Success story: Croeso Pubs

As customer expectations have changed, the business has undergone a technological transformation led by the processes used for handling reservations and maximising revenue from events, onboarding Access Collins booking system, Access Tonic ticketing and, most recently, Access Soda gift voucher management software.

Prior to the COVID pandemic, reservations were managed locally at the site level with phone, email and website bookings all handled manually using an excel spreadsheet. However, with reservations being mandatory for every venue as the country emerged from lockdowns, a central approach was needed to generate efficiencies and ease the pressure on teams at the sites.

Handling different requirements for the diverse operational styles of such big venues was a challenge, especially when the new rules quickly impacted positively people’s inclination to book ahead. The day trade in Croeso venues had always been busy, mainly from walk-ins, but as customers accepted and became used to making advance bookings, reservations started to play more of a role in the immediate management of footfall. The process also enabled teams to start longer-term planning more accurately in respect of both staffing levels and stock control.

Technology was the obvious solution for managing reservations and Croeso was already familiar with Access Collins as an existing user of DesignMyNight, an Access company. “DesignMyNight marketing is important to our business” commented Gemma Fitzgerald, Croeso sales & marketing manager “as a listing on its website enables us to share our venues with the millions of monthly visitors it receives and to appear in targeted on-site searches. We knew that Access Collins had a good reputation from others who were using it, so we were confident that a combination of the two must be reliable. We explored the back-end working of Access Collins thanks to a local venue and after an initial conversation and demo from the business, it became obvious it would open up a whole new world for Croeso. We needed a solid, automated booking system for immediate implementation that would also be suitable for long-term operation, but the additional benefits it could deliver were an unexpected bonus.”

Croeso quickly set up the first three sites with Access Collins and once they had become familiar with the system, the next two sites were up and running in one day. The team picked it up very quickly and has continued to operate the user-friendly Access Collins solution effectively.

Transactions conducted via Access Collins technology streamlined the Croeso reservation process and made it instantaneous rather than having to rely on duty managers taking a call, following up on bank details and double-checking all the details. Using Collins Pay also makes it easier for the team to manage cancellations and process refunds instantly, by being able to refill tables as soon as a cancellation is made rather than having to respond to missed calls, check the status and so on.

The benefit of embedding Access Collins into the business has been significant and presale and deposit transactions through technology have become an essential part of the business.

In Brewhouse, live music and sports venue with a traditional food and drink offer, 2021 advance bookings showed an increase of over 380% compared to 2019.

Croeso has also seen an increase in upselling through the booking process and in the Philharmonic, initial results show that pre-order drink sales had tripled from 2019 to 2021. This is an area that has been identified for further expansion as their technology journey continues.

The Philharmonic hosts a series of events which sell out most weekends and the GM wanted to find a better way of selling tickets to improve efficiency and customer experience instead of having to manage a long queue at the door each week. The research identified Access Tonic as a preferred system and, following the successful deployment of Access Collins, taking the solution from the same company was a natural step.

The introduction of Access Tonic has resulted in Croeso selling more tickets, delivered time savings and streamlined the process for the benefit of both venue and customers. Not only has it simplified ticketing for regular events that would have sold out anyway but has been expanded to selling tickets for one-off events that offer less surety to help plan staffing levels more accurately.

Events that do not require advance ticket sales have also been set up on the system so that they appear on DesignMyNight to generate awareness and interest and the group has sold over 12,000 tickets through DesignMyNight in the last year, often featuring in some of the top traffic channels for Cardiff, including Best Events, Fun Events and What’s on in Cardiff. Additionally, sales tracking features and unique links enable the group to track the success of their marketing campaigns, continually measure the value and effectiveness of marketing communications and see exactly where ticket sales have come from.

Access Tonic ticketing software has been further supported by the use of the scanner app which activates tickets on the door, helping to stop people from copying tickets that may be missed by a manual check.

“Our guests now have a smooth journey from their first to last interaction” added Gemma. “The booking process is adaptable and customisable for each event we organise and offers a seamless checkout including payment at the point of booking. Individual tickets are then scanned at the point of entry and customers have all the information that they need about what is included in the ticket.”

Croeso has also added Access Soda at Daffodil, enabling customers to buy vouchers for the fine dining restaurant and bar which champions local Welsh suppliers, whether it’s for themselves or as a gift. Deployment was simple and straightforward and the initial response has been incredibly positive, with results monitored to assess the value of using Access Soda in other Croeso venues.