After contactless delivery to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, foodtech unicorn Zomato on Friday announced “contactless dining” features to help restaurants increase trust and confidence of customers in their safety and hygiene measures in a post-lockdown world.
Contactless dining will have three main components, contactless menu, contactless ordering and contactless payment, Zomato said.
With a contactless menu, diners will be able to scan a QR code on the table to explore the restaurant menu with dish and pairing recommendations.
The Zomato app will also enable contactless ordering and payment.
“This eliminates the need for menu cards and bill books, two articles that are often touched by guests, and are typically unsanitized and could potentially be a source of concern,” Gaurav Gupta, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Zomato wrote in a blog post.
“So far, the waiting staff will still need to bring you your food from the kitchen, but as long as the waiting staff is wearing a mask, and following the highest hand hygiene standards, we should all be okay,” he said.
Zomato said it is building additional features on the app — such as the ability to order multiple courses, and the option to pay for self or the entire table — to ensure a hassle-free dining experience.
“Contactless dining also ensures that consumers don’t have to wait to place their order or pay the bill. Thus, making the entire experience far more seamless and convenient for the users,” Gupta noted.
Zomato believes that contactless dining will provide for a better and hassle free dining experience for customers, and also improve the economics of the restaurant industry — by helping bring down manpower costs, as well as reducing the table turnover time.
The food-tech company is adding safety features on the app wherein restaurants will be able to self report safety and hygiene measures that they undertake, such as how frequently they sanitise high touch points such as tables/door handles etc., and whether they arrange tables at least one metre apart from each other.
“Prompts on the Zomato app will reveal the restaurant’s hygiene records to assist in informed decision making, and also allow consumers to report any deviations from what has been self-reported by the restaurant,” Gupta said.
“We believe a proactive approach towards safety and hygiene will go a long way in building confidence back in dining out,” he added.
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