How To Maximize Taproom & Tasting Room Sales On Super Bowl Sunday

For football fans and Rihanna stans, Super Bowl Sunday is the “holiday” of the year. And what pairs better with sporting events than craft beverages?

Your tasting room or taproom can expect big crowds and a significant revenue opportunity on February 12, so it’s definitely an event to prepare for. Here are helpful tips on how your craft business should get ready for the big day, ensure smooth sailing day-of, and debrief post-game.

Pregame: Prepare Guests, Staff, & Products

While the Kelce brothers’ parents decide which team to root for, your taproom or tasting room has its own preparation to do: You need to spread the word and spark excitement for guests, arm your hardworking staff with the tools and information they need, and ensure you have the inventory on-hand to meet the high demand.

Maximize Potential Revenue By Encouraging Big Crowds

Your guests likely have a lot of venue options when it comes to watching the game. You want to make sure they choose your craft business over the rest! After all, Super Bowl games aren’t short, and the longer you have guests in seats, the more likely their tab sizes are to be big. Jump on the opportunity to host them!

Spread the word about your Super Bowl party via these channels:

• Social media: Tap into your existing fan base and plan to post online multiple times leading up to the game. You can tease food or drink specials, tantalize folks with some giveaways, or talk some smack to get the conversation going!
• Email: Your POS system should be collecting guests’ email addresses at checkout. Utilize the lists you have and offer your most loyal guests an exclusive invite.
• Onsite signage: Your regulars are likely to join you for the game, so make sure your taproom or tasting room has signs throughout to garner excitement for the upcoming event. 

Equip Staff So They’re Ready For The High Traffic

Your business can’t maximize Super Bowl Sunday sales without your beloved staff. They’re about to serve a lot of rowdy people at one time, and deserve thoughtful preparation and perhaps even some incentivization. 

First, assess past traffic during big sporting events so you know the amount of guests to expect. Your POS system should have the reporting capabilities to do so. 

These are a couple of reports that will be helpful in determining expected traffic: 

• Average Tab Size Report: Knowing the average tab size during past games your taproom or tasting room hosted will help you build bigger tabs this time around. A robust POS will even tell you how long each party stayed, how many people were there, and what they ordered. 

See a trend that game-goers didn’t order your vegan nachos? Save those chips for your run club, and let kitchen staff focus on heartier menu items for the Super Bowl. 

• Hour By Hour Report: Track the rate of orders that came in by the hour at past events. This will help you choose the most efficient staffing schedule, so you don’t have too few or too many staff. Your servers will appreciate a thoughtful schedule—now they can maximize tab and tip sizes without getting overwhelmed by a high volume of demands. 

It’s good for your bottom line, too. Labor is a costly expense for small businesses, and you don’t want to spend extra money on staff that aren’t utilized to their full potential. 

Staff know what they’re in for traffic-wise, so it doesn’t hurt to incentivize them with perks on game day. Long stays and big crowds inherently mean higher tabs and higher tips, which may have staff drooling over Super Bowl shifts. 

Take incentives one step further by guaranteeing higher tips. These days, some small businesses are using service fees instead of tips to supplement staff income. This ensures staff get the money they deserve for great service, and can help you compensate the folks behind the scenes whipping up the game day grub, too. That way, staff are more than happy to work during the game!

Prepare Inventory & Menus For Guest Demand

Now you’ve got guests planning to come and your staff prepped. It’s time to make sure your goods are good to go!

Superb product quality is always the goal, but it’s especially important to maintain the same level of caliber when you’re expecting big crowds. 

• Kegs & draft lines: If your craft beverage business is pouring from tap lines, you want to ensure those kegs are clean and draft lines are balanced. Suds are key to enjoying a good football game, and you don’t want to miss the mark just because things aren’t in pristine condition.
• Aging & freshness: Again, beverage-centric businesses rely on every sip tasting its best. Optimize the freshness and aging profiles of your craft by utilizing beverage production software that tracks freshness with organized batch numbers and identifies when exactly your liquid tests the best. 

Once you can guarantee everything will be pouring and tasting up to par, identify specific menu items you’d like to offer on game day. There are several reasons a pared down menu is a good idea:

1. Focus on doing fewer things great: In the hustle of Super Bowl day, kitchen and bar staff will appreciate the ability to focus on fewer menu items. It also helps with preparation—less ingredients to buy, and less risk of potential waste!
2. Save staff time: Sifting through a full menu slows down your servers and bartenders. Narrowing it down limits options and makes ordering the next round fast!
3. Quick menu item delivery improves the guest experience: Because of both points above, food and drinks will inherently be delivered faster to your guests which makes for satisfied customers.

The last inventory preparation to-do is to set your business up to meet to-go demand. A lot of guests will be enjoying the game from the comfort of home, and you want to be a convenient choice for all of their 6-pack and takeout food needs. Utilize an online store fully integrated with your POS system, so the offsite orders come in just as onsite ones do. This means no additional work or organization for your staff, and just additional revenue for your bottom line!

Game Day: Optimize For Exceptional Experiences & High Revenue

Once the big day is here, you want to make sure your guests are satisfied and you’re taking every opportunity to maximize those tab sizes to increase revenue. 

Make Ordering As Easy As Possible

Ease of ordering is especially important when football fans don’t want to miss a second of the game, commercials, or our girl RiRi. These POS system tools make getting another round simple:

• Card on file: Digital card on file saves guests and staff time. Swipe a card once, hand it back, and that tab is open for the rest of the night. Guests simply give their name the next time they order and don’t have to reach for their wallet or wait for staff to retrieve the card from a Rolodex. 
• Mobile POS devices: Mobile devices let staff assist guests wherever they are, optimizing the experience by not requiring guests to wait in line at the bar. Now getting up from the table is only required for bathroom breaks and touchdown dances! 
• QR code ordering: The last way to make ordering easy is to let guests add to their tabs themselves. QR codes are scannable by any smartphone, and guests can simply add to their tabs and close out on their own devices. The best part? QR codes are proven to increase both tab and tip size by 24%!

Another way to make for great experiences is to celebrate with the football fans with strategic upsells. Here are some ideas:

• Discounts every quarter: Consider offering merchandise discounts to the winning team’s fans at the end of every quarter. This time-sensitive offer will surely inspire some excitement and sales!
• Menu item upsells: If you offer burgers, consider naming the (higher priced) elk patty after a football player. A server asking if someone wants to upgrade to the Patrick Mahomes Patty might be a more favorable upsell!
• Raffle tickets: Selling raffle tickets for purchase and giving away gift cards to your beverage establishment is a great way to collect a few extra dollars and ensure future business. 

Post-Game: See How Fruitful Football Fans Are, Exactly!

This hard work is all for naught if you don’t quantify it! 

POS Reports Identify What Went Well 

Post-game, your plan should be to utilize your POS reporting tools so you can pinpoint just how profitable your Super Bowl party was. This will help determine whether you should put in the work to do the same for other big sporting events in the future!

These are some particular POS tools that’ll come in handy: 

• Tab tags: There’s a chance, of course, that you’ll host guests that day that aren’t there for the Super Bowl game. Tab tags are a quick way for staff to mark tabs with a naming convention that makes filtering your reports easy. For instance, you can tag all football fans’ tabs that day with GAME. So, when you look back at reports, you can filter by that tag and see exactly how much revenue those fans brought it. 
• Average Tab Size + Hour By Hour Reports: These are great reports to look at again as you reflect on your craft business’s performance for the day. Did people mostly skedaddle at halftime and you could have relieved some service staff? Were your Mahomes Patties successful in driving up tab size? It’s all in one comprehensive reporting dashboard with the right POS system!
• Ounce-Level Reports: Identify your sports lovers’ preferred tastes with to-the-ounce reports that tell you exactly how much liquid you poured. Perhaps you make similar styles next time to offer even more variety and boost tab sizes. 

With these POS features, your taproom or tasting room wins regardless of who takes home the ring!

If your POS system is missing any of these key tools, it’s time to upgrade. Arryved is the most trusted POS in craft beverage because the system is designed and supported by industry experts. If you want smart technology, profit-friendly pricing, and award-winning support out of your POS, request a free, personalized demo today!