Tune in to the latest Restaurant Technology Guys podcast! Host Jeremy Julian talked with GoTab CEO, Tim McLaughlin to discuss navigating through the restaurant industry.
Check out the latest Podcast episode from Restaurant Technology Guys podcast featuring GoTab CEO, Tim McLaughlin
It’s not often we have a chance to spend an hour getting a candid view of how GoTab has impacted one of our operator’s business.That’s why the latest Restaurant Technology Guys podcast is so special.
Kevin Hamilton, founder of Bay Area’s Canyon Club Brewery joined GoTab CEO Tim McLaughlin and Jordan Boesch, CEO of 7shifts to discuss how he’s using our technologies to sustain and grow his business while improving the guest experience at his venue.
Kevin offers a unique perspective as a 25 year veteran of the industry. He started investing in different breweries 10 years ago, and, ironically, decided to launch his own brewery & restaurant in late 2019. While the timing couldn’t have been worse in some respects, Kevin lands with an optimistic view of his business and a focus on where the industry is going after what the last 18 months presented.
Stream The Episode Now!
Check out the latest episode of The Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, featuring GoTab CEO Tim McLaughlin. You can stream the episode on SoundCloud now!
According to Kevin, “We adopted GoTab at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020 and it was just a no brainer for us.” With a very large restaurant and beer garden that spans about ¼ of an acre, they had two concerns: staffing such a large space is expensive, plus their staff expressed concerns about interacting with hundreds of people. “We put [GoTab] in place and it transformed our business overnight.” It was scary to think “we have to change everything to do this” but once we implemented it, it solved the problem we were looking at, but honestly, it solved like 15 problems we didn’t even know we had.
We are keeping GoTab, and I’m not a GoTab salesman, there are many things about it I didn’t know I needed.
When you close out your tab, you’re asked 5 questions about the experience. That gets put into an email. The management team gets an email every night with a red dot, a green dot, or a yellow dot. Imagine that you get an email every night with reviews from 70% of your guests. We joke that we scan for the red dots. For one, it keeps people off yelp. They feel that they were heard. It gives me an opportunity to reach out directly.
We do get comments occasionally like ‘can’t wait for you to bring back servers’. I respond to them and say, actually that we get such good feedback from this new way of business it’s really helping our restaurants. 90 percent of guests are like “this new way of going out to eat is awesome for me. I’m in complete control of my order.”
“My guess is this technology is going to be the future of my style of brewery restaurant. If you’re not willing to learn it, you’re going to have a rough decade of going out to eat.”
"My guess is this technology is going to be the future of my style of brewery restaurant. If you're not willing to learn it, you're going to have a rough decade of going out to eat."
– Kevin Hamilton, Founder of Bay Area's Canyon Club Brewery
Tap Room Playbook Episode 2:
When you really think about it, with everything managers need to do in a tap room, the hospitality aspect is often overlooked.
Situated “in the heart of it all, yet tranquil enough to make you feel away from it all too,” The Limelight Hotel Snowmass offers 99 hotel rooms and 11 residences, as well as footsteps-to-gondola access in winter and summer — right in the middle of Snowmass Base Village.
The Situation
Especially over the last few years, the Limelight Hotels IT team had witnessed a significant shift to contactless technology in the hospitality industry. After evaluating friction points in the guest journey, aligning with modern technology platforms in their restaurant was determined to be an effective way to offer elevated contactless dining experiences to their guests while also evolving their technology platforms to continue to support long-term company goals. Limelight Hotel partnered with GoTab to provide an enhanced on-demand dining experience on par with the brand’s reputation for exceptional guest service.
The Solution
Reducing Staff Touch Points Without Sacrificing Guest Experience
Guests are now able to begin a tab from their room or the property’s restaurant by scanning a QR code, texting a link to friends or family members on the ski slope to add in their orders, then meeting up together at the patio or lodge to enjoy their meal and après ski festivities without interruption. By streamlining tasks like inputting orders and processing payments, this eliminates friction for hotel staff and allows them to focus on delivering renowned guest service for a memorable experience. Since partnering with GoTab, Limelight Snowmass has consistently seen higher check averages and sales.
“We found the Point of Sale platforms we were looking at offered the guest and staff limited opportunities to further reduce touch points or improve the traditional restaurant experience. The GoTab platform enabled the guest to take an active role over the flow of their experience while simultaneously reducing touch points and further streamlining restaurant operations.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group
According to the Limelight Hotels team, some of the other platforms that were evaluated were either missing some of the pieces they were looking for, had weak customer support models, or had little willingness to develop integrations to existing hotel platforms already in place. To that end, GoTab integrated with cloud-based platform, Infor. Together, GoTab and Infor are providing dynamic solutions to support central, efficient service across hotel amenities and deliver exceptional guest experiences.
“Previously, guests would call down to the restaurant to begin an order from their room or while they were out enjoying the ski slopes. Using GoTab, guests can now place orders from anywhere on the resort, giving them the on-demand service they want without interrupting their day. GoTab empowers us to give control to the guest, reducing touch points and streamlining overall restaurant operations, making Limelight Hotel the resort of choice for Snowmass.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group
Since introducing GoTab, The Limelight Hotel has seen a consistent level of upsells and items sold per check resulting in additional revenue capture. They have been able to maintain service levels in their restaurants during periods when there was reduced staffing available without significantly diminishing the guest experience.
The Benefits
Eliminate Phone Orders – Take Orders from the Slopes. Guests can start a tab from their room or on the mountain without interrupting the flow of their day.
Future-Proofed Technologies – Delivering elevated contactless ordering via integration with the Infor hotel management platform.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
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