A CASE STUDY FOR

The Old Vic

The Challenge

The Old Vic is a registered charity which is not only the crucible of many of the performing arts companies and theatres in London today, but it is also a destination cafe and bar in the heart of Waterloo and, thanks to its 2am late license, one of the very few late-night bars open in the area. This makes its footfall from opening at 7am right through until late, busy and constant with peaks at pre-show and interval times.

Their multiple F&B sites needed an efficient EPoS to handle this level of traffic but also link in seamlessly with the Box Office and ticketing to create labour-saving efficiencies for their busy team. The Old Vic’s Bar Project Manager, Sam Miller explains,

“The system we used was outdated, the reporting was basic and still required a lot of manual input and we didn’t have the option to use integrated PDQs to speed up our bar service. Crucially, we needed a joined-up POS that would allow us to link our ticketing, stock control, in-house reporting and accounting all through one system”.

“We use Tessitura for our ticketing but our old EPoS did not allow us to make full use of the shared functionality between our box office, ticketing, bars and merchandising. A big driver for us choosing pointOne was their integration with Tessitura as it meant we could bring all this valuable data together and really start to analyse our patrons’ behaviour i.e. repeat patrons, what they are buying, when they visit us etc”.

Sam Miller, Bar Project Manager

The Solution

pointOne installed our core pointOne system into all of their F&B sites which included an interval ordering system at the till point, along with integrated payment PDQs, stock control, multi-department reporting and mobile POS tablets.

Implementing the pointOne reporting and stock control modules has enabled Sam to have full control over the back-office operations with minimal effort thanks to an automated and integrated data flow. He explains,

“The multi-department back-office reporting is amazing. It’s incredibly detailed and there is nothing that I need that I can’t find just in their standard reporting software.

“I use the stock control module for all our on and off-site holdings, allowing me to see the different stock levels within our different departments. It means I can keep hold of the whole building electronically in one place which is great and a huge time-saver for me”.

Being cloud-based means both stock and reporting can be checked and actioned remotely which gives Sam and his team an extra level of flexibility allowing them to react quickly when stock levels are low regardless of where they are.

The Old Vic underwent a substantial refurbishment of the bar areas in 2019 meaning that temporary pop-up bars were erected. Sam was able to adapt the pointOne tablets they had been using for tableside ordering into remote mobile POS which meant no interruption in business. This level of flexibility is invaluable to the changing business needs of the theatre where pop-up merchandising and concession stands require fully integrated order and payment options.

The Results

“Implementing the pointOne system has made my job ten times easier as all the information I need is in one place. It’s presented in a user-friendly way making information quick to attain and easy to understand which saves me so much time.

“In terms of working with my team, it’s great because I can actively show them their performance levels using the detailed reporting. From an operational point of view, I can predict more accurately what our business will be like day to day and plan accordingly thanks to the level of data now available to me from the system.

“On stock analysis, for example, we have 250 different products on the back bar, so it’s perfect for seeing what’s working, what’s selling, what types of product, and when. in terms of making our business better, it’s been great for that.

“We used to use external stock-takers quarterly. Now we only use them at the end of the fiscal year for security purposes as now we can keep an accurate handle on all our stock effortlessly which saves us time and money”.

Future plans for 2021 (when The Old Vic can reopen following the pandemic restrictions) include completion of the Tessitura integration so the theatre can start to unlock the valuable customer data between their ticketing and F&B sites. It also includes an adoption of pointOne’s new interval ordering app which allows patrons the convenience of pre-ordering their drinks from their mobile.

“We often get slammed at interval time so allowing our patrons to access an interval ordering app to alleviate that pressure is great and from a reporting point of view, it’s important to know what people are ordering so we can target future sales and give an improved customer experience for our loyal patrons”.

Sam Miller, Bar Project Manager