Brigade POS was a big part of helping Blood and Sand’s vision come to life!” Sean, GM, Blood and Sand, St.Louis, MO
BLOOD & SAND
Overview
The highest grossing movie in 1922, was a silent film called Blood & Sand. Starring Rudolph Valentino, they had an elaborate red carpet premiere that featured a namesake cocktail.
(An interesting decision since prohibition started 2 years earlier.)
In 2011, 2 craft bartenders made a similarly bold decision to open a high end private restaurant in downtown St. Louis that focused on highly personalized cocktails that paired perfectly with their creative food menu. They called it Blood & Sand, and 6 months after opening they were already on a waiting list for new members to join.
Problem: Business Intelligence
Being one of the early adopters of iPad based POS systems, Blood & Sand unfortunately had to endure some bad technology, customer service and analytics.
While it was certainly frustrating to be locked out of their system in the middle of a shift, have checks disappear, and not have anyone resolve these issues…the lack of intelligent reporting was the most challenging.
Repeat customers are the lifeblood of their business, and as such they wanted to know who was coming in, how often they were coming in, how much they were spending, and what they ordered. They recognized the value in knowing who their best customers were, and how to make their future experiences more personalized.
The Solution
Brigade’s Analytics did a lot more for Blood & Sand’s profitability than they expected. There were three area’s of their operation that they were able to improve significantly and immediately.
Vital Customer Information
Menu Performance
Server Performance
Customer Analysis
This was the primary reason Blood & Sand switched to Brigade, as they were not disappointed. By statistically learning who their top customers were (and what their favorite menu items were), they launched a targeted campaign where they invited them to a special cocktail dinner. Furthermore, they were able to make each persons dinner customized based on their favorite menu items. The response was incredible as this group of 15 members elated word of mouth directly led to 22 new member sign ups over the next month. This meant an additional $3,960 in revenue. Since their total cost for the hosted dinner was only $445, their Return on Investment was 789%!
Menu Performance
One of the coolest features in Brigade’s Business Intelligence Platform, according to Blood & Sand, is the “Top Pairings by Seat”. By discovering what items were ordered most frequently with other items, they were able to educate their staff on how to suggestively sell with empirical data.
For instance, they realized that their namesake Blood & Sand cocktail was ordered 62% of the time when someone ordered their legendary Truffled Tater Tots. Once informed about this statistic, their staff often replied with the following response whenever someone the Tater Tots:
“Would you like to order a Blood & Sand cocktail to compliment your Tater Tots? Over 60% of our guests order both at the same time and love the combination. The Blood & Sand is refreshing with a hint of sweetness, that pairs perfectly with the earthy truffle oil and seasoning in the Tater Tots.”
Not surprisingly, the number of guests ordering this combo jumped to 71% the following month. They increased their monthly average of 44 Blood & Sand cocktails to 62, which meant a profit of $144.
Server Performance
Blood & Sand always had a good intuition about which servers were strong with wine knowledge/sales, and which were weaker. However, they were shocked to see the disparity when they started looking at Brigade’s granular depiction of Server Performance. They discovered that 2 of their 7 servers sold 81% of their total wine! They quickly addressed this disparity by requiring the other 5 servers to attend a wine education class. While still a work in progress, in one month the ratios have improved. The top 2 servers now only represent 67%. Better yet, total wine sales increased by 8% which meant a profit of $284.