Cooking up culture.
With Doshii’s help, Blondie Bar is helping Melburnians Melbourne again.
A hop from the Arts Centre, a skip from NGV and a mere jump from the Recital Centre sits Melbourne’s Blondie Bar. Since opening its doors in 2011, the venue has served as the perfect pre-show, post-gallery stop.
But after being unable to open during the city’s record-breaking lockdowns, owner Brendan Keyte took the time to hit pause and reflect.
“Before lockdown, we focused mainly on serving patrons before shows at the Recital Centre.” It worked well enough, but the customer experience was always bound by the stress of time as people rushed to make their show.
“Re-opening, we’ve shifted slightly. Rather than a pre-show stop, we’re hosting more shows ourselves. We’ve been working closely with the Recital Centre to host DJ sets and Jazz Jams 2-3 days a week — we want to create a great place for the local community to get together again.” says Brendan.
Blondie Bar uses Doshii to connect
“We’ve got one of the largest, northern facing outdoor areas in the city. It’s the perfect place to slow down, enjoy some live music and soak up the sun, especially as we head into summer.” A post-COVID must-have, the large outdoor area was what prompted Blondie Bar to utilise Mr Yum and NowBookIt to facilitate at-table ordering. Integrated with their Square POS via Doshii, the results have exceeded expectations.
“For us, integrating Mr Yum was never about the commercial benefits. It was all about improving the customer experience. Being able to update the menu in a click – it saves us time, but ultimately it leads to happier customers.” The integration has also removed the need for people to queue to order — clearing room and giving people simple reassurance in socially-distanced times.
That reassurance continues to flow through staff and customers interactions. “On a busy night, we’ll have up to 13 staff working. With Mr Yum, they’ve got a little less on their plate. So they can keep their head up and genuinely converse with customers, making them feel at ease as we get back to socialising.”
For Brendan, an unexpected benefit came through the orders they processed. “We’re able to process so many more orders now — numbers we simply wouldn’t have been able to do before the integration — approximately 35% more.”
More customers, more efficiently, more often.
Brendan Keyte
Owner, Blondie Bar
As Melburnians get back to their culture-loving, social selves, Brendan remains focused on making their Blondie experience as great as it can be. “By connecting our customer database directly with their purchases we hope we can get to know them better and really cater to their needs with a more curated experience and personalised offers.”
In a sentence, the benefit of integrating with Doshii is simple: “More customers, more efficiently, more often.” says Brendan. It’s something that, just like their Asian-fusion-plus-pizza offering, just works.