As a large part of the nation awakes from a period of extended lockdown it is our divine job to make you aware that reopening does not happen gradually, but rather you should be bracing yourself for an onslaught of customers.
"No one plans to fail, there's only failing to plan." - Person who lives stress-free
We in Account Management are here to help you arm yourself with the necessary tools to serve this increased volume of customers.
Data shows that after lockdown your customers are likely to go on “revenge-spending” sprees – with big savings and even bigger appetites for the venues they’ve sorely missed.
The Urge to Splurge Post-Pandemic Revenge Spending Study, which surveyed 2,458 Australians nationally, found:
- 47% of shoppers are planning on making a major purchase;
- 40% of Australians are looking forward to spending on dining out and entertainment; and
- 19% will book a holiday
Lightspeed has created a Revenge Spending POS checklist to help you get ready for this unique moment.
Revenge Spending POS Checklist:
- Subscription for the plan you require: POS, Insights, Purchase, Produce
- Design floor plan for outside dining area
- Update inside floor plan for social distancing
- Place QR codes on tables for table ordering
- Enable Pay@Table to reduce movement around the venue and bottlenecks at registers
- Add extra registers to service customers faster
- Create new high-ticket products in Back Office
- Place purchase order for cleaning supplies and PPE
- Onboard new staff with logins and permissions adjusted
- Purchase receipts mapped to accounting software
- Apply government vouchers as a payment type (NSW)
- Offer bar tabs for revenge spending
- Allow group ordering for large bookings
- Take deposits for bookings to reduce no-shows
- Secure bookings through reservations and waitlists
- Use single product printing for takeaway beverages
- Reach foot traffic by acquiring a presence in an online marketplace
- Stand out from the competition with review management
- Choose default sales screen for the speediest workflow
- Prepare staff rosters for busy periods
1. Subscription for the plan you require: POS, Insights, Purchase, Produce
Now is a great time to review your plan. Ask yourself, are there additional features that you need? A table plan, register-specific printing, or direct access to accurate COGs? Lightspeed makes it easy for you to upgrade your subscription in-app.
For some of you, lockdown meant closing your doors, turning off the taps, and cancelling your subscription. So now is the time to review and re-upgrade. Because we know that customers will be knocking down the doors when reopening day comes!
2. Design floor plan for outside dining area
State governments are directing venues to have outdoor seating areas, so if you've only ever had one section, here's your reminder to add your additional sections as well! Also, have you considered your printing workflows? Register-specific printing is the golden key to having a printer specifically for an outdoor area.
3. Update inside floor plan for social distancing
Floor plans are like the North Star for staff. Having a floor plan that looks exactly like your venue will mean that new staff can hold the iPad up, align it to the room and know exactly which table they are sending that Spicy Marg to. Make sure the floor plan reflects the current state of the restaurant - we’re looking at you, communal tables.
4. Place QR codes on tables for table ordering
As we all know, staff are hard to find right now. We also know that there is going to be more outside dining! Why not take a leaf out of The Fish Shop’s book (restaurant in Sydney’s Bondi) and have all your outside dinners order from QR codes and have your smaller team run those drinks and dishes outside? Don't forget to laminate them too.
5. Add extra registers to service customers faster
A smart cookie once said, “better to need it than not have it.” We bet they were in hospo.
While we anticipate queues, doubling-down on registers is one of the easiest hacks to reduce walk-aways. Try out a floating register to serve the queue bar snacks or soft drinks.
6. Create new high-ticket products in Back Office
Remember the stat about major purchases? People are hungry to spend their saved up cash at your venue so get prepared with the right items to feed the ravenous appetites.
Want to know what your high ticket items are? Add recipes via Produce and sort sold items by GP% What tops this list, is what you want your staff to be promoting.
7. Place purchase order for cleaning supplies and PPE
Whether you're getting to grips with Purchase or you use it every day, sending a PO via Purchase for a whole lot of Dettol and Alcohol wipes will need to be ticked off at some point!
8. Onboard new staff with logins and permissions adjusted
As we’re all acutely aware, the hospitality industry is facing a real crisis with staffing. Not only are teams smaller due to hiring struggles but COVID’s impact on high employee turnover means that a lot of the staff at our favourite venues are new. This means they need permissions set up correctly to protect both the staff and the business.
9. Purchase receipts mapped to accounting software
Use the lifting of lockdowns as a chance to draw a line in the sand. Did you have a manilla folder you gave to your accountant to journal? Never again. Send POs from Lightspeed and map them directly to your accounting software. Less billable hours for your accountant and more peace of mind for you.
10. Allow group ordering for large bookings
Yes, groups will be dining out together but diners will always want to pay separately. Ensure that your chefs aren’t dealing with hundreds of individual dockets with Group Ordering. This gives you the best of both worlds: customers pay individually and the kitchen gets all orders on a single docket.
11. Use single product printing for takeaway beverages
While the lockdown has been lifted (can we get a hip hip!) takeaway and beach picnics are not going anywhere. This sparkly new feature means you can print dockets and stick them directly to packaging which speeds up serving times and improves communication between customers and staff.
12. Take deposits for bookings to reduce no-shows
Who knew that the gift card functionality was this flexible? Well...we did. With limited spots and higher demand, taking bookings and securing a deposit from customers means that you won’t be left out of pocket if the diner has gone on a booking spree and decides to pull a no-show. Unfortunately, we saw plenty of this after the first lockdown. Moving forward, deposits are going to be a lot more acceptable as a new normal. Use the gift cards feature to create and cash off a deposit from the bill.
13. Secure bookings through reservations and waitlists
Remember OpenTable? So do millions of diners (really, millions!) Now you can accept online reservations easily on OpenTable, seat guests at a table within the OpenTable platform and automatically open an order with your guest's details on POS.
More than just efficient workflows, our integration lets your Host see in OpenTable what customers have ordered in real-time and also review past reservations.
14. Reach foot traffic by acquiring a presence in an online marketplace
Want to serve online ordering with a side of deep-cut digital marketing? You can (and should)! Target customers who are near you with localised marketing schemes, gain customers through orders on Instagram and Google and even enjoy order throttling with our Ritual integration.
15. Stand out from the competition with review management
With customers eagerly returning to dining in, everyone will be having a squiz at reviews to decide where to t go. In turn, customers will want to shout out those venues where they have had a smooth and enjoyable dining experience. So do capture positive reviews as it will set you apart from a competitive post-pandemic market. Our Senter integration will allow you to share your reviews across all of your platforms – this means social reviews become Google reviews and vice-versa!
16. Choose default sales screen for the speediest workflow
The New Sales Screen that allows staff to go straight back to selling is the top choice for smashing out takeaways. But with the return of dining-in, you should change it back to the Table view so staff can see the layout of your tables, know which tables have not been ordered yet, which are waiting, etc.
17. Prepare staff rosters for busy periods
Look at your Insights data pre-lockdown and add 10% on top of your peaks. Diving into both times of day and day of the week where you got slammed is going to be imperative for effectively planning your rostering once lockdown has lifted.
Take advantage of this unique moment by being more efficient and safer than ever with our POS checklist. Connect with your Account Manager if you find yourself with any questions.