How is India’s favorite Grill Restaurant coping up with the COVID-19 crisis

In conversation with Shubham Kumar Shukla, Sales & Marketing, Absolute Barbecues

COVID-19 has shaken a lot of industries globally, one such badly impacted industry has been the restaurant industry. From struggling to survive as a business in this difficult situation to making themselves ready for the post-COVID world, the industry is fighting the pandemic with everything it can.

Let’s understand in detail how the industry is coping up with this situation from Shubham Kumar Shukla, who handles Sales & Marketing at Absolute Barbecues — one of our favorite restaurants which we have been missing badly in the lockdown.

How has COVID-19 impacted the restaurant industry in general and Absolute Barbecues in particular?

“Not just the restaurant industry, but the entire economic ecosystem of inter-linked industries has been impacted globally. The consumers coming to the restaurants belong to different industries, which have been impacted and the cascading effect percolates down to the restaurants as well. Similarly, a lot of service industries that have been badly hit are those where human contact is difficult to avoid like spas, salons, movie theatres and so on.

If we look at the restaurant industry itself, there are different verticals like the QSRs, buffet, fine-dining, pubs etc. ABs fall under the buffet category, where there are huge crowds, people come together in groups, dance, eat, celebrate and enjoy their time. Being in the buffet category, COVID-19 has impacted ABs a lot.”

These have been challenging times for ABs but as the saying goes “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. ABs has come up with a novel digital dining concept for the post-COVID world keeping in mind the safety and hygiene of the consumers and the employees and not compromising on the consumer experience.

The only solution is to minimize contact and go to contactless dining as much as possible where the consumers can digitally place their orders and pay through contactless payment options.

“The only solution is to minimize contact and go to contactless dining as much as possible. The buffet format will remain the same but the consumer will not go to the live counters. Everything will be placed in front of them digitally. They just have to digitally select the dish they want and it will come to their table. People will be able to see virtually what is being cooked at the live counters and in the kitchen.”

For a dining experience, there are multiple points in the journey of the consumer where contact is involved with either people or things. How is ABs planning to change these contact points and how will the consumer journey in ABs look like post-COVID?

“Come to ABs, at the valet parking, instead of handing the keys to someone, you would be dropping your keys in a box and there would be a sanitizer over there. A person with a mask, gloves and a protective shield will park your car. Then you will be greeted at the reception and you would have a pre-booking of your table. If you have not pre-booked, there would be a kiosk and a person to assist you from a dignified distance to select the number of people, type of dining etc. Then you would be escorted to your table. At your table, you would have a tab that would have a walkthrough video on how the food is being cooked safely and how the dining will happen. This tab will act as a touch-point for you, you can scan the QR code, choose from the menu and place your order. You can check the details of any dish by reading a description, viewing the video on what is the cooking process for the dish. Then the food would come to your table. To ensure the safety of the employees and the consumers, it will always be displayed who all are there on duty, the employees will have a name tag, on which their temperature will be mentioned. So you can see who is coming to my table to serve my food, what is his temperature and if he is physically and mentally fit. Once you are done with your food, there will be a contactless payment. There will be a bar code that you can scan and pay your bill through any payment instrument like Google Pay, Paytm etc.”

The safety of the consumers is very important and equally important is the safety of the employees. How is ABs ensuring the safety of the ABs family?

“Even before the pandemic, we have a screening process for the employees. We check their medical history, fitness and background. If they are mentally equipped to handle unprecedented situations at work like sometimes the consumers get angry and start blasting the employees, so how do they react to such situations as they are in the services industry. We have a dedicated guest house for different teams like housekeeping, catering etc. The hygiene of these places is taken care of by the company and are well maintained and sanitized. The company has invested funds in their medical facilities and insurance.”

Are there any trainings planned for the employees specifically for the post-COVID scenario?

“The process and plan have been decided for operating after the pandemic. The senior line of employees has been already trained for the same. Trainings were given before also for any unprecedented situations like fire in the restaurant etc. There are different kinds of trainings conducted for the employees to get them certified customized for the new employees and the experienced ones. There is a 60 days training plan for the new employees with a mix of classroom and on the job modules. The experience employees just have to pass the hygiene tests right now. The post-COVID training module has been prepared and the employees have been trained on the proposed changes, the new implementations, sanitization process, how the vegetables should be washed, what should be the temperature and so on.”

We have seen ABs actively contributing to help the community in such difficult times as well. Can you please elaborate on that?

“In Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, we had started distributing the food to the needy since the lockdown began. The lockdown was announced on 25th March and by 26th March, we were there in the field delivering packaged food. What we found out was that there were a lot of students who were stuck in PGs and flats with no food and were struggling to get the food. The government had not announced at that time that they would start providing food. The government and NGOs started delivering food from 28th-29th March. There were many good NGOs coming out and helping these people in need of food etc.

Wherever and whatever we are today is all because of the love and affection that we have got from our consumers and patrons and this was an important time for a responsible Indian brand to give it back to the community and it was not only dedicated to the poor people on street, it was for the needy, anyone who was in need like if someone is there in the hospital and there is no canteen in the hospital, they could get food from ABs. We distributed around 6700 food packages in around 13–14 days. Later, a lot of big brands had jumped in and started helping people. It was good to see so many brands coming together to help the needy people.”

This is how ABs has been doing its bit to help the community in this pandemic and they are always ready to help the community as and when required :)

Having such a rich experience in marketing, we also wanted to understand from Shubham, how has marketing evolved in recent times and how will it change in the post-COVID scenario.

“Earlier it used to be mostly one-way communication from the brand through advertisements on different marketing channels. Brands tried to reach out to their consumers and then the consumers took action on it. But now, the game is changing and one-way communication is not going to work. What is going to work is an influencer communication. If you talk good about you, I might not get convinced but when someone else whom I trust talks good about you and that talking is not advertorial (like an ad) but more like an experience sharing by someone who is into blogging or influencing other people, and I think that this person is intelligent and there is some weightage to what this person says, then I might trust you. So ABs is planning to have these influencers come to their stores, witness the new cooking and dining experience and talk about them, then only people will trust and come to the restaurant. Otherwise, all other kinds of marketing like radio ads, emails, newspaper ads, social media etc are not going to work, as the real convincing power is with someone whose words have got some weightage, whom I admire and trust. So the brands need to tag along with some influencer, celebrity, good chef or an executive of a company to connect better with their consumers.”

We would like to leave you with a very beautiful message from Shubham to the AB fans!

India is a land of celebration with we looking for reasons to celebrate with so many festivals and occasions. Once the pandemic recedes, we’ll again come together to enjoy and celebrate the small things in our lives with just a layer of caution about our safety and hygiene added :)

“I believe India is a country where we celebrate, we have so many festivals, so many occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, new jobs and promotions. For all these occasions people need a place to celebrate and once this entire COVID situation gets over, people will come back, they would start enjoying and celebrating, but with certain hygiene factors which will come into place. I want to tell everyone that yes this is a tough time for all of us and this will continue for some more time but as I said, India is a place of celebration, you cannot keep yourself away from your family, friends, and colleagues for a very long time. Once this pandemic recedes, people will again start going out to celebrate and enjoy, while being cautious about their safety and hygiene.”