It’s time to treat F&B like the most universally used amenity that it is.
By Srishti Singh
Your Food & Beverage offering may just be the most universally used amenity at your club. We don’t often think about it that way. But we should. Because, as a universally used amenity, it is one of the major factors affecting member satisfaction.
Think about it. Not everyone golfs, but everyone eats.
Building the member-wowing F&B offering
Today, members’ expectations are heightened. Whether we like it or not, they compare the offering at the club with every other experience they encounter outside of the club.
The good news is that you still have an advantage. The club is a place of belonging. A place where members can go to feel acknowledged, understood, and even pampered.
One of the best ways to streamline f&b management is to leverage technology. Smart clubs recognize the importance of deploying technology to align their F&B offering with these member-centric emotional drivers. In doing so, they build a complete offering that delivers personalization, convenience, and surprise & delight.
Let’s take a look at what makes for a complete F&B offering. First, from the member’s point of view. And then, from the club’s perspective.
The member’s point of view
Most of the technology will go unnoticed. And that is as it should be. There will have been hints of it. But the members won’t remember it. What they will remember is the seamless enchanting experience that the technology helped deliver.
There are a couple of exceptions. For example, there is the feature that enables members to make a reservation from the website or the club app. This allows them to make plans virtually anytime and anywhere. Premium solutions even allow them to access their Buddy List on the site or app in order to invite friends for dinner.
Another example is a feature like Northstar’s Grab ‘n Go which is part of a complete f&b management solution. This innovation allows members to order food for pick up through the website or app. Maybe a member is golfing and wants to grab a snack at the turn. A member can order through the app and it will be ready as she or he is finishing the front 9. Or maybe a member is heading to the club pool. She can order before she leaves home and find her order waiting as she checks in at the club.
And since Northstar’s Grab ‘n Go is part of a complete F&B solution, the kitchen staff can even send a push notification to the member through the app to let them know the order is ready.
The club’s perspective
The F&B POS gives your staff the tools to help create those exceptional guest experiences. For example, easy-to-use touch screen POS terminals in the Northstar system make it a snap to split a ticket by simply dragging and dropping.
Everything is integrated from all the F&B terminals to the Kitchen Display System (KDS) to the Tableside Point of Sale Tablets. All of which helps you create consistency of service throughout the club. And it gives you the powerful reporting that helps you continuously improve this valuable amenity.
Here are a few key features of a complete club F&B management solution.
Hostess View
The hostess station is where the table is set for an exceptional experience. The technology gives hostesses a full view of their dining rooms. So they can balance the workload among servers as they assign tables to members. This ensures waitstaff have time to spend with members, enhancing the dining experience.
Premium systems go a step further, giving hostesses real-time table status with course information. This enables them to better predict table turnover. Additionally, systems that run on one database like Northstar’s allow the hostess to call up members’ profiles as they arrive at the restaurant. This gives the hostess the opportunity to personalize the experience.
Tableside Tablet POS
When your waitstaff has time to dote on the members, the entire dining experience elevates. This is why a complete F&B system will equip servers with Tableside Tablet POS. The mini-tablets allow servers to input orders right at the table. That results in a reduction in lost orders and order errors. The tablets feature real-time communication with the Kitchen Display System. That means that the kitchen staff immediately has the order as it’s entered at the table. Plus, the system has been shown to save 4-6 minutes per order.
With Tableside Tablet POS, servers don’t have to constantly run back to the kitchen to check on orders. The kitchen sends a notification to the servers’ mini-tablet once the order is ready. This allows the servers to spend more time with members. Additionally, with Northstar’s system, the mini-tablets allow the servers to access the one database in order to see each member’s preferences. All of this gives your servers the ability to create a dining experience that will be unrivaled outside of your club.
Kitchen Display System
The Kitchen Display System is at the heart of the complete F&B management solution. With leading systems, it’s customizable to fit the unique parameters of your food and beverage offering. It monitors all kitchen operations, helping streamline the workflow. Moreover, it connects with all other components of your complete F&B system, helping improve communication, efficiency, and reporting.
Harnessing your greatest advantage
The greatest advantage you have is the sense of belonging at your club and the experience that you can create to amplify it. It is what separates you from the world outside of the club.
A complete F&B system helps you maximize that advantage by integrating everything from POS terminals, Hostess View, and Tableside Tablet POS to your Kitchen Display System, Grab ‘n Go, and Banquets and Catering. When you connect it all, you give yourself the opportunity to build something special with the most universally used amenity at your club.
Dig into all the advantages that a complete F&B system can bring to your club. Request a demo of the Northstar f&b management solution – a part of complete club management solution built on one database to help serve up an exceptional member experience. Request a demo, today.