Two Tips For Cafe Owners Dealing With Large Lines Outside Their Premises Because Of Social Distancing

If the implementation of social distancing rules has resulted in your customers having to wait in long lines outside your premises, you might want to try out the advice offered here.

Stock up on 20 oz bottled mineral water and single-serving cookies

In this situation, you should stock up on plenty of 20 oz bottled mineral water as well as a lot of single-serving cookies and give these to the people waiting in line outside your cafe. Whilst you might be wary of spending money on what may seem like frivolous purchases, doing this could do actually do wonders for your business.

When people decide to go to a cafe, it's normally because they're thirsty or hungry (or both). If these people have to wait in line outdoors for ages before they can satisfy their need for refreshments, they may get crabby and become so annoyed that they give up and go home before they've even entered the cafe. If you give these people a free 20 oz bottle of mineral water (which will be enough to quench their thirst, but will not be too heavy for them to hold whilst they wait in line for a while) and a bite-sized cookie, this should satiate them a little, alleviate their irritation at having to wait outside and thus stop them from leaving before they've bought something from your cafe.

Additionally, if your customers have to wait outdoors on very hot days, providing each of them with a free bottle of mineral water could also reduce the chances of them fainting due to dehydration, and you then having to get them the medical assistance they need.

Tidy up the outdoor waiting area before closing up every evening

If you start offering customers who wait in socially distanced lines outside your cafe some free mineral water and cookies, then you must give yourself a little extra time to tidy up this outdoor area every evening before you close up. Even if there are trash cans in this area, some people will not throw their empty water bottles and cookie wrappers into them, either because they cannot be bothered or because they don't want to risk losing their place in line by stepping over to these trash cans.

As such, there will be plenty of wrappers and bottles on the ground. Picking these up in the evenings will ensure that customers who arrive the following morning do not have to stand in a sea of garbage whilst waiting in line or are not so repelled by the sight of it that they buy their coffee or food somewhere else.