How to boost sales safely with pre-bookings, pre-sales, and pre-everything

It's the most talked about topic in hospitality right now - How do I reopen my business and how do I do it safely? All whilst trying to forecast turnover and claw back some of the revenue that has been lost over the lockdown period.

At Singa, we had the privilege of talking to Linda Miles, Operations Director - All Star Lanes, Amber Staynings, Founder - Bums on Seats and Melissa McMurdock, Founder - Out Out Entry on our webinar "How to Boost Sales Safely with Pre-Bookings and Pre-Sales when the Lockdown Ends" and they came up with some amazing advice and tips for reopening your venue, it was so good, we just had to share it with you.

10 tips for re-opening your venue safely

1. Use the time you have got now to look at your processes, are they smooth, are they clear and do you stand out against competition?
2. Be ready to prebook everything - from drink only, to tables and activities.
3. Restrict and time limit your table times and leave yourself at least 15 minutes between bookings so you can sanitise surfaces
4. Take a look at your floorspace - how can you maximise the number of people in your venue whilst keeping them at a social distance
5. If there are unused spaces in your venue, it's time to use them, they can be converted into rooms that make you money
6. Think about what your customer will want from their new hospitality experience, people will be cautious and will want to do things like pay using contactless, make sure you can offer these services
7. Tap into earlier time slots - we may face restrictions on opening hours and so thinking about how you can adapt your business to encourage your customer into your venue earlier is key, like offering an afternoon tea for example.
8. Customers will have questions and we should be ready to answer them, market and shout about the changes you are making and steps you are taking to make sure everyone can enjoy themselves and stay safe
9. It's time to be flexible, have a book with confidence policy and allow for changes with your customers, now is the time to re-build consumer confidence and you want your brand to be seen as a positive part in that journey
10. On that note - it's time to build trust and relationships - talk to your customers, ask how they are and take feedback on what they expect from their time in your venue

Hospitality industry is pulling together and supporting each other

As well as webinars like ours providing advice and discussion, the industry is pulling together to help and support each other so that we all recover from this crisis. Resources can be found  free of charge like the 100 Day Playbook, a free downloadable guide on marketing for venues.

To find out what other webinars we have coming up, check out this blog post. Or visit our website to contact us.