The Melbourne Cup is among the many events that bring Australians together, centralising around venues offering dining and entertainment whilst broadcasting the race. Showing the race in your venue is an easy attraction for customers, however, dedicated promotions are how you can truly stand out to customers on race day. The Melbourne Cup will be held Tuesday 5 November, if you haven’t already setup some of your key point-of-sale (POS) promotions there’s still time. To help you host a successful Melbourne Cup this year and beyond, follow our expert POS tips to make the most of the busy trade.
Implement upsell dining
An Upsell Promotion helps customers gain extra value by highlighting a deal or complementary item to what they’ve ordered. Once the products, criteria, and price are set up, staff will be prompted once the Upsell Promotion has been triggered. This will save staff time from keeping track of every promotion and ensure customers are communicated about current promotions.
Quick Tip: During Melbourne Cup season, a common upsell can include prompting a 3-course set menu when a 2-course is selected.
Turn off happy hour
One question we’re often asked around Melbourne Cup, Christmas and other key holidays is whether a venue should keep regular promotions running. While a ‘happy hour’ (also known as Price Change Promotion) is a great promotion, for events where visitation will be higher than usual it can become costly and lead to an unmanageable queue. Where an event falls at the same time as a regular promotion, we suggest turning them off temporarily to ensure you make the most of seasonal promotions first.
Quick Tip: Schedule recurring promotions using the handy calendar view. Scroll through future months to check if there are any date conflicts, such as a public holiday, to ensure the promotion is switched off on those dates.
Manage raffle ticket sales
Raffles and member draws are popular any time of year and with SENPOS you can manage ticket sales with ease. Our built-in Raffles module helps you streamline raffles through your POS and can be scheduled weeks or months in advance to run indefinitely – saving you time and ensuring regular entertainment your customers can enjoy. Plus for added convenience, a raffle draw can be started by selecting a pre-programmed button on the terminal and is displayed on large screens throughout the venue.
Quick Tip: Consider awarding raffle tickets as bonus prizes when customers visit the SENPOS members kiosk, which is a great way to engage with members and make a memorable experience.
Check advertising
What you display on terminal advertising panels, kiosks and Visual Content screens will be viewed a number of times as customers move throughout your venue. While patronage can vary each day, after 2-3 months some messages may not longer be relevant, such as expired promotions or seasonal menu items. A simple approach is to remove promotions that are no longer offered or setup a schedule so this occurs automatically.
Quick Tip: It’s worth reviewing your venue advertising monthly to ensure it’s still current and relevant for customers. Any adjustments will be more manageable by doing so.
Training refresher
Staff training is good for any business, and for hospitality venues offering a refresher on your SENPOS system helps staff master their skills and even learn something new. Ahead of busy events, staff training helps fill knowledge gaps and reduces stress on staff and customers.
Quick Tip: Visit the SENPOS Learning Hub to learn at your own pace and follow along with how-to guides and easy videos. For multi-staff training, book dedicated time with trainer Kara Boy for an insightful onsite or remote training session.