We live in a world of technology and data. Yet, it’s hard to take the time in the bustling hospitality industry to comb through all the data points to make sense of what’s happening. But it’s absolutely critical for your business that you do. If you don’t, you’re missing out on a lot of insight, opportunities, and revenue.
I’ll be the first to admit the intimidation that tech and data has in the business world. There’s a lot of information that gets collected in multiple places, and it seems like there’s a lot of setup to get this information in the first place. But with the right system, this really isn’t the case. Vēmos is built specifically for this industry, and we allow you to manage all areas of your venue from one dashboard so you can easily see your data that’s collected from these areas in one spot. This is what gives you insight to make better decisions for tomorrow. In fact, these are 5 distinct areas where data will help you improve your results.
1. Understand Your Business
We’re starting with the most obvious: data allows you to track your business results and performance. And when you use Vēmos to track all areas, you have an even better understanding of exactly what’s happening, including:
• How much money you made over a given time period or for a specific event
• How many reservations you have over a given time period, and how much you earn on average
• When your customers start buying tickets to your event, and when the uptick of ticket sales really begins
• How many customers walked through your door over a given time period
• Real-time information on when guests are checked-in, and how many people are currently inside your venue
• Which days of the week you sell the most inventory
• Which staff members are bringing in the most guests (and the biggest spenders)
• Which promotions bring in the most traffic
• Which of your marketing channels have the highest conversion
We automatically collect and display this information in visual charts and graphs. That way, the hard analysis work is done for you so you don’t have to spend time setting it up and figuring out what everything means.
2. Uncover Staff Involvement
Data doesn’t always have to be about tracking revenue. As noted above, you’re able to track which of your staff are bringing in the most customers along with the biggest spenders. So if you’re paying people out based on metrics, you now have clear metrics to work from. Make sure each staff member gets his/her personal login to your system so you can track their activity. They should each also receive their own affiliate link they can use to promote your event or venue, which tracks click and conversion rates for customers buying tickets or making reservations from various media channels. This information not only allows you to understand your staff’s involvement with driving guests through your door, but also allows you to reward and incentivize employees based on their performance. And when employees feel recognized and rewarded, they tend to work harder for you to drive even more success.
3. Learn about Your Customers
When you use a system to manage your operations, you’re able to track guest history and information. This includes their name, contact info, how many times they’ve been to your venue, which events they bought tickets for, which ticket type they purchased, whether they’re a pre-sale/general admission/VIP customer, which promotions brought them in, and how much money they’ve spent at your venue or event. This information on each individual guest at the palm of your hand allows you to provide personalized service. And that personalized service makes them feel appreciated and recognized, which oftentimes leads them to spend more money with you. This also gives you the opportunity to run better, more effective marketing campaigns to keep these guests coming back, as explained in the next point.
4. Strengthen Your Marketing
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. Using technology, you have a complete buyer persona for all of your target customer segments, including demographic, geographic, and psychographic information. Use this data to your advantage. Filter your audience into specific customer segments and send messages that are 100% specific to that audience. You can send that message through email, text, and social, each channel targeting your individual customers. Use affiliate links to track which channels are bringing the most clicks and purchases based on your call to action. With this data, you’ll uncover exactly which marketing channels work the best for you and your audience, and which messages drive the most conversions. Now you’re not wasting your marketing dollars on mass marketing that doesn’t work, and are instead investing it toward strategic personalized marketing that brings an even bigger bang for your buck.
5. Increase Revenue
All of this information is what gets you a true sense of how you’re performing, from your venue to your customers to your staff. It’s what allows you to understand what is and isn’t working so you can make the necessary changes. Is a certain promotion bringing in a ton of people? Keep doing it! Is a promoter not providing results? Fix it. That’s the power of data. You get true clarity about your performance and can make data-driven decisions to do more of what increases your revenue. Stop spending money in areas that aren’t working for you, and start putting dollars behind those that are making you even more. You’re no longer guessing or making emotional business decisions. You now have your own business results to leverage your success.
Contact us today to get started with Vēmos to improve your results.
Whitney Larson is the president and director of marketing at Vēmos. Contact her at whitney.larson@vemos.io or fill out the form below.
