Eclectic Bars

Eclectic Bars are a group of innovative bar concepts across the UK, including Lola Lo’s, Embargos and Coalition. Their venues are known for delivering outstanding customer service, whether it’s a heaving student night or a beach-side meal.

La Plage Brighton, a Coalition bar, sees hundreds of tourists pass through a day, during peak-Summer season. They introduced Pepper’s web app for ordering in 2017, allowing customers to scan a QR code and place an order to their table.

In Summer 2021, over 8000 transactions and £130k were processed via their Pepper app. Brighton’s high tourist-trade means these are often one-off visitors. Pepper’s guest checkout makes it super quick for them to pay, eat and get back to the beach.

We spoke to Nick Lewis, their Operations Executive and Jamie Meade, the General Manager of La Plage Brighton, about the benefits of the app.

Streamlining service

‘When we were at our busiest,’ Jamie explains, ‘it became impossible for staff to deliver table service to all 50 tables, which often led to walkouts.’

‘However, now customers place their own orders, freeing up staff and making table-turns quicker. They pay at the point of ordering, too - eliminating walk outs.’

By directing customers towards the QR codes and explaining how easy Pepper is to use, La Plage’s staff grew sales via the app to 80% of transactions. On busy nights ordering digitally is mandatory, meaning an astonishing 95% of orders via the app.

Nick Lewis added that the efficiencies they’ve gained mean they ‘serve even more customers now, but with less staff!’

Return on Investment

Nick went on to say: ‘we’re saving thousands of pounds a month on walkouts and are able to increase transactions during our busiest times. Customers also spend more when ordering digitally. It’s a no brainer for us moving forward.’

‘Our current focus is on making the web app even better - with product positioning on menus and other small improvements. We’re working on a number of initiatives with Pepper so we can make the absolute most out of summer 2022!’

Eclectic work closely with Pepper’s dedicated Marketing team, meaning they get all the support they need to keep improving their app solution.

Smooth operation‍

The success of the app at La Plage can be attributed to Jamie’s team. As well as promoting the app to customers, they adapted their service and operation to accommodate higher app sales.  

On every shift there are staff members dedicated to running drinks ordered via the app, with key cocktails and shots prepped in advance, for speed of service. Higher app sales means more food sold, so the kitchen team at Brighton have also been tasked with finding efficient ways to handle increased volumes.

Operationally, every process now revolves around making the app ordering journey more efficient and, ultimately, more profitable.

Reduced costs and saving ££££ in walkouts every month‍

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Nick Lewis was pleased to tell us that ‘we would not have been able to survive 2021 without Pepper’.

They were able to sell more, reduce costs and saved over £1500 a month in walkouts.

We would like to thank Nick and Jamie for their feedback, and the Pepper team are excited to continue this partnership!

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