DON T GET CAUGHT OFFSIDE! How to manage footfall during the world cup: 5 top tips for pub & bar operators

Transcription

1 DON T GET CAUGHT OFFSIDE! How to manage footfall during the world cup: 5 top tips for pub & bar operators

2 The countdown is on to the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia where 4 weeks of football fever will hit the British public. The World Cup presents a great opportunity for you, as pub and bar operators to increase footfall and of course profits but it s a competitive market so it s important to raise your game and attract that all important football customer, and more importantly, get them spending. DesignMyNight, now part of Access Hospitality have used their years of experience helping operators maximise bookings, promoting events, and streamlining reservations to come up with 5 top tips to managing and drive that all important footfall. 66% of UK population increase leisure spend during the World Cup

3 1. Avoid injury early on No-shows are an issue for the industry as a whole; however, during major sporting events you should be even more cautious of leaving yourself with empty seats on match-day. This also goes for accepting large group bookings without implementing pre-payment or card authorisation. Smart operators are bundling packages together and then using their booking system s technology to take a booking and payment upfront. For example, instead of just a booking, why not offer a guaranteed seat, view of a screen, a beer and a burger for 20. You can also consider using ticketing to sell your space and create more of an event feel. We maximise bookings for specific events, by optimising the flexibility of our booking system. We create dedicated booking types (e.g. World Cup Booking) which makes it easy for the customer to see we are showing the games and is a clear customer journey from search to conversion. We also make use of our pre-ordering and online payment tools to provide both a seamless customer experience as well as reducing admin time in the venue. Together this helps us reduce no shows, increase upselling, make our venues more efficient and make everything simple for our customers. Sarah Groves, Sales & Events Manager Young s

4 2. Your ticket to lifting the cup Why not take it a step further and create themed events to coincide with the matches you are showing? Using ticketing technology, creating an event box office is super simple. These ticketed events enable you to make an occasion of each match, which in turn means your customers are more likely to spend not only on drinks, but also on food. It also creates a 24/7 box office on your website to sell your space without needing your staff to get involved at all. Raising our game is really important to us during big sporting events; not only do we offer fantastic and compelling products to entice our customers to enjoy watching live sport in our venues, but also to ensure the booking journey and pre-visit experience is as straightforward as possible. Customers are provided with the information and given great flexibility at the point of booking to create a bespoke package that suits their requirements. We believe that simplicity is key and will be offering price per person packages, flexibility to customise drinks, food packages and premium packages. Anthony Knight, Marketing Director Maxwell s Group

5 3. Match, the match Pub and bar operators should be thinking creatively around their food offering. Consider tailoring dishes to reflect key ingredients from competing nations: For example, kimchi added to burgers for South Korea, sushi and tempura for Japan, tacos with guacamole for Mexico and anything involving barbecued meats for Brazil. These simple tweaks go a long way to helping create more of an immersive and quirky viewing experience for your customers. Operators should consider driving loyalty and promoting their wider drinks offer, across the month, with a 10th drink free loyalty card. Perhaps consider a World Cup nations drinks list not forgetting alcohol free versions for any drivers. Customers can tick off each nation s tipple over the course of the month, whilst also voting on their favourite national drink to win a prize. Managing loyalty through technology removes the headache of tireless admin, while also incentivising customers to keep coming back a win-win for all!

6 4. Don t take your eye off the ball It s been reported that 65% of customers don t know what to order when they first sit down in a bar or restaurant. The opportunity for front-ofhouse teams to make recommendations and upsell will be huge during the World Cup and especially if operators are planning themed menus based on competing countries. Smart EPoS technology has the ability to prompt staff on what to upsell and record individual staff performance, giving praise/rewards where due. This kind of data can be used to make shifts more enjoyable for teams, potentially feeding into a staff league table with rewards for scoring against set goals. Consideration should be given to an in-house Cup Winner or prize bespoke to the individual. 65% of customers don t know what to order when they first sit down

7 5. Bridging cultures, bridging technologies The World Cup has a unique opportunity to unite a nation, but what about uniting and integrating your technology? We shouldn t underestimate the importance of integration, if you are pre-selling packages or taking deposits, it s fundamental to be able to integrate your booking system with your EPoS provider. This enables your team to easily see on the till who has a booking, and what they have paid for and/or pre-ordered; all without manual, inefficient work for your staff, leaving you to focus on providing the very best customer service during a busy shift.

8 Introducing the Access Hospitality Business Management Suite We ve brought together five best-of-breed hospitality offerings to create an end to end solution which enables our customers to drive better efficiencies, and have the freedom to focus on delivering great guest experiences. Reservations & Ticketing Table/Party Reservations Enquiry & Table Management Pre-order & payments Event Ticketing Gift Vouchers Venue / Event B2C Marketing People Recruitment & On-boarding Labour Optimisation Rotas & Staff Scheduling T&A (Hotels) HR, Right-To-Work & Document Management Expense Management Payroll EPOS EPOS solutions Kitchen Video Management F&B Stock Management Loyalty Management Financials Finance Management Branch & Brand Accounting Purchase To Pay Food, Beverage & Laundry and full Stock Control Menu / Allergen / Nutrition Engineering Contract Management PO & Invoice Management Property Maintenance Supplier & Call-Out Management In-House Facilities Maintenance Compliance Management Consumables Procurement

9 At Bounce we know the opportunity the world cup can bring. We have 12 foot screens and a massive space dedicated for the games, a two man brass band for all major games, half time shows and quizzes, food and drink deals, as well as specialised pizzas from your home nation. We also want to make it a home away from home for the likes of France, Germany, Poland, Australia and more. Ryan Price, Bounce Marketing Manager THE HOME OF PING PONG

10 Find out more? Access Hospitality allows you to effortlessly manage multi-site operations and deliver first-class guest experiences by employing some or all of our comprehensive range of technology tools. You can take advantage of numerous cloud-based software solutions to quickly and easily manage properties, reservations, finance, purchase to pay, ticketing, cash, sales, stock, and your biggest single asset, your people. www: theaccessgroup.com/hospitality Tel: