Hear from one of your restaurant and bar industry peers, Vagabond Wines…
Since opening its first shop in 2010, Vagabond Wines has grown rapidly over the years and now provides its stylish wine tasting experience in 11 sites across the UK. They built their brand on a unique concept: enable customers to choose their own experience whilst making wine accessible to everyone.
With the ongoing growth of the business, Vagabond needed to upgrade its EPOS. They had an off-the-shelf POS, which was a basic build for retail businesses and not designed for hospitality, so key functions such as reporting, product creation, and ease-of-use were not fit for purpose.
“Technology is part of our concept. We have worked with technology since day one because we depend on it for our wine machines. We are known as an award-winning wine bar,” says Mariana Carvalho, Systems and Projects Manager for Vagabond Wines.
“Product creation was a problem. We had to feed 4 systems for the same product which made our operations very complicated and inconsistent. We are a unique business: it's hard to adapt to what we do.”
“The main system that we have worked with since opening is our wine machines. They have their own software: they manage the top-up of the cards and the card transactions. The biggest issue we had was that it wasn’t linked to our EPOS system, and we had to duplicate the transactions which created discrepancies. We needed to merge those two systems.”
With their unique and complex technology requirements, Vagabond needed an EPOS solution that could integrate their systems and streamline their operations. Key functionalities included: an EPOS system capable of operating with their top-up cards and wine machines, handheld ordering, and in-depth Stock management to keep track of different measurements as well as the stock of over 100 different wines and food.
“Finding an EPOS system was a long journey. We needed to have POS integration to protect the business against fraud and to make the procedures easier for our team. There were a lot of questions and priorities, and most EPOS systems were not suitable.”
“The first talk I had with Tevalis was positive. After seeing loads of companies, we decided to go with Tevalis. They were flexible in the right way,” explains Mariana.
Tevalis worked closely with Vagabond to ensure their multiple sites had the best integrated EPOS solution. Each site had different on-premise requirements, including EPOS Touch Screen Terminals, Kitchen Management Screens, and TevX handheld ordering technology, which work alongside intuitive management systems across all sites.
The solution also utilised integrations with Tevalis’ industry-leading partners, including payments with Dojo, flexible POS with Clover Flex, workforce management with Harri, online order and pay with Mr Yum, and a bespoke integration with Wines By The Glass for their unique wine machines.
Mariana says:
“They developed functionality that would contact our server, which then allowed us to make sure we accounted for every transaction that was made in the Vagabond cards. I can't explain how much that helped us.”
The integrations are a key part of the Tevalis Ecosystem, with Vagabond choosing partners to complement their operations, and the implementation has streamlined processes for the Vagabond teams.
“If they order using the QR code, they will just scan a code, select their items and pay, and automatically the sale would be sent through Tevalis. It saves a lot of time for teams taking orders. We can spend more time talking to customers and making sure that they are happy with the service.”
“Before Tevalis, it was very manual”, describes Mariana.
The difference between Vagabond’s old system and their new Tevalis integration is huge. Their initial struggles with the 2 main systems being incapable of direct communication have been rectified and upgraded, alongside the implementation of additional functionalities that simplify business operations across their multiple sites.
“Tevalis puts everything together. Every time a customer wants to top up a card, Tevalis would do the transaction as it integrates with the PDQs and the table system.
“Tevalis gives us a lot of freedom with functionalities, discounts, and easily being able to manage difficult situations: splitting payments, voiding items, error-correcting. The functionalities are simple for our teams, but they are also reportable in a way that we can track. The journals are incredible: you can see what everyone did at any point and it's great for fraud picking.”
Our consultative approach meant that Tevalis worked closely with Mariana to implement the best technology, ensuring their unique wine machines communicate effectively with the POS and management systems. With their staff now able to focus more on their customers instead of time-consuming processes, the overall customer experience is enhanced with more opportunities for upselling and higher revenues.
“Working with Tevalis gives us peace of mind, it’s a stable and reliable system. Tevalis is, for us, the brains of our operations.”
