Lightspeed vs Legacy: 9 Ways Lightspeed Empowers Gemelli Group to Simplify Their Operations
Gemelli simply translates from Italian to twins, which is where Gemelli Group’s story began.
Founded by twin brothers, Gemelli Group comprises four restaurants that encapsulate the twin’s Italian heritage and their love and appreciation for Italian cuisine and culture. With everything made in-house, from the pizza sauces to the gelato, Gemelli Group prides itself on delivering an authentic Italian experience to locals in south Queensland.
As a growing hospitality business, Gemelli Group began to outgrow its legacy point of sale (POS) system. With a fifth venue in the pipeline the group needed a sophisticated POS and payments platform with flexible ordering options and in-depth reporting capabilities to seamlessly manage and grow the business.
To learn more, we sat down with Bonnie Sallaway, General Manager at Gemelli Group, to chat about her experience with Lightspeed and how it measures up to their old POS.
- Easy-to-use POS that simplifies operations
- Continuous service even if the wifi is down
- Connect with other business tools to enhance operations
- Comprehensive support that’s available whenever the team needs it
- Easy onboarding ensured each venue launched without a hitch
- Accessible data gives visibility to the team to make actionable decisions
- Smart workflows save staff time and ensure order accuracy
- Automatic reconciliation saves time at the end of the day
- Insights into customer spend can be used to incentivise staff
1. Easy-to-use POS that simplifies operations
Gemelli Group initially used a legacy POS system to power their venues. However, as the business grew, the management team knew they needed to update their tech to ensure their growing operations could meet customer demand.
“We were using [a legacy system], which was quite archaic, but we didn’t want to switch due to comfort. As the company expanded, we needed to expand,” explains Bonnie.
One of the things that Bonnie and the team wanted to achieve when introducing a new POS platform to the business was simplicity and ease of use to make life easier for the team and minimise mistakes.
“[Our legacy POS] was very customisable, which was great, but it also meant there was a lot of room for error… If you complicate things too much and you give people too many options, it makes it too hard,” comments Bonnie.
“Where I feel like with Lightspeed, it’s very straightforward… I find the interface so simple.”
Lightspeed’s user-friendly interface was one of the main elements that drew Gemelli Group to the system.
It’s just like using an iPhone.”
“Everyone says that the interface particularly is very easy to use, which we love.”
2. Continuous services even if the wifi is down
Another issue Bonnie wanted to solve when investing in a new POS was to ensure each venue could always keep serving, even if the internet was down.
“In the event of the internet going off [or] every time there was a power failure or internet surge, we wouldn’t have a POS system. Without a POS system, you don’t have a restaurant, unfortunately, in this day and age.”
As Bonnie mentions, a lack of internet service can spell disaster for a hospitality business.
However, Lightspeed’s ability to work offline means the store can keep operating even if the wifi is down. With Lightspeed, it’s still possible to manually process orders and payments through the POS, and everything will automatically sync and reconcile once you’re back online.
3. Connect with other business tools to enhance operations
One of the key things Gemelli Group felt was missing with their legacy POS system was the ability to integrate with other business tools.
Having a POS platform like Lightspeed that seamlessly integrates with other tools, such as inventory and payroll software, makes accessing data and running your business so much easier.
“That’s also why we wanted to change to Lightspeed, because [our old POS] didn’t integrate with anything,” explains Bonnie. “[Our old POS] didn’t have any of those features. Everything was on its own.”
“Now we have three systems, Restoke, Tanda and Lightspeed, and they all speak to each other.”
4. Comprehensive support that’s available whenever the team needs it
With their legacy point of sale, Gemelli Group had no access to additional support, so if anything ever went wrong or they needed to ask a question, Bonnie and the team had to figure it out on their own.
“[Our old POS] was so difficult. Every aspect of [it] was difficult. So when I started as restaurant manager, I learned the whole thing myself because the support was nothing,” explains Bonnie.
“If something happened [with the old POS], there would be no one to help me. With Lightspeed, there’s a lot of support, which we never had.”
From online guides and help articles to live chat on the website and being able to pick up the phone and chat to a Lightspeed support member, Bonnie has been impressed with the level of support she’s received from Lightspeed.
Being able to have 24/7 support is brilliant.”
“I’ve found [Lightspeed support] super helpful, especially if I’ve got confused or forgotten how to do something,” says Bonnie.
“Something I needed to do the other day was create an account for someone which we’ve never done. I just logged on to support. We spoke about it. They told me what to do, and I’ve just downloaded that conversation, which I’m going to look at later to figure it out.”
5. Easy onboarding ensured each venue launched without a hitch
In a similar vein, Bonnie explains how she also had a great experience with Lightspeed’s implementation team during Gemelli Group’s onboarding.
There’s no denying that implementing a new POS system across four venues can be daunting. But with the help of Tom Loffhagen, one of Lightspeed’s Strategic Implementation Consultants, Bonnie and the team found the whole process seamless.
“I found the whole thing really easy,” says Bonnie. “I worked with Tom directly, which was fantastic. He was super helpful at every point.”
“To be honest, after working with [our old POS], which was really archaic, I found Lightspeed to be a piece of cake.”
“Pretty much all FOH (front of house) got new printers, and BOH (back of house), in regards to adding printers etc., was super easy, to be honest. We tested everything beforehand, so we were pretty much ready to go – just bite the bullet and change it over.”
6. Accessible data gives visibility to the team to make actionable decisions
In a growing business, accurate data that’s easy to access is crucial for arming managers with the insights they need to make actional decisions.
With Gemelli Group’s old POS, it was difficult for the managers to access data and reports easily, and it often fell on Bonnie to crunch the numbers and communicate the findings.
“If you have to dig for information, your managers just aren’t going to go and look for it. They’re so busy day to day,” explains Bonnie.
“We wanted more access to data, easy, readily available data, automated reports, all that sort of thing to give us more information.”
After adopting Lightspeed, managers now have easy access to business data.
Now, when they log on, whether or not they’re looking for data, it is right in front of them.”
“[Managers] can log on now and see straight away, this is how much money I’ve made at lunch today, without me needing to drive it home, this is what you’ve made, this is the report. They have access to numbers.”
7. Smart workflows save staff time and ensure order accuracy
Another thing Bonnie loves about Lightspeed is how the platform’s intuitive ordering workflows ensure accurate orders are always sent to the kitchen, minimising mistakes and keeping customers happy.
“Before [we had Lightspeed], staff would have to order the pizza and then click another button and then click, add extra ham, or whatever it was, but they forget,” explains Bonnie.
“Whereas now you press it, and it prompts you straight away. Is it a gluten-free base? Do you want to add ham? Things like that. So it definitely minimises mistakes.”
“I had no idea it could be so easy as [it is] Lightspeed.”
These intuitive workflows also mean waitstaff can enter orders into the POS much quicker than they could before. In turn, this means orders get to the kitchen quicker and gives waitstaff more time to focus on customers – enhancing the overall experience.
“The faster they put in orders, the faster they’re spending time with guests,” says Bonnie.
8. Automatic reconciliation saves time at the end of the day
Before adopting Lightspeed POS and Payments, Gemelli Group had never used an integrated payment system, which made reporting and end-of-day reconciliations difficult and time-consuming.
“We have never used integrated credit card machines before. All of our systems were very archaic,” comments Bonnie. “We were using different EFTPOS providers, and I used to have so many issues with the evening reporting because every credit card machine provider, the report is different.”
Understandably, with so many different systems and processes, conducting end-of-day reconciliations was a stressful process for Bonnie.
“I was tearing my hair out with the cash up and reading the credit card takings,” admits Bonnie.
However, now Gemelli Group uses Lightspeed Payments, the whole process is so much easier.
“The cash-up is absolutely seamless, so thank you so much.”
9. Insights into customer spend can be used to incentivise staff
Bonnie also uses Lightspeed data to create internal competitions and incentivise staff to upsell each week with monetised competitions.
“Spend per head for us is a big one… it’s basically the level at which your staff are upselling. The level at which they’re getting people to buy premium products or nice wine, etc.”
“We then use [the data] to do competitions with the staff, and there’s a monetary reward for an incentive,” explains Bonnie. “For example, if you keep your spend per head at this much, or you increase it next week. Then there’s an extra $200 cash for you at the end of the week.”
Why Lightspeed was the perfect fit for Gemelli Group’s growth
Gemelli Group’s transition from a legacy POS to Lightspeed has been a game-changer for their growing business. With a user-friendly interface, seamless integrations, offline capabilities, and robust support, Lightspeed has empowered the Gemelli Group team to streamline operations across multiple venues. From simplifying orders to enhancing data accessibility and facilitating smooth reconciliations, Lightspeed has equipped Gemelli Group with the tools they need to continue growing over the coming years.
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