Flexible bookings increase footfall

Miso uses Tabology’s booking system, which is built into the EPOS system. They have different booking types set up to reflect their diverse offerings, which include restaurant dining, drinks only and dining at the bar.

“We’ve never had any issues with customers struggling to book – when we launched our Nomikai Happy Hour, we announced it on socials and people were able to book straight away on the website using the new booking type.”

With such strong demand for Miso’s formal dining, the booking form on their website helps to retain guests who might otherwise have been lost.

“If there’s not a dining table available, prompts encourage them to book ‘Food at the Counter’. This is a nice experience for them – a different sort of vibe, and a bit of theatre where they can see the cocktails being made. It’s something they maybe wouldn’t have gone for but end up really enjoying.”

Paul is also planning to make use of the data capture when customers make a booking, by sending promotions via the MailChimp integration.

Gift cards boost revenue

Gift cards are a no-brainer for restaurants, an easy way to generate additional revenue. And Miso has seen an increase in sales since they started using Tabology’s built-in, commission-free gift card facility.

“Previously, we had physical gift cards. They looked really nice but were hard to manage. They were always falling down the back of counters or getting damaged, and staff weren’t always tracking when they were sold or used. But the digital gift cards were super-easy to set up. We’ve definitely sold more since going digital, particularly in the run-up to those events like Mother’s Day and Christmas.”

Going digital also helps to manage the inevitable instances when customers forget about their gift cards until after they’ve expired.

“A really nice feature is the alert that pops up on the EPOS when a gift card has expired, and you can choose whether to honour it or not.”

New discoveries

With such a feature-rich system, users often come across tools and features they didn’t know about. Miso is no different.

“We’ve been using it for three years but we’re still finding new things. In the last couple of weeks I’ve been getting to grips with the Batch Maker for our cocktails. Sometimes, with the stocktakes, it says there should be seven bottles of tequila, but there are only four on the bar. Then you realise the rest is made up in cocktail batches. This will make it easier for us to keep track of that.

Paul is also exploring possibilities for opening a second site, and when the time comes, our multi-site management tools will no doubt be handy.



Streamlined service

Like many operators, Paul maximises revenue with diverse offerings that appeal to different types of customers. So having an EPOS system with the flexibility to support that is key. One crucial but often overlooked element is the speed of payments, which has a huge impact on how a bar operates. Paul says:

“We’ve kind of got 3 operations going on at once, with the two different dining rooms, and then on Friday and Saturday nights, when the restaurant dies down, we become more of a cocktail bar.

This is where the integration with Dojo works really well, with the ability to adjust how you work between Dojo Pay at Table and then going to instant payments at the bar. So in that transition from restaurant to cocktail bar, it’s totally seamless and saves us so much time. Since moving to them, it’s enabled us to reduce the number of bar staff we need during the weekend nights because they can serve much faster.”

Despite the diversity of what Miso offers, it’s not a huge venue that can accommodate a large number of POS devices to cater to different aspects. And because it serves mainly small plates, there’s a lot more for waiting staff to physically manage in terms of carrying more plates to tables and clearing them away. So having a truly all-in-one system that makes life easier and speeds up service is an absolute must.

“We’re very happy with the system overall. A lot of things have been considered that would only be considered by people who understand hospitality and know exactly what these systems need to do. It’s super fluid – for example, if you partially input an order, you don’t lose it all when you move between screens.”

Support as outstanding as Miso’s service

At Miso, they pride themselves on customer service, taking care of the little personal touches that make guests feel special. But how do they feel about the service they receive from Tabology?

“No matter what time it is, when we send a query to the Telegram channel, we get a response within around forty seconds. Somebody’s looking into it straight away and you really get that peace of mind.”

Peace of mind. That’s what you want as an operator, and we’re proud that we’re able to provide that for Miso, so they can focus on what they do best.