A CASE STUDY FOR

Royal Spa Centre

The Challenge

The Royal Spa Centre was working with an existing EPoS system that was slow, complex to action simple tasks like adding new stock lines, and could not be accessed for remote reporting or stock control.

Debbie Hanks, from the Arts Section, was responsible for the procurement of a new system and explains:

“We needed an easy-to-use EPoS for staff which would feature frequently ordered drinks as quick service buttons on the till screen to save time and ease when ordering. I wanted the back-office functionality to be equally straightforward so adding a new line of beer, for example, would be quick and easy.”

“We have stock rooms across all of our sites and venues, which we need to audit regularly. We needed an EPoS with a stock control system that was simple to use and could run frequent and varied stock control checks across our sites. Working remotely, I also needed it to be a system that I could access off-site to give me the stock level and transaction information at any given time”.

Lastly, security was an essential requirement:

“As a local authority run centre, we need to adhere to a high level of security and know which member of staff takes which order so that we can review transactions if there are any errors”.

Debbie Hanks, Customer Services, Arts section

The Solution

pointOne fitted a combination of our fixed counter and Mobile POS across the venues to give flexibility of service. The bar tills were configured with our quick service bar screens and interval ordering module to ensure order simplicity for staff and speed of service. All tills were fitted with fingerprint scanners for staff to log in with and associated access levels, providing the security required by the local authority.

Our integrated and cloud-based stock control and multi-department reporting systems were installed to allow Debbie and her colleagues to conduct stock takes and run simple and more granular reports remotely.

The new Customer Services Manager, Martyn Darvell, is impressed with “the flexibility and straight forward display screens. The staff find the system easy to use and it allows them to dispense drinks rapidly, whilst focussing on customer service. From a back-office perspective, the reports that can be generated are wide-ranging, clear and allow Managers to assess the wastage, the cost of products and see how this fits in with profit/loss targets”.

The Results

A clear benefit of the pointOne EPoS has been the faster speed of service in that critical 20-minute interval time. Martyn explains:

“We have to serve 700 people in around 15 minutes and we can now achieve this. When we were on our previous system, we would still have people queueing when the curtain was about to go up for the second half! With our pointOne system, we can achieve this easily. Some of that is due to the interval ordering and the fact that the staff can find things quickly on the till thanks to the logical line grouping and presentation. I do believe that we serve people faster and we can do more interval drinks because of the new system”.

Given that security is so important, the fingerprint scanners on the tills now provide complete security and transaction visibility. “From an audit point of view, the fingerprint scanners make the order traceable back to the server, which is crucial in our environment,” says Debbie.

The pointOne stock control and reporting software has created huge time efficiencies as Debbie explains:

“We have to do full stock takes every three months, partial stock takes every month plus annual asset valuations. The integration of stock control with multi-department reporting is so helpful. It makes running these reports and stock checks a much quicker and more accurate process”.

Martyn Darvell, Customer Services Manager

When asked about future challenges, Martyn spoke about re-opening following the Coronavirus pandemic.

“When we reopen our venues, the challenge will be to operate at a potential 40-50% capacity and adhere to social-distancing measures, by changing our ‘at the bar’ ordering into a table service which we haven’t done before”.

Thankfully the pointOne system makes setting up a table plan easy, allowing orders to be taken and attributed to a table number. The Royal Spa Centre is now considering coupling this with our Mobile Order and Pay app which will allow the bar service to convert to a contactless table service where customers scan a QR code at a table, order and pay. This payment will go straight through to the bar EPoS for fulfilment and delivery to the associated table number with no need to queue at the bar.