipes are perfect for cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting foodservice surfaces such as tables, highchairs, electronic touch screens, food prep counters and other high-touch areas, and they have also been approved for food-contact surfaces, meaning operators don’t have to worry about contamination or rinsing surfaces with water before prep.
With no need to rinse and no harsh chemicals, these convenient wipes easily take the place of reusable rags, which, in addition to calling for a cleaning solution to be mixed and stored separately, also don’t provide true cleanliness—after all, how long has the rag been in use? When was it last dipped in the cleaning solution? What cleaning solution is being used? All of these questions are chances for customers to be turned off by a foodservice establishment. By using PURELL® Foodservice Surface Sanitizing Wipes, operators eliminate the guesswork for consumers while saving labor—a one-step/no-mixing solution for cleaning is more efficient and helps employees be more productive overall. . By using a brand that consumers know and trust, operators can begin to instill trust in their customers again with ease, while also signaling how serious their commitment to cleanliness is.
To learn more about the benefits of single-use sanitizing surface wipes from Purell®, visit www.gojo.com today.
This post is sponsored by GOJO Industries, the inventors of the PURELL brand