Observed: How A Local Restaurant Succeeds During Pandemic

This blog article is an observation of how a local restaurant One House Bakery has navigated the current problems restaurants are facing during the pandemic. We do not have any sales data or have an actual business relationship with One House Baker, so this article is based on our observation as a consumer. We think they maybe navigating these uncertain times better than most. A big part (We believe?) of their success has to do with their use of using Social Media and technology and how they are promoting the alternative options they are offering now. 



Head Start

A big part of the perceived success that they have experienced during the shut down has to do with the restaurant's quality and the success it experienced before. They also were regular users of Social Media and had a large social media following to start. This fact, I am sure, made it easier for people to be receptive to their digital outreach at the beginning of the lockdown. Nonetheless, what they have done with digital marketing and technology, we are sure, has contributed to their perceived success during the pandemic. 



Foundation of Trust and Transparency

A little time after the pandemic started to take effect in the United States/US, One House Bakery began to provide regular and daily updates via Facebook and Instagram about what steps they are taking to make sure their staff and customers are healthy before they opened up again. They would use Social Media to show images of the steps they took in the Bakery/restaurant to keep employees safe. One House Bakery continues to display what they do continuously to protect there employees and customers as lockdown and the pandemic changes on a daily/weekly basis. 



From a customer perspective, this helped ease the nerves when we wanted to venture out from our pandemic diet of canned food and packaged bliss. We then tried other local eateries at the time, but we have not gone back to them since it did not appear they were ready or maybe did not care about the importance of the situation. Their food was good, but that was not enough now. These establishments did not establish trust by responding to the pandemic and implementing new processes that were safe for their employees and staff. 



Adapting Processes

One House bakery was a destination spot if you wanted delicious bread, great coffee, lunch, and an out of the box alcoholic beverage. Once they were not able to have customers come to them, they immediately started delivery service and bolstered their pickup capabilities. They started sharing with their Social Media audience that they were going to implement an online ordering system to make it easier for people to order. Before the pandemic, they did not offer online ordering, but it appears they worked with there POS (Point of Sale) vendor (Heartland) to get an online order store up in running in a matter of days. Once this was up, they just added a link to it on their Wix built website to the online ordering system. Not sure how easy it is for the staff to handle the new system, but it appears they are navigating it with limited issues as they can update stock in real-time. 



Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

Then they began to share alternative products/ideas that they were going to offer. These included putting together Family Meals on top of the regular items you could get before closing their doors to dine-in eating. Each week it appears they try and make different types of family meals, expanding their offerings to different options. Soon after, they started getting creative and offered the resell of bulk items such as fruits, vegetables, local craft beer, and butchered meat. I assumed they looked at their vendor relationships and saw an opportunity to share in the quality of product they had access to and provide a service/product that people were having a hard time getting from stores. 



Conscious and Open

During a time with much going on, One House has done a great job demonstrating they are not removed from what is going on. With their family meals, they allow customers to purchase one Family Meal for a family affected by COVID-19. They have also praised and provided offerings to first responders and have gotten personal about how the recent social unrest has affected them and spurred them to action. 



Takeaways

• Passion: The most significant factor in ensuring success during these times is that you need to have a passion for the business. Without it, you will not be open to looking inward, thinking outside of the box, and pivoting. 
• Look inward: What other options do you have to offer your customers that you can not provide them due to the pandemic. 
• Show trust: Be transparent about the steps you are taking to rise to the occasion and show your clients and staff they can trust in your business. 
• Think outside the box: Sit back, "meditate" and look outward to see if any other opportunities exist to deliver your service/product/food to your customers. 
• Technology: Research and explore technological avenues that may work for your industry and similar companies.
• Embrace digital marketing: Dive into social media and email marketing now and explore all the options your website can provide to deliver your service/product. 
• Be transparent: Using your website, social media, email, let your customers know what you are doing as much as possible to establish trust and promote your new way of doing business. 
• Be conscious: In your outreach, keep a pulse of what is going on in the world. Relate your digital marketing messaging to what is relevant to your business. 



Again we want to remind you that we do not know how One House is doing behind the scenes, but from what you can see, they have done a very effective job telling a story using social media and have embraced technology to help them pivot. 



It does not look like it will change much here soon, so it is not too late to pivot and use digital marketing and technology to help you pivot. 



Checkout One House Bakery's Instagram page for examples we mention: https://www.instagram.com/onehousebakery/?hl=en



Check out One House Bakery Here: https://www.onehousebakery.com/