Communicating Safety to Your Customers
Telling customers that your employees are being screened for COVID-19 is a great place to start. Many restaurants are doing temperature checks or visually screening diners to determine if they appear sick, as well.
When Teresa Nguyen reopened Yogis Grill in Tempe, Arizona, on May 11, she started to test employee’s temperatures before every shift. Following CDC guidelines, if any employee has a temperature of 100.4 degrees or more, they are sent home. All employees are also asked COVID-19 screening questions by managers prior to each shift which can include:
- Do you have any COVID-19 symptoms?
- Have you had close contact in the last 14 days with someone diagnosed with COVID- 19?
- Have you been told by a health care provider that you should self-quarantine?
If any staff member answers "yes" to any of these questions, they are sent home.
Face mask requirements for restaurants have varied based on state law. In fact, off the strip in Las Vegas, Peter Klamka, owner of The Blind Pig, requires all his staff to wear masks and gloves.
"Some customers actually wanted to buy our logo masks, so we sell those now too for added sales," Klamka says.