The EasyCall paging system is big in the hospitality sector, and could help boost pub profits too. Noli Dinkovski reports
Football is big business these days, and not just on the pitch either. Take Celtic for example who, along with Glasgow's other giants Rangers, dominate Scottish football.
Last summer the club embarked on a major refurbishment of its hospitality suites, knowing that much was to be gained from a lucrative trade that serves the hundreds of hospitality guests who are wined and dined on match days.
At the centre of the overhaul was the Jock Stein Lounge - a bar and dining hall with 30 tables and a capacity for up to 300 people. According to Celtic's head of catering David Stothers, while the old lounge was warm and homely, it was out of tune with what customers wanted.
"We aimed to keep the warm atmosphere of the old lounge, but move to a more bistro style, where meals were served quickly and efficiently to the tables, and sandwiches and other snacks were readily available to our standing customers," says Stothers.
Quick service
The lounge is only open during the 26 home games of the season, so speeding up service and maximising sales on these days is vital for club turnover.
With this in mind, Celtic invested in an innovative new approach to table service. They added buttons to each of the tables, which, when pressed by customers, can alert waiters and bar staff that they need assistance.
The EasyCall system, from Middlesex-based Call-Systems Technology (CST), allows waiters to be paged instantly at the press of a button. In a flash, a waiter is able to see that one of the tables in the area they cover requires attention, allowing them to act as soon as they become free.
CST marketing manager Jane Beales says that EasyCall provides a two-fold opportunity for pubs and bars in the wake of the smoking ban: "It is ideal for outlets that want to increase their food offering, as it is for those that have improved their outdoor areas, but don't want to waste valuable manpower making unnecessary trips outside."
Long gone are the days where customers have to physically make themselves seen or heard, and equally the waiters no longer have to keep checking back on tables. And this, says Beales, is EasyCall's main advantage.
"EasyCall can save you on labour costs because waiters or bar attendants aren't always looking over their shoulders at the tables. They are freed to do other tasks, so fewer staff are required," says Beales. "There is another major advantage - the system also means customers are more inclined to buy after-dinner drinks, coffees and desserts because they know ordering them won't be such an ordeal."
These benefits give weight to CST's bold claim that a complete 10-button EasyCall
system that starts from £1,000 can pay for
itself "within weeks". Being wireless, the
system makes only a minimal intrusion
into a premises, and there are no ongoing
operational costs to worry about.
The buttons can be countersunk directly into tables or walls, or seated in a mobile coaster-sized housing with optional promotional displays. CST account manager for Scotland Ian Craig says that when they are supplying to pubs and clubs, the buttons are generally countersunk or fixed onto tables.
"It all depends on the environment that you are using them in," adds Craig. "If they are in fine dining or corporate hospitality areas, then you expect a clientele that's not going to mess around with them so they can sit freely. But it's up to the outlet how they want them set up - we can provide anything they ask."
Potential for damage
Regardless of the environment they are in, there is always the potential for the buttons or pagers to get damaged at some point, and optional service maintenance agreements are available from CST. A customer-service team is on hand to troubleshoot over the phone, and if the problem can't be resolved an engineer will be called out.
"Any broken pagers are covered under the agreement," says Beales. "Users can purchase new ones at 50% of the original price, but
we will always try to repair the existing
equipment first."
CST admits that any anticipated surge in pubs taking on the system post-smoking ban hasn't occurred. Beales puts that down to pubs and bars wanting to see how the ban will affect their businesses first, before investing in any new technology, and adds that the poor summer and uncertain trading climate have also played their part.
Fuller's operations director Jonathon Swaine says that his pubco is always keen to explore new ways to improve service for its customers, and says the EasyCall system is a "very interesting" development. But Swaine insists that Fuller's staff are all trained to ensure that customer needs are always a top priority anyway.
"Although I think the EasyCall system could be extremely useful in some busy, food-led pubs, I believe that, in general, customers prefer the human touch," says Swaine.
Despite this, Beales remains optimistic about quickly adding to the 40 or so EasyCall systems currently in operation in bars, clubs and restaurants across the UK. "EasyCall is working well in a number of clubs and bars like
Aspinalls, BarRoomBar, Club Oops and
Liquid, where we are hopeful that Luminar will add a further 20 systems to its six that are currently used in the club VIP areas."
Added to that total are the 60-plus systems installed in numerous hotel chains and, of course, hospitality venues like those at Celtic FC. Six months on from its installation, the club's head of catering has nothing but praise for EasyCall.
"We can respond to the needs of customers far better than before," says Stothers. "We now know which table needs serving, and can serve them in the right order. It has made our staff more efficient and customers leave more satisfied."
Technology news - What's hot this month
J2 Retail Systems
EPoS equipment maker J2 Retail Systems has launched its most powerful PC-touchscreen yet - the J2 580 - in three different versions.
The 1.0GHz Celeron ULV model is fanless and uses a Compact Flash card for storage, which makes it more reliable. But for more processing power, there are also 1.5GHz and 1.8GHz models available.
J2 managing director Moray Boyd said that the J2 580 was the "big brother" of the 560. "We've made it a system that can support the larger applications that our users increasingly run at the point of service."
Other features include a double cash drawer, optional fingerprint technology reader, and optional customer-facing display screen for multi-media use.
Breezefree
Breezefree has updated its range of outdoor HD (high definition) LCD TV screens in time for the kick off of the Six Nations rugby. It now offers 26, 32, 42 and 47-inch models, plus a 55-inch size, the largest model currently available in the world.
All screens come with a toughened glass front and are resistant to dust, water and humidity. An anti-reflective surface helps the picture quality in sunlight.
The Coat & Badge in Putney, south London, has recently installed a £3,000 LCD television on its outside terrace. General manager Leo Stembridge said: "The TV is a great complement to the al-fresco lifestyle that our customers enjoy. The proof is in the increased sales of meals we have already experienced during sporting events."
EasyCall: how it works
l EasyCall is a simple table-top button that customers press for service. The button transmits a signal to an LCD panel that can sit behind a bar or in a waiting area, alerting bar staff.
l The latest version of EasyCall allows the button to also send an alert to a silent pager worn by staff, adding to its flexibility.
l Signal range varies from outlet to outlet - on average it is around 40 to 50 yards - but boosters can be added to increase the signal strength if required.
l CST has a number of other similar systems, such as ButlerCall for dining and meeting-room occasions, and PageCall for private conferenc