80% of guests at UTS Haberfield Rower's Club choose to order through me&u. Here's why.
Discover how clubs of all shapes and sizes can streamline their sequence of service and operate smarter with contactless ordering and payments.
80%
89%
3.54%
42%
About
UTS Haberfield Rower's Club
Haberfield Rowers Club and Restaurant is a newly redeveloped NSW Club, right on the water at Haberfield’s sparkling Iron Cove Bay. Open from lunch to dinner, the club offers an elevated upstairs restaurant and bar plus a casual kiosk downstairs.
Led by Venue Manager Rachel Malamo, Haberfield Rowers Club joined me&u in October 2021 to reimagine their sequence of service and operate smarter in a post-pandemic world.
The challenge
Like many pubs, clubs and venues, Haberfield Rowers Club faced a stack of challenges off the back of the pandemic. The club was struggling to remain profitable with limited opening hours meaning they were only trading for breakfast and lunch service three days a week.
Since first opening its doors, Haberfield Rowers Club has been a table-service venue and was reliant on high staffing numbers to operate smoothly. Unfortunately, staff shortages and capacity restrictions meant the club wasn’t able to score the staff coverage needed to deliver top-notch table service.
Plus, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift towards contactless payments and the uptake of QR codes. This meant the club needed a smart solution to streamline their sequence of service, lower staffing pressures and deliver a smoother in-venue experience.
“Since we’ve introduced me&u, ordering has been so much quicker and food is coming out faster, too. Before we had a 15 to 20-minute wait, and now it’s a maximum of 10 minutes.”
The solution
Easy sign-up and hands-on setup
Haberfield Rowers Club was partnered with a dedicated Project Lead to get me&u activated in-venue and integrated with their current POS system, handling the whole process from start to finish.
Within a couple of weeks, their visual menus were built out, their staff were trained up and they were partnered with an Account Manager to field any questions or concerns.
From professional photography of each drink and dish to bespoke menu building, the me&u team brought this club’s visual menu to life (free of charge) to help guests score a sneak peek of each item and order with their eyes, and stomachs.
Their team also scored 24/7 support to make sure things were up and running smoothly. Plus, the me&u team was able to tailor the platform to Haberfield Rowers Club’s needs, finding smart ways to streamline their operations and boost sales.
Redesigning a more efficient sequence of service
With table service a big roadblock for the venue, Haberfield Rowers Club took the time to figure out how to make me&u really work for their space.
The result? They changed their service model to me&u’s contactless at-table ordering and payment system (with team members still on-hand to greet and serve customers who still wanted to order at the bar).
With beacons on tables, customers were able to spend more time with friends and family and less time lining up in queues. With our Smart Upsells, easy reordering and Quicksells at checkouts, guests were served tailored recommendations to boost spend and keep punters in the venue for another round.
Now, 8 in 10 guests at the club are ordering through me&u, with a significant drop in wrong orders and questions about wait times.
Haberfield Rowers Club were able to take the pressure off their team, lower the chance of human error when ordering and even resolve rostering stress (with team members working smarter, not harder each shift).
Lower wait times, longer visits and higher in-venue spend
Streamlining their sequence of service has also seen a big impact on wait times across the club. With the kitchen now able to flag when they’re at capacity and redirect traffic to other menu items, they’ve been able to nail wait times for guests.
In fact, Haberfield Rowers Club has slashed their wait times in half (down from 20 minutes to less than 10 minutes per order).
Rather than getting up from their table and getting stuck in a bar queue, guests are able to keep the good times flowing with seamless at-table ordering through me&u.
Plus, the club has been able to strategically showcase hero drinks and dishes and make tailored recommendations to guests to boost sales and profit margins.
In-depth insights for swifter, smarter decision-making
me&u has taken the guesswork out of uncovering what is and isn’t working at Haberfield Rowers Club.
By diving into detailed data about order volume, average orders, spend per head and percentage of reorders, the team can tailor their menus to spotlight high-margin items.
Take this example: through me&u’s insights, the club saw that Aperol Spritz was their most popular cocktail. So, they’ve been able to adjust their menu layout to prioritise this drink, alongside their other top performing drinks and dishes.
