We hear a lot of venues say how important the speed of the night is, and we couldn’t agree more. Yet, these same venues (and most venues for that matter) have such inefficient door systems that it actually harms their speed. Not to mention the door – or the process outside your door – is the first part of your venue your guests see and the first experience they have. And recently, a study was published in Nightclub & Bar stating long lines, pretension, and rude staff are a few of the reasons why millennials aren’t frequenting nightclubs.
Let’s fix your speed, lines, and staff stress to provide your guests — including millennials — a great experience before they start spending money in your door. Follow these three steps.
1. Get a good door system
I’ve seen it time and again: venues using paper guest lists at their door or using a makeshift solution with Google Docs. These solutions are laborious, don’t collect any data, is inaccurate, and slows down the process. Get a system that truly works to improve your door process. A solution like Vēmos allows you to handle your guestlist, VIP reservations, and ticket purchases from one dashboard. Plus, it allows you to collect that information beforehand, so you simply just need to worry about checking guests in. All you have to do is scan their code or search for the guest name, swipe to mark them as arrived, and you’re on to the next guest. The system also keeps track of the status automatically so you don’t have to cross-reference your list at the end of the night, and you get to collect information about your guests, understand their habits, and ultimately upsell them in the future. That’s a way better system for your venue as a whole and a better system for the speed of the night at the door.
2. Use different lines
Putting a bit of strategy into how you treat your lines can increase your revenue and speed of night, especially when it comes to pre-sale tickets. After all, what’s the benefit of a guest pre-buying a ticket if they don’t even get to skip the long line? Plus, when there is a second line for pre-purchased tickets, it entices guests to make behavioral changes to buy a ticket ahead of time, which in turn equates to more money in your pocket before the night of your event. That’s why we recommend using separate lines for different functions, such as different lines for general admission, guest list, VIP tables, and pre-purchased tickets. If you want to take your strategy a step further, you can slow down the general admission line just a bit and focus on your speed in the guest list or pre-paid line to show the value in those guests.
3. Automate the cashier system
Many venues operate with a cashier, where check-in happens at the door and cover is charged at the cashier. This is a good system for large nightclubs, but the problem is the cashier is oftentimes not well informed of which cover to charge. I’ve seen cashiers who have to look at wristbands and connect the dots for which wristband means which color. I’ve seen others that are given a post-it note with the word “comp” or “VIP” or “table” or even just “$25” written on it. These post-it notes are then either thrown away or stacked in a pile to tally up later to get some data. Why not automate this system and ensure the cashier is charging the right amount and the tally of who is walking through your door is always collected? We’re talking a chit system that allows the door staff to select the number of guys/girls, tap on a promotion if necessary that brought them there, comp them, or charge them full cover. The chit then prints out and is taken to the cashier, where the cashier simply scans the ticket and is able to quickly pull up guest information and charge the proper amount (if any) within a matter of seconds. This speeds up the bottleneck at the cashier and allows your venue to collect more valuable data.
An efficient door is a profitable door. With these three steps, you’ll be on your way to streamlining your line and increasing your customer’s experience and spend. Contact us to find out more about how you can use these steps at your venue.
Whitney Larson is the president and director of marketing at Vēmos. Contact her at whitney.larson@vemos.io.
