With sports pilots continuing, albeit at a smaller number and less frequently due to the latest government updates in September, the return of sports fans to stadiums is going to happen and hopefully sooner rather than later. In order to support this, there are a number of factors clubs and organisations will need to consider to ensure that the supporters return is as safe and ‘covid secure’ as possible.
One area of focus will be how fans can safely order food & beverages within the stadium itself with thoughts on queuing and social distancing likely to be a key issue. Jonas Sports F&B is a complete EPoS, ordering, loyalty and inventory solution for sports clubs and organisations, and has a number of features that can help clubs manage food and beverage orders within the stadium concourses.
Embed from Getty ImagesJonas Sports F&B has an ‘Order Ahead’ module that can help to reduce crowds gathering, especially during half-time. Allowing fans to order their food and drink in advance and able to collect them at designated delivery and collection points can help to spread fans out and help them adhere to social distancing rules. The module allows the delivery and/or collection points to be set as specific locations within the stadium and these locations can be limited to a number of orders per time slot so only a select number of fans will head to that location at that time. This functionality needs to be a key consideration for all clubs when fans return.
There are also a number of other options the F&B solution can provide that makes dine-in and event booking ordering much easier for club and supporter.
For sit down drinks and meals, the Jonas Sports F&B software can run ‘restaurant mode’ which is a customisable layout that allows orders to be assigned to specific tables. Orders are then sent straight to the bar or kitchen for staff to prepare, and table bills can be split in various ways with tabs that can be set up to be paid at the end. Jonas Sports F&B’s basic EPoS package features F&B operator maps, online reporting and scheduled reporting and till maps that can be scheduled for different types of service e.g. breakfast, lunch, dinner, happy hour and match day.
With events hopefully also starting again soon, the event booking module allows various events to be set up that allows the attendees the chance to pre-order from the menu for themselves or multiple people, limited bookings and cut off times. This is all displayed for the organiser and a check-in app can be used to check attendees as they arrive – without the need for manual check in or printed confirmations.
When fans are back, it’s important to incentivise customers with promotions, vouchers and loyalty points in order to help increase revenues. Promotions can be redeemed at the PoS or via the ‘Order Ahead’ module and can be displayed within an app. Vouchers can be sent out to all, some individuals or groups of users and can be used for anything from a free pie on match day to 20% food orders in the dine-in restaurant. Vouchers can be issued for free or users can purchase them with loyalty points or a monetary value with customers also able to earn points when they spend which they can use to redeem against future purchases.
Jonas Sports F&B specialises in providing enterprise EPoS, ordering, loyalty and inventory solutions which can help your club welcome back fans whilst also helping to get sit-down and events bookings fully integrated and a loyalty scheme to help increase revenues. Get in touch if you have requirements for leading technology to support your F&B operations.