How The Tynesider tailors loyalty with Tabology's Pub EPOS
"The system is very comprehensive, but the training in the beginning is great, and everything is straightforward. There are loads of additional features that you would normally have to pay for."
The Tynesider is more than a pub. It's the heartbeat of a town fighting back against decline. Co-owners Lee and Luisa are the driving force behind a push to regenerate Gateshead's once-thriving High Street. In the two years since Lee, a builder by trade, turned a derelict building into the inviting venue it is today, it's become a beloved pub where you'll find people from all corners of life enjoying each other's company. In its very first year of trading, The Tynesider achieved national recognition by reaching the final six for Community Pub of the Year at the Great British Pub Awards 2025.
Tabology's Bar EPOS system helps keep service flowing during their busy evenings and hugely popular events, and helps the team manage things behind the scenes. In particular, the built-in loyalty system has given Luisa the tools to cater to such a diverse community.
The problem: offering personalised rewards without extra admin
Plenty of venues say they're a place where all are welcome. Not many live that claim quite like The Tynesider. Luisa oversees the operations, and her energy has invigorated and united the richly diverse community. She helped to found the community group, Friends of Gateshead Town Centre, and the bar often serves as the base for their litter picks and graffiti removal missions along the High Street. She's also an experienced DJ who knows how to get a place going. She puts on a dazzling array of events that bring people together, bridging generations and cultures.
On matchdays, camaraderie and community cohesion reign as fans of 'the Toon' from diverse cultural backgrounds watch the action alongside visiting fans. They host craft and upcycling workshops, quiz nights, and dance nights with Luisa's pals from the festival DJ circuit. Students, families, couples, pensioners – all get along famously at The Tynesider.
Perhaps what The Tynesider is most famous for is the Boomers daytime discos, which have been reported on by the BBC and The Times. It's run in collaboration with Age UK. They're a massive hit with Gateshead's over-60 crowd (it's not often you get people so eager to show their ID when they're that age). The queues around the block for the first few events were so long that they had to make it ticket-only. Classic songs, Motown anthems, Northern Soul favourites – the oldies show the young ones how it's done.
The question is: how do you look after such a diverse audience with loyalty and membership rewards they genuinely appreciate - without it becoming an admin nightmare?
The solution: built-in loyalty that runs automatically
Using Tabology’s built-in pub loyalty tools, Luisa has set up special loyalty schemes for people who attend the many different workshops and events, as well as more standard schemes such as staff and student discounts. Luisa is committed to making sure every single customer feels like this is a place they belong: "We want to appeal to lots of people. We want to be reasonably priced for traditional drinkers, but we have lots of premium non-alcoholic options too. There's a big student community, and it's also a safe space for minorities. It's a proper atmosphere, no trouble." Each scheme has its own promotions that run in the background once it's set up. Luisa says, "We also have Triple Points Thursdays, which was easy to set up. I just advertise it whenever we want to get more people in."
The Boomers partygoers also have their own exclusive discounts. Customers with smartphones receive a QR code in their digital wallet. Those without get it printed on a card. Everyone's included.
The result: tailored rewards staff don’t have to worry about
Tabology's bar loyalty tools have given Luisa a straightforward, low-effort way to ensure every segment of The Tynesider’s richly diverse customer base has rewards and membership schemes tailored to them.
The tools have even helped Luisa respond quickly to a significant change in the local market, in a way that benefited both the customers and the venue. When Ye Olde Fleece, the last traditional pub on Gateshead High Street South, was forced to close, its regulars lost their place of connection and conversation. Luisa wanted them to be able to continue with this vital social connection. Despite not normally opening on Mondays, she changed this and let the group use the space for their Monday bingo night.
But she didn't stop there. She says, "It was important that they could keep paying the prices they'd always paid in The Fleece. So we set up a membership for them, with their special pricing automatically applied on the till, so the staff don't have to worry about it."
Why Tabology?
Luisa runs another business and is no stranger to CRM and booking platforms. Although she hadn't used hospitality-specific software, she had a sense of what 'good' looked like. Tabology was recommended to her by a contact with industry experience, who also uses the system at their venue. After a couple of demo and training sessions, Luisa saw that the system could give her the depth, flexibility and usability she needed.
"The system is very comprehensive, but the training in the beginning is great, and everything is straightforward. There are loads of additional features that you would normally have to pay for."
The tools for growth
Beyond loyalty, The Tynesider uses more of Tabology's built-in functionality. Bookings are managed online via the website booking form, and they feed directly into the built-in rota system, so the ops manager can schedule staff accurately. They also use the stock management system. Luisa says, "It's really easy to update products from my mobile, and I can see the GP% calculated automatically."
For a venue that's constantly growing (Lee recently finished what they believe is the biggest pub rooftop bar in Gateshead), the platform keeps pace without piling on admin. At Tabology, we're extremely proud to support Luisa, Lee and the team at The Tynesider as they continue to build and grow "a pub Gateshead and its people can be proud of," in the words of one reviewer.
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