Category Archives: Technology

Author Whitney Larson Posted on

Re-Engage Your Customers

How many customers do you have that attended your venue once or twice, but haven’t returned? Or how about customers that attended often in the past, but don’t frequent as much? Chances are you have a lot of these customers, whether you’re aware of it or not. Not everyone is going to be a regular guest, but there are ways for you to engage even your most sporadic guests so they come back more often.

Here’s how to know when it’s time to re-engage, and what do do about it.

1. Understand Their Habits

To be able to re-engage someone, you first need to understand how they engaged with you the begin with. Were they at your venue for an event? Did they book a table reservation to celebrate something? Were they on the guest list or a general admission guest? The best is if you can identify when they came in, what type of guest they were, and what was happening at your venue that night. You don’t have to be a savvy analyst to find this information. It’s just a matter of collecting and tracking that data so you can always reference back at it. And moving away from pen and paper and on to a system that helps you automate this is going to be your biggest asset.

2. Suggest Like-Minded Opportunities

Now that you know their past habits, you’re able to suggest similar ways for them to engage. Maybe they came to an event to see a certain artist, and you have a similar artist booked in the near future. Send them an exclusive invitation to the event before tickets are released to the mass public. This offers a sense of personalization and exclusiveness that’ll catch their attention while offering something you know they’ll likely be interested in. You can use this strategy for reservation guests and general admission guests as well. The trick is to not make the message seem like the same old night that’s always promoted, but instead framed to cater to their past experiences.

3. Make Personal Up-Sales

Another option is to offer a premium service to a guest that has become disengaged. Make this offer personal, and connect the dots as to why they’re receiving this message. Maybe they attended as a general admission guest 5 times throughout a couple months, and you noticed they spent over $100 at the bar each time. Send them a personal message offering a VIP table with a bottle of comped champagne, thanking them for being a great customer. Or maybe a guest attended several events in the past but hasn’t attended one in a while. You could offer that person their first round of drinks for the next event they attend. Again, it’s important to make these up-sells unique to their habits, and to understand the the cost of throwing in an incentive is worthwhile to get a valuable customer back in your door.

4. Provide the Experience

Lastly, it’s important to provide on the experience that you offered. You’re reaching out to disengaged customers to get them back in your venue, the last thing you need is for something to go wrong and for them to have a bad experience. That will just ensure they will likely never come back. If you up-sell a guest on a VIP table with a complimentary bottle of champagne, make sure your staff knows this customer is coming in so they can be greeted at the door and are served their bottle upon being seated. Going above and beyond with service after getting them come back will build loyalty stronger than before and allow you to keep them engaged for future nights.


Start tracking your guest habits and get access to insights to help you re-engage your customers and increase your revenue. Get set up now.

Author Whitney Larson Posted on

How To Excel Your Venue Using Past Results

The key to measuring the success of your venue is by knowing exactly how you’re performing. Yet, many venues I talk with don’t know their numbers. How much revenue did you earn over the past month? Which days are your busiest? What times are your busiest? Which channels bring in your guests? Are your promoters just bringing in bodies or are they bringing in spenders? How much are you giving away for free?

These are all questions you should know the answer to. And luckily, there are systems that will automate this for you so you don’t have to spend time combing through it. Not only does that save you time, but having this data at your fingertips is what allows you to make decisions to become even more profitable. When you know exactly what’s working, you’re able to spend your money more wisely and grow your return every month.

Here’s how you should be looking at your data to maximize profit potential in the future.

1. Make your nights more predictable

Nightclubs go into each night without an accurate idea of what the night will hold. And when you don’t know how many guests will arrive for a night, it’s hard to plan and staff accordingly. If you’re more busy than anticipated, VIP tables get double booked, the door gets bottlenecked, and staff aren’t communicating to solve the issues. Your guests notice this, and it hinders their experience before they even walk in your door.

When you use your data, you’re able to predict how your night is going to go based on historical data. Do you consistently get slammed around the some time? Staff accordingly. What issues have you experienced in the past? Fix those issues with processes. Pre-selling inventory is another great way to make your nights predictable. It also helps you to understand how far in advance people tend to pre-purchase and whether you’re on target to hit your numbers.

2. Decrease unnecessary costs

Just as your past data helps you understand if you need to boost staff and processes, it also tells you when to decrease unnecessary costs. Do you need to have as many servers as you do working at 8 pm when you consistently don’t get busy until 11? Do you need to pay your promoters a per-guest fee when the guests they bring in don’t end up spending anything once inside your venue? Know where you’re over spending and cut costs accordingly.

3. Improve marketing efforts

Speaking of knowing where you’re over spending, marketing is one of those places you’re likely throwing money in the wrong places. But when you track your marketing efforts, you’re able to see exactly what drives traffic and results. So while a third-party website may claim to have garnered you 100,000 impressions, you know that it actually only got you 3 clicks and $0 in return. Now you know not to spend money there in the future and redistribute those dollars toward activities you know work for you.


Venues we work with have seen an average uptick of 30% to their bottom line after switching to a system backed by data. That’s because they know exactly what’s working and what is not, which allows them to spend their money more wisely. They also improved their operations to get their guests in the door faster to get to the bar more quickly, resulting in increased bar sales. When you have absolute clarity on your venue’s performance, you can do even more to increase your success. Without data, you’re simply guessing and could be leaving a lot of money on the table.

Author Whitney Larson Posted on

The Benefit of Nightclub Management Software

Running a successful venue isn’t easy. You have various departments in charge of different tasks, not to mention an array of staff members to account for. That’s why it’s more important than ever to stay connected, both from a personnel and an operations standpoint. Fortunately, there are solutions available to help you streamline your operations to be a revenue-generating powerhouse.

So What’s Stopping You?

Despite the opportunity to become a powerhouse, many nightclub owners and managers respond to venue management systems with hesitation and fear – fear of the unknown, fear of change, and fear that technology will end up slowing down the speed of night. But after working with many nightclubs on switching them over to integrated digital solutions, I can assure you that technology has actually done the opposite of what they feared.

The key ingredient to venue or nightclub management software is that it has to be integrated into all areas of you club. We call this interconnectivity. Without everything connected together, your venue suffers.

Think about the different solutions you use in your venue. There are point of sale systems, reservation management software, event & ticketing software, employee scheduling programs, customer relationship management systems…the list goes on. But unless these technologies are programmed to connect to each other, the data and processes will ultimately be useless. Why bother with 5 different technologies if it’s going to add 5 different processes? That’s wasted time with duplicated effort, wasted time with manual data entry, and lost data between the systems.

What to Look For

Technology should not be complicated. In fact, it should be used as a tool to save time and money while enhancing customer experience.

The key ingredient to venue or nightclub management software is that it has to be integrated into all areas of your club. Look for a comprehensive venue management platform like Vēmos that automatically has integration functionality built within it. This is what allows you to manage, understand, and grow your business from a single dashboard.

Having one dashboard that houses reservation management, guest list management, general admission, events & ticketing, your CRM database, and all of your analytics is what allows you to streamline your operations and grow your business. You spend less time on the tedious process and more time focusing on bigger, more beneficial tasks.

Reap the Benefits

With a comprehensive venue management system like Vēmos, you become interconnected across operations, staff, and customers. This means you’re now experiencing the benefits of:

  • Accessing and managing all your information and departments in one dashboard
  • Getting your staff in the loop on one system for seamless communication
  • Getting to know your customers on a deeper level so you can better market to and serve them, which ultimately enhances their experience
  • Understanding which marketing activities work and don’t work to drive more customers and generate more revenue
  • Seeing in-depth analytics across all areas of your venue in one dashboard so you truly understand how you’re performing
  • Remove duplicate processes and duplicated information across multiple systems. Everything syncs together for efficient, effective results.

When you have multiple areas of your club, or even multiple clubs for that matter, you need a solution that combines everything into one central spot. This is what helps you to truly understand how your venue is performing and who your guests are, which allows you to make better decisions to make more money. Plus, the efficiency of having everything tied together saves you time. Save time, make money, all with a simple setup. That’s what digital can do for you.

Author Whitney Larson Posted on

4 Reasons to Remove Paper in 2017

Pen and paper is one of the biggest cause for mistakes in our industry. I’ve seen venues not let in high profile guests who would have spent thousands inside the door all because one person didn’t know who they were. I’ve seen guest list lines get bottlenecked as the host sifts through pages to try to find the name that was written down. I’ve seen VIP tables double booked because it wasn’t documented correctly. I’ve also seen people who were told they were on the list get turned away because they weren’t added before the list got printed.

None of these things should happen anymore, and it’s costing your venue thousands of dollars as a result.

That’s why it’s time to retire the old pen & paper and upgrade to a digital system that’ll bring in even more revenue opportunities. Here are 4 main benefits from going digital.

1. Increase Efficiency 

You’re able to streamline your lines when you have a digital, centralized list. Plus, it’s a lot easier for your staff to handle. All they have to do is either scan the guests’ QR code or search for their name, mark them as arrived, and then they’re on to the next guest. No more sifting through pages of paper. Now guests are inside and spending more money at the bar to drive up your bar sales.

2. Collect Guest Information

With pen and paper, it was next to impossible to collect and track your guest list information. Even if you kept that piece of paper, did you ever look back at it to understand the data? Now you’re able to with ease. A digital system keeps track of your guest list, general admission, ticketing, and reservation status automatically so you don’t have to cross-reference your list at the end of the night. Plus, you’ll know exactly how many people checked in and which promoter, staff member, or marketing campaign brought them in the first place.

3. Understand Guest Habits

Most systems do the mere task of checking people in. The best ones are those that sync with other areas of your venue to present wholistic, individual guest data. This then allows you to better understand who your guests are from a demographic level, but also what their habits and preferences are. What types of beverages do they order? How much do they spend once inside your venue? Do they only come on big event nights; Friday nights; every weekend night? These answers help you to give each guest a more personal experience, allows you to better market to them to keep them coming back, and even gives you the power to upsell them once they arrive. This is the type of activity that grows your club’s revenue while improving their experience — a win-win for all.

4. Get Staff on Same Page

With a digital system, each staff member can have their own login and add guests as requests come in. These guests appear on your list in real-time, so there’s never that awkward moment of someone thinking they were on when they never got added. Plus, this removes the need for staff to email or text in their list to make sure their guests get added — they have the ability of doing it themselves and knowing that their guests got on. It’s smoother and has less room for error.


Pen and paper can’t provide anything to you other than simply crossing off names when guests arrive. In 2017, it’s time to retire paper, move over to a digital system, and see the benefits it has on your club’s performance.

Author Whitney Larson Posted on

Why Data is the Real MVP

We talk a lot about mixology, music, lights and ambiance in this industry. After all, this is the recipe for your party. And while all of them are important to running your venue, there’s one component that stands out as the true MVP to your success: data.

It may seem dry and boring, but data is the key to business. Your party is what brings people into your venue. Your data is what allows you to put on better, more profitable parties to continue driving people in (and boosting your revenue up).

Here’s how you can capture and use data to be your most valuable player.

1. Collect information about your guests

Today’s Reality: Nearly every nightclub and bar has an estimate of how many guests walked through their door on a given night. What they don’t know is who walked through their door. They get people in, serve them, and let them walk away without knowing anything about them.

Data’s Fix: Get away from the paper guestlist. You can’t capture data with paper. Instead, use a system to handle every aspect of your door process, including checking guests in on the guest list, counting general admission walk-ins, serving VIP reservations, and selling/checking-in guests who bought a ticket to your event. Using one system to handle everything allows you collect data on every type of customer that walks through your door. And when you connect this to your point of sale system, you’re able to unearth even more valuable information.

MVP Status: Now you have a database of all your guests, including their name, contact information, how many times they’ve been to your venue, whether they’re a VIP/guest list/event/general admission customer, how much money they’ve spent, and what their most popular drink purchases are. This means you’re now able to better identify your guests, upsell them before they walk through your doors (hint: more $), and provide personalized service (so they spend more $).

2. Increase marketing results

Today’s Reality: Venues end up spending marketing dollars on mass marketing efforts (or sometimes no marketing at all), blasting vague messages to a broad range of people who may or may not be their customers. All because they don’t know who their customers are.

Data’s Fix: With the right system, you can have a complete buyer persona for all of your target customer segments, including demographic, geographic, and psychographic information. Use this to your advantage. As an example, you can segment your audience into a list of females who attend your venue on Friday nights and spend at least $100. You can then send a text message to this list with a message that’s 100% relevant to them. And that’s powerful marketing.

MVP Status: You’re no longer wasting marketing dollars on efforts that don’t convert. Instead, you’re able to drive your most loyal customers back into your venue with personal messaging, you’re able to establish a healthy mix of male and female customers, and you’re able to drive customers who haven’t visited in a while back through your doors. Better marketing results in better guests which results in bigger spending.

3. Improve Operations

Today’s Reality: Nightclubs go into each night without an accurate idea of what the night will hold. And when you don’t know how many guests will arrive for a night, it’s hard to plan and staff accordingly. VIP tables get double booked, the door gets bottlenecked, and staff aren’t communicating to solve the issues. Your guests notice this, and it hinders their experience before they even walk in your door.

Data’s Fix: Systems improve operations, provide metrics, and instill accountability. When you use a single system to sell tickets, manage VIP tables, manage your guest list, and handle general admission walk-ups, you’re able to know how many guests you can expect to arrive. This then helps you staff accordingly and plan out VIP tables. It also helps to streamline your door and optimize your lines.

MVP Status: Putting a bit of strategy and organization can help your speed of night, improve customer morale while waiting in line, and get people through your to start spending money inside your venue faster. Plus, when your door system ties to your guest database, your staff is able to treat each guest with respect and a more personalized service. This in turn means they’re more likely to enjoy themselves and want to stay (and spend more money while they’re there).

4. Know Your Business Results

Today’s Reality: Most venues don’t have the right data to get an accurate gage of how well their venue is performing. Without the right system in place to analyze this data, venues are operating blindly and wasting time and money on areas that may or may not be working.

Data’s Fix: When you use one system to track all areas, you have a clear understanding of exactly what’s happening in your venue without having to log into multiple data systems. Now, you can easily track:

  • How much money you made over a given time period
  • How many customers walked through your door over a given time period (and who they were)
  • How many table reservations you have over a given time period, and how much you earn on average
  • When your customers start buying tickets to your event
  • Which staff members are bringing in the most guests (and biggest spenders)

MVP Status: Venues we work with have seen an average uptick of 30% to their bottom line after switching to a system backed by data. That’s because they know exactly what’s working and what doesn’t, which allows them to spend their money more wisely. They also improved their operations to get their guests in the door faster to get to the bar more quickly, resulting in increased bar sales. When you have absolutely clarity on your venue’s performance, you can do even more to increase your success. Without data, you’re simply just guessing and could be leaving a lot of money on the table.

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