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The Christchurch hospitality scene today is a wealth of extensive expertise and experience and is fast becoming an arena of cut-throat competition. For business owners Shaun Halliwell and Keith Anderson, with their combined backgrounds and knowledge of the hospitality industry its easy to see why their two establishments are so successful.
Shaun currently runs the show down at No.4 Bar & Restaurant – one of the city’s leading Gastropubs, known for its outstanding outdoor areas, impeccable service and fantastic interior. When Keith decided to go into partnership with Shaun the two decided to open a new venue, Fiddlesticks, which is located right in the central city and is making waves with its superb take on casual modern dining. This new joint venture of Shaun and Keith was undoubtedly a recipe for success.
The two first got involved with goRoster in 2008 when they implemented the rostering programme into No.4. When they later opened Fiddlesticks in 2012 it was without question that goRoster would be going with them to the new site. After all, goRoster had become a part of their daily routine. Logging in every day to update the takings from the previous night and taking a look at how the numbers stacked up against the money they were spending on wages.
“Financials are really important to see exactly where you’re going wrong and where you can improve.” says Keith, who you will find running the show down at Fiddlesticks. After creating his rosters for the upcoming weeks, Keith is able to accurately forecast the amount of money the business is going to spend on wages and make changes in real-time after the completion of each shift. Every hour and every dollar is accounted for.
“The biggest benefit of having targets right in front of you is that you know exactly what’s going on. In conjunction with that, the overall reporting side of goRoster is incredibly helpful.” – Keith Anderson
Shaun, armed with years of overseas experience says goRoster has helped in reducing the number of phone calls to and from employees and he relies a lot on the group messaging feature to get in contact with multiple staff members at once. The precise and meticulous nature of the communication side of goRoster has helped him eliminate time spent on trying to create and communicate rosters with employees.
” goRoster is incredibly easy to use. The new and smarter interface looks great and the product is always developing. It’s pretty unique and there isn’t much else out there that does what goRoster does. As the hospitality industry progresses, goRoster progresses to suit the needs of the industry more and more. It’s great” – Shaun Halliwell
Since its implementation; both Keith and Shaun said they’ve never looked back. “The control measures are just too great”, the pair said. “We couldn’t not have it in place.” With the pace of technological advancement these days and with everything going mobile, it’s important to keep pace with this trend.
