Amadeus feels benefits of improving service speed

The rise was comparatively more following the band's last visit in 2012.

Amadeus Food, part of the NEC Group, has seen an increase in net profit at the Genting Arena, Birmingham with a 38% rise at the Florence and the Machine concert in September 2015.
The rise was comparatively more following the bands last visit in 2012.

This has been due to introducing improvements to staff training to minimise waiting time whilst waiting for refreshments, which in turn enhances the customers experience. The quick service was proved as within the two busiest hours of the evening (7pm – 9pm) the team made over 6,000 transactions of the 9,981 transactions over the full evening (5pm-11pm).

The profiling of the event showed that customers were more inclined to buy beverages than food and this was proved with over 14,530 drinks being served across the evening. The top sellers of the evening were mineral water (4,510), draft beer (3,148) and bottled cider (2,552).

Operations Director for Amadeus, Tony Baldock, explained how these changes improve the service at mass audience events, saying, “We are always focused on how the event is for the customer, but equally the impact it has on the staff. Being faced with thousands of people all wanted to be served can be intimidating so we train our staff to focus on the customer rather than the queue. This not only makes it less overwhelming for the staff member but also gives a better experience to the customer.”

“We have introduced stronger briefings for staff making sure they understand what the targets are for that event, what revenue we need to achieve – this makes them feel part of the bigger picture and involved with the company which is hugely important for motivation – but also, and arguably the most important element, to have fun.”

Tony continued, “By adding these small changes we are able to keep queues moving and make sure people have time to do what they have come to visit us for – enjoying the event! Our staff are very experienced in working with large volumes of customers so this does not faze us.”

Alongside the staff training improvements to the practical side of servicing so many people in a short time has been introduced. This includes a better queuing system, faster transaction times on the tills by simplifying the system and removing products that are no longer used, pre-pouring and preparing drinks ready for the interval, more staff to cope with demand and free standing beverage “bugs” which gives the ability to be moved to high traffic areas.

General Manager of the Genting Arena, Annie Monnox – who has been instrumental in implementing these changes since joining Amadeus food in 2013 – said, “We keep on top of what could affect our event such as like train delays or traffic issues. What was interesting at this concert was the fact is was on the same evening Rugby World Cup match when Japan beat South Africa and our transactions reflect that a lot of customers decided to wait until after the match before coming to the venue.”

Annie added, “When you have most your customers arriving at once, queues can quickly start to form on our refreshment outlets and this can be misconstrued as being short-staffed when in reality we have actually increased our team to compensate for the profile of the event. When you have all your customers arriving at the same time, or 15,000 people heading out to our services in the interval it can be chaotic but all small changes help us to balance this out. During the busiest times at Florence and the Machine, the Genting Arena time took over 100 transactions per minute, which is just fantastic and a testament to how hard they all work for our customers.”