Senior living communities are preparing for a post-pandemic future, and dining has become a central topic of discussion as they plan their initiatives for 2022. Operators, residents and staff have endured significant changes to their dining operations in order to maintain safety and compliance.
But with the trickling return of in-person dining, a new set of challenges are at play. Here are four key steps that operators can take to future-proof in-person dining.
Social distancing in the dining room
In 2020, senior living dining became largely confined to a person’s unit, with operators taking steps to future-proof in-room dining. Today, residents want to find ways to resume normal social interactions, including at meal time. Yet “post-pandemic” remains a misnomer in many ways, and in 2022 operators will still need to help residents find a return to normalcy in dining that nevertheless accounts for the remaining COVID-driven health concerns they all have.
Social distancing within the dining room is one key. This can be achieved in several ways, or a combination, including:
— Increasing use of a table reservations system that allows operators to control dining room occupancy to minimize crowding
— Increasing outdoor dining opportunities
— Creating dining spaces with more space between tables
— Creating dining spaces that meld indoor and outdoor elements, with greater airflow
Tableside ordering on mobile devices
For operators working with campus dining solution company CBORD, flexible point-of-sale (POS) capabilities help improve server efficiency for a better resident dining experience. They also enable switching between in-person and in-room dining to help operators adapt operations as needed.
The rapid influx of baby boomers into aging communities has resulted in a shift in preferences among prospective residents. Cost, location and innovation are the top three dining criteria for residents and their families. They desire walkable communities with easy access to dining and entertainment, complemented by POS systems that empower residents to make purchases the same way across all of those facilities.
CBORD implements systems that run on any device or browser, giving all community members the ability to access meal plans and make purchases with ease. Until dining rooms can operate at full capacity, communities must be able to support transactions wherever the resident is located. Whether that’s tableside or in the comfort of their quarters, empowering residents to order by themselves and customize the dining experience helps cut labor expenses.
“Baby boomers are changing the values and needs that operators must meet in the sales process,” says Francisco Carbonell, CBORD product owner. “Being able to enable residents to order by themselves and customize the dining experience saves a lot in terms of labor.”
Self-service ordering and payments
Meal plans account for nearly 90% of resident dining transactions, so giving them the ability to make contactless mobile payments adds an additional layer of convenience and safety. Their progressive vision for this technology encompasses not just the communities themselves, but also food trucks, pop-ups or any other type of community enhancement through temporary access. Self-service kiosks help minimize germ transmission, impacting staff shortages with contactless payments since no money or cards are exchanged.
But the primary driver behind them is resident experience. User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are a top priority for operators shopping for self-service solutions, so choosing the correct partners is critical.
“There are many different approaches to kiosks, but in senior living, operators need to consider UI and UX,” Carbonell says. “Choosing the correct partner with the best solution for this space is critical.”
There are significant benefits to CBORD’s POS capabilities on the operations side as well. CBORD’s self-service solutions plug into pre-existing resident accounts to provide a streamlined and integrated product that residents and staff can easily adopt. Each resident’s food needs — such as allergens and dietary restrictions — are loaded into the system, and the payment accounts are compatible upon setup.
On the operations side, the self-service kiosks can fulfill resident dining needs without expending additional staffing resources. That is critical in a time where staff shortages are at an all time high.
“To have a bistro or convenience store staffed 24/7 is almost impossible — especially with labor shortages. Kiosks available at all times can drastically improve the resident experience,” Carbonell says.
Wide variety of dining locations
A dining room is hardly the only area of a community where residents can eat. And while dining in senior living is about nourishment, the piece that COVID damaged was socialization. If residents can only dine in the dining room, and if they don’t feel safe there, they will sacrifice socialization within the community in favor of simply the needs of diet.
Of course, if residents cannot get both the socialization and nourishment they need from senior living dining, they are more likely to leave campus. From full service to grab and go, CBORD helps communities offer as many options as possible to residents so one location is not too overloaded.
As the senior living industry looks ahead to 2022 and beyond, these four solutions will be key differentiators. Tech-empowered boomers are looking for communities that understand their needs, showing a progressive stance on the application of technology in senior living and a willingness to implement it.
This article is sponsored by CBORD. To learn more about how CBORD can help future-proof your dining program, visit CBORD.com/reimagine-senior-living-with-cbord.
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