Bistrot Pierre speeds up service with iServe
When national restaurant operator Bistrot Pierre was looking for a technology partner to nurture its ambitious growth plans, Zonal was the natural fit.
Founded in 1994 by Robert Beacham and John Whitehead, Bistrot Pierre has grown rapidly from its original roots in Nottingham to nationwide Bistrots from Harrogate to Plymouth.
Firmly focused on great value French dining and freshly cooked food, the business has strong brand recognition and has carved out a niche in the premium casual dining sector of the eating out market.
Bistrot Pierre’s Finance Director told us: “With our unique brand proposition we wanted to make sure that we offered our customers the very best service and food standards possible.”
“Technology was a key enabler and we quickly realised that Zonal had a grip on the critical issues that could impact and enable our growing business.”
“Zonal’s management team is very hands on and they have dealt with issues that we have come across and are able to suggest suitable solutions” they added. The ability to easily access and crunch data has been invaluable to the team. Bistrot Pierre’s own customer insight has been enhanced with Zonal’s own data.
For example, recent research by Zonal and CGA Peach showed that restaurant guests dislike waiting when ordering, paying and in particular waiting for their food to arrive. The use of mobile devices is seen as a good way to overcome these frustrations and Le Bistrot Pierre is in the process of introducing Zonal’s iServe into all of its outlets.
“Zonal’s experienced team worked closely with us to develop a solution to help us to facilitate this growth.”
“The extremely reliable Aztec EPoS system gave us good central control and access to sales data, key to identifying our customers’ wants and needs. We were able to feed the data easily into our accounting system, streamlining the process and improving efficiency.”
Throughout its expansion, the ability to tap into industry expertise was really important to the Bistrot team.
“As a growing business, It’s always good to work with like-minded people who really understand what you are talking about and your business needs.”
iServe, is a cost-effective replacement to the traditional order pad, which can be installed on any iPod touch to create a versatile handheld EPoS terminal. Team members can take orders, print and process payments from anywhere in the venue, providing a superior customer experience.
With iServe orders are processed faster and tables turned around quicker whilst staff visits to the bar and kitchen are reduced, giving the team more time to focus on delivering a great customer experience.
“We know that technology is the key to unlocking our future potential and solutions like iServe give us a real competitive edge. It responds to consumer concerns over waiting times, which we know is one of the biggest factors to consider when eating or drinking out and makes things much simpler for our team”
Whilst decreasing transaction time, iServe can also drive spend per head through upsell prompts and link with Zonal’s Tables and Loyalty systems to deliver a truly integrated solution.
Stuart McLean, Zonal’s chief executive said: “Our research shows that operators like Bistrot Pierre who adopt technology will achieve a real competitive advantage. It’s all about using the data and systems to give customers what they want, an efficient, personal and enjoyable experience.”