As Mandates Ease, Many Diners Still Worry About COVID

Price is only one of several factors that diners use to help decide on a restaurant. Technology plays a big role as well. So does the threat of COVID.

According to PYMNTS’ research, 23% of restaurant-goers said they were more likely to choose a restaurant if they could order food to pick up ahead of time with the knowledge that it would be ready upon their arrival.

Twenty-one percent of consumers surveyed mentioned ordering features as the chief motivator, and 17% cited features that made payment easy as most important.

Other major motivators included loyalty programs, which 13% of respondents cited as the most important, menu features that make it easy to view the menu from anywhere (10%), and error-reduction technologies that make it easier for restaurants to get diners’ orders correct each time, which 3% named as most crucial.

A common thread here is consistency: Once a restaurant provides these features at a high-enough quality to keep customers satisfied, they can reliably build a foundation that keeps customers coming back and boosts lifetime value.

Meanwhile, there are certain factors that keep consumers away from restaurants. COVID is still a concern for some consumers, with 34% saying they eat in restaurants less frequently than they did before the pandemic.

This number rises to 45% among those that call themselves “very” or “extremely” concerned about COVID. Even among frequent buyers, 30% say they now eat in restaurants less often.

Thirty-two percent of the consumers we surveyed — including 43% of those that are pandemic-concerned — say they buy food from a restaurant’s website more now than they used to, and 31% of respondents — including 43% of the pandemic-concerned — also say that they call in more orders for pickup over the phone.

Meanwhile, 28% of our respondents also said they now order food using aggregators more often. Our data indicates that consumers who choose to eat in restaurants are also more likely to request outdoor seating now than in the past, with 32% of pandemic-concerned respondents, 31% of frequent buyers, and 24% of the general sample saying try to eat outside more than before the pandemic.

For more of our findings on consumer dining habits, download The Digital Divide: The Key Factors That Drive Restaurant Choice, a collaboration between PYMNTS and Paytronix.