The Shoulder of Mutton has also taken full advantage of Tabology’s booking functionality, which is fully integrated with the EPOS. “We’re in the process of having a new website designed,” says Mark, “but in the meantime we’ve set up a landing page which has the Tabology booking widget built into it. There are links to the bookings page from our Facebook, social media, and Google Business page.”

As well as booking tables, customers can also select a time, and order takeaways for collection, with the pub’s British home cooked pub food menu available for takeaway as well as a fish & chip shop takeaway menu.

“Bookings come through to the EPOS system, which is much more straightforward than having a separate booking system, and I also get an email notification,” says Mark. ”We’ve set the system up so that if a booking is for less than four hours ahead, it comes through as a booking request which we have to confirm, and if it’s more than four hours it’s automatically confirmed. Equally, if a customer cancels a booking, the notification comes through to the EPOS. I made sure I fully tested the booking system myself, and it’s really quick and easy to use.”

Front of house, customers can place orders for food and drink at the bar, or order from their table via a QR code printed on the menu. “That’s very useful when we’re busy, and especially when customers are using the beer garden. They have to provide a table number when using the QR code, and so it’s easy to keep track of orders via Tabology's Table Plan which is visible on the EPOS.” Food orders are sent to a kitchen display screen “which we wanted to do to save paper, and if a group wants to split the tab, it’s really easy using Table Plan.”

We print a QR code on the bottom of till receipts, and on posters around the pub, that links through to the online bookings page - enabling customers to book their next visit on the spot.

The pub is also using Tabology’s membership and loyalty features. “We currently offer a 5% discount on drinks from Sunday to Thursday, which has proven to be very popular, and has encouraged many of our regulars to sign up. Over the next few months, we want to gradually change the offer so that members can build up points, to get better offers and discounts when they spend more.”

Mark is also making the most of the Campaigns function with the Tabology loyalty and marketing feature, which allows him to drill into the spending habits of customers, export lists to Mailchimp, and send targeted promotions to encourage them back into the pub, or promote the takeaway offer. “The system switches to Mailchimp at the touch of a button, and I send out monthly newsletters with targeted offers.”

All deliveries to the pub are logged into the Tabology’s back-office stock management systems, which is linked directly to sales through the till, giving a real time view of which products need to be reordered,“ and we also use it for stocktakes. We used to print out a physical stock list, but we figured it’s easier to just walk around with an iPad and enter stock straight onto the system.”

Overall, Mark is pleased with the level of support from Tabology, both in the initial set-up phase, and now on an ongoing basis. “It’s great that you can message via Telegram up to midnight, and get a response straight away.

“We’ve already recommended Tabology to a friend who is opening her own pub. The Tabology system is easier to use, and more functional, than any other I’ve used. You can tell that it’s been developed by people who understand how pubs and bars operate.”