The nightclub industry was in economic ruin after the 2008 recession, but despite hard losses the industry has bounced back with annual growth expecting to amount to $2.2 billion from 2011-2016. Still, nightclub operators and managers should keep their expectations in check and understand that with this rebound comes fierce competition. Now more than ever, in order to survive and grow nightclubs need to differentiate their establishments, understand ever-changing consumer preferences, and of course save on costs.
Here are some current issues facing the nightclub industry, and how Avero can help:
- The Staffing Conundrum: With an average annual revenue per worker of $60,000, the nightlife industry is labor-intensive. Critical decisions must be made on staffing each night, and managers must maintain a difficult balancing act—match the flow of nightclub patrons with the right number of bartenders, hosts, and promoters. With this equilibrium shifting every hour, real-time analytics are critical. Managers on the move require quick and actionable insights for decision making in a time-sensitive environment. Taking one wrong step forward could mean missed revenue opportunities and frustrated clubgoers.
- The Avero Solution: Single Server Mentoring improves underperforming staff by identifying targeted items they can sell to bring them up to the group average check. Our Labor module integrates with time clock and POS data, allowing nightclub managers to reduce prime costs and finetune scheduling with hourly analyses.
- Dancing to the Right Beat: From the radio generation to hard-to-satisfy millennials, nightclub operators must adapt to shifting demographics on the dancefloor. Songs and music styles that would have received large amounts of airplay years ago are now too quickly consumed. Spotify, YouTube, and Pandora provide on-demand musical gratification, eschewing traditional “library” or “collection” models in favor of digestible and sharable playlists. DJs are strong influences on the feel of a club, and they need to be aware of shifting music tastes among its patrons. When they aren’t, a downtempo or unfashionable set will directly affect beverage sales and revenue. Nightlife management must recognize hits and misses among their talent and plan accordingly to maximize revenue from an increasingly difficult demographic.
- The Avero Solution: Analyze item sales per hour in real time to discover what’s selling when, and track these sales alongside specific DJs or other performers in a centralized, digital Logbook to give context to beverage sales data.
- Playing Detective: The National Restaurant Association assesses that 75% of inventory shortages are due to employee theft, resulting in an $11 billion problem across the U.S. Theft diverts money away from nightclubs’ bottom lines and into employees’ pockets; these losses must be treated proactively to ensure financial health. From check reuse to voids and promotions abuse, there are a variety of schemes that can be employed. Effective nightclub managers should take care of theft before it even happens so they can focus their efforts on the floor and not on their employees behind the bar.
- The Avero Solution: Our Loss Prevention algorithm automatically flags suspicious cases at the check, individual, peer set, and historical levels. The Promos & Voids module allows nightclub managers to identify specific sources of loss, such as employee training, fraud, or menu items.
Learn more about how Avero can improve nightclub performance – get started today!
