Taco Bell And KFC Roll Out Additional Safety Measures During The Coronavirus Crisis

Yum Brands’ Taco Bell and KFC have introduced a comprehensive list of enhanced safety measures to prioritize the health and safety of both their customers and employees. These measures come on the heels of the company’s initial response to the coronavirus pandemic, announced on March 30. 

Among those new measures are contactless service and payment, gloves and masks, sealed orders, labor shifts to ensure a dedicated cleaning role, individual sanitizing wipes provided with every drive-thru order (at Taco Bell), employee temperature checks with  infrared contactless temperature scanners, Plexiglas counter shields added (at KFC) and social distancing signs and taping on lobby floors to promote social distancing where carryout is available (at KFC).

These enhanced policies were created under the guidance from the CDC and WHO, according to a KFC spokesperson.

“As that guidance has evolved, we continue to look at our restaurants to determine areas where we can apply interventions to support social distancing and limited contact, and to increase the overall safety for our team members and customers,” the spokesperson said. “As part of the Yum Brands family, we also have access to experts in virology and communicable diseases to help inform our thinking.”

These new measures are in place across Taco Bell’s 7,000 domestic locations (95% of which are operating) and KFC’s nearly 4,000 domestic locations (99% of which are operating). Both brands have suspended dine-in eating and are fulfilling orders only through drive-thru, carryout and delivery.

Some of these moves have already been adopted at other quick-service chains. In late March, Burger King and Popeyes’ parent RBI announced it was providing 15,000 infrared thermometers to franchisees to take workers’ temperatures. McDonald’s added new safety policies last week, including employee temperature checks.

Chick-fil-A just announced the installment of handwashing stations at the drive-thru and mall locations, while employees are instructed to wash their hands every time they handle cash. 

However, Yum’s protocols go a step further–forbidding cash contact in general, for example. While credit card transactions are easy to facilitate without two-person contact, Taco Bell’s contactless cash handling means team members who handle cash wear gloves and change them after every transaction. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, only team members handling food wore gloves. Taco Bell has also shifted labor so that the employee handling cash is not the same employee who hands customers the order.

“We have a person handling the register who handles the cash, and another employee handling the food, the bags and the cups,” said Taco Bell COO Mike Grams. “The cash piece and changing gloves is big. If you’re not changing gloves, it’s not contactless. This is a new behavior, but we feel it’s the safest behavior.”

Further, the brands have procured disposable, non-medical grade masks for employees who work in states where wearing such a mask is required, as well as for employees who choose to wear a mask. The mask supply is expected to be delivered to all restaurants in the next week or two.

“We ordered the masks at the height of crisis about three weeks ago, coming off of our global learnings from China. But the frontline health care workers needed them, so we had to wait for the global supply chain to catch up,” Grams said. “Since the requirements are changing every day, we will have enough for everyone in the next week or two and we encourage them to do what makes them comfortable if it’s not required (in their market).”

In addition to masks, Taco Bell and KFC have both procured contactless infrared thermometers for all of their restaurants. These are also expected to arrive in the next couple of weeks and will be used to check employees’ temperatures before every shift. More retailers and restaurant brands are adopting this practice where legal, and Grams said it is an important step ensure employee and customer safety.

“The point of it is every employee will know whether or not the person working next to them is healthy and customers will know that their food is being served by someone who is healthy,” he said. “You cannot take enough steps to make people feel safe and we feel good about this step. It’s a new world and when people know you care about them, it translates to a better experience.”

There are other steps the brands are taking to check these safety boxes, like sealing every order (not a major change from their delivery orders), and dedicating extra training to employees facilitated by experts in the medical field.

“We already had high-standard training but because of the severity and newness of this, and the unknown fear all of us feel about this, it was important to specialize that training and bring those experts in to build confidence. When you hear a doctor talking about these measures, it provides reassurance more than if I was talking about them,” Grams said. “I think it’s galvanized the brand and has taught us that there is a role for us to stop the spread and make sure it never comes back.”

Whether or not this virus will come back remains a mystery at this time, but what is a bit clearer is that our collective definition of “normal” will change. That includes safety protocols at crowded restaurants.

KFC predicts some of these safety measures will be in place for quite some time after the crisis ends. For example, the Plexiglas counter shields will be on hand for continued use as the brand’s dining areas re-open.

Grams predicts that contactless will play a major role in the restaurant industry on the other side of the pandemic, as will convenience.   

“It is incredibly difficult what to predict, but I think contactless experiences and mobile ordering will skyrocket after this,” he said. “We can’t definitively say what sticks and what doesn’t stick, but I can say the behaviors that are changing today that make life easier and safer will be the behaviors that carry into the future.”