Hukd Golf, Bury
“Being able to buy something off-the-shelf with the flexibility that the Tabology Hospitality EPOS has is great. It's a really good system that will grow with our business” Jon Picken, Operations Manager
Offering Virtual Golf on state-of-the-art simulators, Hukd opened its first venue, in Bury in Greater Manchester, in October 2022. With its great choice of food and drink an essential part of the customer experience, Hukd is using Tabology's Hospitality EPOS System to take customer orders, as well as using back office functions from the system’s Pro package, including staff scheduling.
Customers booking a session at Hukd Golf can use the simulators to play a round on some of the world’s greatest golf courses, such as St Andrews, Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill. At the same time, a menu choice that includes freshly made pizzas, sliders, small plates and sides, as well as drinks including craft beer, wine and spirits, and hot drinks, makes Hukd a great social outing.
With many issues to deal with in a start-up business, Operations Manager Jon Picken was looking for an EPOS system that was intuitive for serving staff to use, as well as quick and simple to update.
Having initially looked at another system, “I had some reservations, because anything that you use when you’re building a business from scratch needs to be simple for admins and employees. We have a skeleton, experienced team who we can’t afford to have tied down in system maintenance and admin We also have to be able to quickly upskill people on new tech.”
Jon and Hukd owner Will Evans saw a hospitality EPOS system that seemed to fit the bill in use at another venue, and after speaking to the operators they established that they were using the Tabology's EPOS system.
“We wanted the flexibility of being able to take food and drink orders on iPads at the bays and tables throughout the venue, and we also use the iPads to book guests in as they arrive. The Tabology system has a really good interface and seemed to do most of the things we needed.”
As a result, Hukd opened with Tabology in place, operating on a terminal at the main entrance. Staff use iPads throughout the venue, with food and drink orders printed in the bar or kitchen.
“Will and I had a couple of training sessions with Tabology, and have been setting staff up on the system as they come on board. It’s very intuitive, doing the core things we wanted such as taking orders and adding products, It’s also straightforward to change things as the business expands. I can go into the back office on my phone and make any changes needed.”
As part of its Pro package, Hukd uses the built-in staff scheduling software, building weekly rotas in the back office and with team members clocking on and off using the iPads.
Hukd Golf also use the Gift Card functionality, Jon was very interested in this while it was in the development stage and switched them on as soon as they became available.
“We’re loving the gift cards feature, as an experience business we had a lot of customers wanting to buy a voucher to gift to someone else. The staff find them simple to sell, customers are happy with the QR code they can add to their phone wallet, and it’s great that we can check the balance of a card from both the iPad EPOS and the back office.”
Tabology’s Telegram chat function has proved invaluable. “Someone gets back to you very quickly with support to tell you want you need to do, or which bit of the system you need to look at.”
As one example, the menu offers dishes such as buttermilk chicken strips with a range of sauces as an option, “but we couldn’t work out how to change the price, but as soon as we asked for support, we were shown how to do it.”
Jon sums up. “Being able to buy something off-the-shelf with the flexibility that the Tabology Hospitality EPOS has is great. It’s a really good system that will grow with our business.”
To find out more about our Hospitality EPOS, and how it could work in your venue get in touch to arrange a demo.
