7 Steps for Restaurant Drive Thru Conversion: Part 1 - Know Inventory

Coronavirus is here, it’s scary, and it’s forcing everyone to make important decisions fast. The complexity of transforming your business in the time of social distancing is overwhelming. To stay open, your operation needs to change, likely in ways you never even considered, but you can do more than just survive. You can grow. You will probably even emerge from this in a stronger position for the future. And your team will stay safe and thrive.

You just need a plan. So let’s get to it.

This is part of the series “Surviving Coronavirus: Seven Steps your Retail Business or Restaurant Can Take to Succeed” 

Step 1 - Know Inventory: Inventory is a great place to start; recently it is likely you have already been trying to determine the value of goods inside your store, so this step may already be in process. Get an accurate count of the items you have available to sell to the public. You’ll need this in the new digital environment. If you don’t have an online app or website, start with a Google or Excel Spreadsheet. And remember, KISS (Keep It Simple Sally). Here’s a super simple sample we threw together if you need it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14tFh50IVZB_m7Q_QZO2dH7-Ao7wsKmqFIAfk6KdeB0k/edit?usp=sharing. Download a copy, or there are other more complicated templates readily available online.

Once you have your Inventory set, you'll want to look at what you can sell with minimal effort and maximum customer and employee safety. We'll cover that in the next post.