As India gears up to lift the lockdown gradually, Westlife Development, the company that owns and operates McDonald’s restaurants in West and South India has announced to implement a 42-pointer checklist across its dine-in, delivery and take-out services to reopen its outlets in a safe environment.
This is to ensure the safety of its employees and customers at every step.
Speaking on the reopening of restaurants, Smita Jatia, Director, Westlife Development Ltd., said, “We have been extremely cognizant of the anxieties and concerns of our customers and employees through the ongoing health crisis, and their safety has been our top-most priority.”
“In the last two months, we have closely watched the evolving situation and have constantly taken learnings from other markets that are closer to the cycle of recovery, to ensure we are able to deliver a reassuring and safe experience,” she said.
“Our new restaurant experience has been created with utmost care to ensure that our customers and employees remain safe at every step,” she added.
The company has used technology to create a safe environment for its employees and customers – right from enabling contact-less dine-in and take-out to training each member of their staff working across their 315 outlets on hygiene best-practices, to ensure tracing of all ingredients right to their source.
“Over the years, we have invested significantly to weave technology across our business and in these challenging times we have been able to leverage our strong digital backbone to enable convenience and safety for our customers,” Ms. Jatia added.
The new processes include thermal screening for all employees and customers along with ensuring social distancing in every step.
Customers and employees in the restaurant premises will have access to hand sanitizers at all touchpoints and staff members will always wear protective gears including masks and gloves.
As per government mandate, all staff members will have the Aarogya Setu app on their phones.
To ensure the highest standards of food preparation and handling, the company is making sure that the food is prepared freshly once the order is placed and is served in a contactless manner.
The restaurant leadership team is undergoing all mandated trainings on health and hygiene modules.
All McDonald’s restaurants in West and South India will be starting operation of dine-in, take-out and delivery services in a phased manner, in compliance with the local Government regulations, the company said.