me&u x Lightspeed: Town Square Belfast case study

The background 

Town Square started just as Belfast’s booming coffee scene was taking off. As Town Square’s Commercial Manager, Chris Jones, says, “It started about five, six years ago when the hipster coffee scene was just coming to Belfast. So it started more down the road of a cafe, bar type of vibe.”

For a while, they trucked along with specialty coffee as their focus, but when covid hit, they changed trajectory to cater for more food and drink orders. 

“Coming out of covid, most people weren’t going out for a coffee, they were going out for a drink,” says Chris. And this is where the team saw an opportunity to change tracks.

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How they selected their tech 

Chris says that mobile-powered tech was a necessity in the covid landscape, as they weren’t allowed to have guests walk up to the bar due to restrictions. Town Square was already onboard with Lightspeed POS and saw excellent results from the platform. So they were looking for an ordering and payment partner who could integrate with Lightspeed, as they didn’t want separate printers.

The romantic in us would like to say this is where a string quartet welled up, and they saw us standing outside in the rain holding a bouquet of flowers. But the reality was they took notice of what me&u could offer them, integrations and all, and decided we were the best fit. 

Their live date for me&u happened pretty rapidly. A lot of Town Square’s staff were off sick, so they printed temporary QR stickers that would get their orders pumping through ASAP. 
“It saved the sales and the customer service because we were able to reallocate staff to focus on the bar and the kitchen,” says Chris. 

While me&u was introduced as a temporary fix, the Town Square team now see us as a permanent fixture because we suit their brand and the customers love the platform.

“The customers have said that the system is so easy to use, and that lets us focus on getting the drinks and food to them as quick as possible,” says Chris.  

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A match made in heaven 

Chris says the combination of me&u and Lightspeed allows the Town Square team to harness data to a single source, which reduces admin time. They also love that they can use the data and their loyalty program to reward customers and are looking at fun ways to use that data to keep top spenders coming back. 

Chris says staff typically pick up how to use Lightspeed within half a day, which is excellent for training. And when paired with me&u, they see this ease of use significantly reduces human error.
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“It really did reduce the amount of errors you have. Catch-up time used to be about two hours in a night, it’s 20 minutes now, if even”, says Chris.

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‍How the team are finding it

‍Chris says that through me&u's platform, Town Square has seen a 300% increase in tips (that’s not a typo).

“Before, we were using a tip jar, so the points were located at both doors, but we found that people were just walking on by. So we certainly did notice when the floor staff saw the extra tips coming in. There was a boost to morale,” says Chris.

“I remember after the first month, I was shocked, and what I’ve noticed is that month-on-month, it’s increased.”

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If you want to implement me&u into your venue, be sure to book a demo with our friendly team.