To the cafe - with your own private room! Entrepreneur experience.

Summer is not only vacation time, but also the hottest working season for outdoor cafe workers. Beach restaurants Hungry Bird the owner Mihail admits that he could no longer imagine serving visitors without the help of IT technologies, because previously they allowed serving a much larger number of guests without additional staff. Therefore, this year for the second summer for the convenience of employees and guests Hungry Birds will use a queue management system InOut. Shortly before the start of the new season, Mihail shared his experience.

How did the idea to use the queue management system InOut come about?

The idea came in 2017 as a conclusion after the Fisherman's Day event in the Mangalsala yacht club cafe Expedition, which was visited by around 1000 people. The organizers were happy, the visitors were happy, but our waiters were not so happy, because they had to look for customers all over the yacht club territory to give the order. Although we had prepared for such a scenario and had even introduced our own, creative approach to issuing order numbers, we realized that we needed to seek advice from the outside. Then we also talked Timessaving specialists about the possibility of using the queue system InOut.

Did you start using it next season?

A year later, another project, a cafe, was born Hungry Birds On Grandfather's Beach. But this time too, we quickly realized that it would be very difficult for waiters to find customers in the beach area. Try to find the visitor yourself in the crowd by the only clue on the sheet, for example, the man in the red swimming trunks. And we called again Timessaving.

How did you organize customer service?

Together with Timessaving for specialists, we chose the most suitable solution for our situation, which is at the same time easy to use and quickly understood by the client. A person comes, places an order and our employee gives him a sequence number in the form of a printed coupon. The visitor follows the progress of the queue numbers on the monitor in the cafe premises. When his number arrives, the customer himself comes to us and receives his order. In addition to information about called numbers, we can also display current offers or promotions on the screen, inform you about our news. It's simple, we enter the information ourselves and change it as often as we want. 

What were the first conclusions?

Very positive. First of all, already the queue system InOut is a benefit not only for our employees, who do not have to look for a visitor all over the beach, but also for the customers themselves - they get warm and fresh food immediately after it is prepared. And secondly, as soon as the waiters no longer had to waste time chasing each visitor, the speed of customer service increased significantly. As a result, everyone is satisfied, there is not so much stress and negative emotions.

And more customers served means more income…

Exactly. The company has more direct income from sales and does not need to hire additional employees.

You mentioned stress. Did it diminish in the workplace with the introduction of InOut?

If a lot of hungry people gather in one place, then the atmosphere can be really tense. Yes, the employees worked in a much calmer atmosphere and the visitors also saw the progress of the queue and felt safe that they are not missing anything, no one is waiting in front of the queue and so on.

Did using InOut bring any other benefits?

Queue management system InOut allowed us to successfully survive the hot days, when the influx of people immediately increased very noticeably. We didn't have to bring in additional people, we managed with the existing team, and the customers didn't leave. This is the specificity of a summer cafe - the sun shines and people surround us. It is much emptier on rainy days. An electronic system covers such "raids" much more effectively than if we had to hire staff.

So will you continue to use it in the future?

Definitely! At the moment it would be hard to imagine work without it InOut. Using this queue management system, we have made sure that it is an investment that pays off many times over during the season.

In addition InOut the queuing system is also becoming more recognizable. Even grandmothers, upon receiving their order number for the ordered pizza, have exclaimed: "Here you are, like Latvijas Postas!", because InOut used in many postal branches throughout Latvia. And it's easier for us to work again, because you don't have to explain what the procedure for receiving your order is. We can take care of the main thing - tasty and quickly prepared food.

May the upcoming summer be warm, people have a good rest and we have a lot of work - we will get through it, we are sure of that!

Costs*

250.00 euros per month. The fee includes:

• 43" LG screen,
• Star ASURA ticket printer,
• InOut system rental.

When purchasing such equipment on installment basis + InOut system rental, the monthly payment starts from 79.00 euros per month. 

Necessary equipment

• Electricity and Internet connection to each device, preferably LAN. Hungry Birds in this case, the LMT mobile internet router was used.
• A tablet computer, with the help of which you can call the customer according to the order.

*Costs for installation and use of InOut in the Hungry Birds cafe in 2019. in spring.