How the crème de la crème of Auckland's dining scene keep evolving
Paris Butter has an ethos that runs throughout its team: you’re never too good to learn new things. And for such an esteemed fine-dining establishment, it’s this openness and eagerness to evolve that has seen them constantly create something new and keep moving forwards. This also extends to their operations. Looking for a new platform to manage their business, Paris Butter turned to Lightspeed.
Read on to learn how Lightspeed helped Paris Butter maintain their evolutionary progress, and keep learning new things.
Business type
Fine dining
Customer since
2022
Location
Auckland, NZ
Paris Butter + Lightspeed
Paris Butter is a restaurant that needs no introduction. They find themselves regularly at the top of New Zealand’s dining scene, one of a very select few 3-hatted restaurants in the country.
But their POS wasn’t keeping up. They needed something that could work alongside them and provide the type of speed and ease that a restaurant with such intent to explore new ideas deserves.
They found their match in Lightspeed.
We sat down with Ben Carmine, Restaurant Manager at Paris Butter, to talk about their Lightspeed experience.
At a glance
Lightspeed provides Paris Butter with an easy-to-use platform for their restaurant, insights into the items that are driving their business and integrations with their favourite third-party apps. With Lightspeed, Paris Butter was able to:
- Streamline communication between FOH & BOH in their restaurant
- Adjust their menu in real-time with zero delays
- Track sales and gain insights into what is working on their menu
A simple setup
“It was a bit of a no-brainer really.”
Paris Butter is an ever-evolving business, and it had outgrown its previous, server-based POS. There was a need for change—a feeling that they were being held back by their tech.
“Our old system was relatively outdated. It wasn't working overly well and then we found that with Lightspeed, we didn't have to get a technician and I could set it up within an hour.”
Lightspeed’s quick setup enabled Paris Butter to continue its growth without the previous restrictions of an outdated POS.
“We could go from essentially unboxing and downloading the technology to having it up and going within an hour, rather than that traditional style of having to call someone and wait on customer support.”
A dynamic POS
“Why haven't we been using this for years?”
Restaurant services can be unpredictable. Even the most well-planned service can have a spanner thrown into the works by a myriad of outside factors, and you need a flexible platform to be able to roll with these punches when they come your way.
“I can set up Lightspeed on my phone, if I need to, and register that as one of our POS’, rather than having to go to a bulky, locked-in-place till.”
These split-second decisions can be stressful, but that stress can be minimised if you know that your POS has your back and can cope with whatever solution you decide upon.
“If, during service we have a new special that we want to put into the system, it’s as easy as logging into the back office, typing it in, adding it as a product and logging back into the POS. You're not waiting 15-20 minutes for everything to be uploaded to a server.”
A smoother service
“It's been remarkably easier using Lightspeed.”
Fine dining menus are intricate and complex by nature, each course carefully crafted and timed to perfection so that the diner is taken on a precise journey. That doesn’t mean that the tech behind it has to be equally complicated.
“We're in a degustation format. We only put through, essentially, one item that the guest is paying for and that's the Degustation menu. For us, it's just a series of dockets that go through that mean nothing to the customer but are essential for us—our ‘call away’ system for each course.”
The process of timing in particular was something which was fast becoming dictated by the limitations of their old POS. Now, with Lightspeed, this power has been given back to Ben and his team.
“Traditionally, we'd have to go back on our own till, go onto the item, click on the item itself then change it to the next course, update it and send it through to the kitchen. Now, all we have to do is click one of the ‘call away’ buttons and send it through.”
Data-driven menus
“We like to know what's working and what's not.”
With a restaurant as in control as Paris Butter, having the right data on-hand is a very useful tool when it comes to balancing profits with customer satisfaction. Thankfully, Insights provides just that.
“It's super useful actually, just to see things like upsells, are they worth it for us?”
Every change to a restaurant’s offerings comes with some risk attached. Will the diners like it? Will they understand it even? But the risks can be mitigated and lessened if your data can guide your way.
“It's a big expense bringing in a new item to the menu. So of course, when we are seeing the numbers that are coming back from that, it's fantastic. It gives us a bit of a gauge on if we should go forward—how far we should push it.”
