// CASE STUDY //

for hospitality, meaning every module works seamlessly together. Marketing automation, guest Wi-Fi, table bookings, payments, loyalty and reviews are connected in real-time, giving operators a complete picture of their guests and the insights needed to act fast. With these capabilities, marketing teams can trigger campaigns based on guest behaviour, managers can see which promotions drive the most covers and front-of-house teams can recognise loyal customers the moment they walk in.

For Starfish Loves Coffee, using this technology to support its Jubilee campaign resulted in booking out every table within hours. It delivered the two packed-out Sundays that the operator wanted, and it created the ideal launchpad for the new menu, long-term customer loyalty and customer loyalty and retention.

Aykut Hilmi, Artistic Director and Co-founder at Starfish Loves Coffee, took the time to sit down with Intelligent SME. tech to talk about the partnership.

Why did you create Starfish Loves Coffee? What gap in the market did you see?

Starfish Loves Coffee came about because we had moved back into the area. I’ m an actor( I do a lot of film) and at the time, we just had a baby, and there was nothing around – no coffee houses, no brunch houses. My wife, Ingrid, [ Berg, fellow Co-founder) and I walked past the shop and said how beautiful it was and a week later the proprietor said to me that he was selling the place and I said to him, I’ ll take it off you.

At the time, Ingrid had just finished Harry Potter, and I just had finished Fantastic Beasts, and Ingrid didn’ t want to be in the business anymore. We had fallen in love with coffee over the past five years, speciality coffee, and our heart was set on this fantastic specialty coffee shop. And we opened up, and that’ s it in a nutshell. And we called it Starfish and Coffee because I’ m a huge, massive Prince fan. And while we were going through the documentation and everything, I heard the song and I said that’ s the name of the shop, and it was as simple as that. And we went from doing coffee to doing food and brunch, and it grew from that. And that’ s how Starfish began; on a whim.

What are the main challenges facing the hospitality industry at the moment?

I can say lockdown was far easier than it is now, with the exclamation mark point. Lockdown, you knew where you stood. You had the drive to do certain new menus, certain takeaways, etc, you knew where you were going. And at the same time, it gave you an excitement of developing your company even further.

Because everyone was at home, working from home, we were full. And then what happened? When everyone went back to work and changed their muscle memory. The lockdown pattern disintegrated. And that’ s what happened to local restaurants and local shops like myself, because the people went back to the busy commercial sites that had a business running 24 / 7.

We had built up a turnover, I think, from Wednesday to Sunday( we are not open Mondays and Tuesdays) of up to £ 1,200 a day during the week and then after lockdown on Wednesday and Thursday, that went down to £ 400.

That’ s a significant drop, because nobody was spending £ 20 on breakfast up until 12 o’ clock and having great coffee and breakfast and socialising. You’ re talking about at least a 40 to 50 % significant change.

And now everything’ s gone up. Business rates have just doubled for me. Corporation tax has gone up. I could say loads more, but all these challenges are part of us growing and continuing to find out new ways.

What has been a challenge is not necessarily all the bills. The challenge for me is growth and I made a really firm decision that I wanted to not work on new customers, I wanted to work on retention. And retention for me means bringing everyone back – they eat at ours, not once but four times a week, if they can. Because they want to, because they love what they are eating, because they love socialising when they come through the door. They love their name being spoken.

I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT RIGHT NOW, IT’ S WORKING FOR US BETTER THAN ANYTHING I’ VE EVER WORKED WITH.

Intelligent SME. tech

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