Fluent Store: from Passion Project to Profitable Business

Since making the switch to Zeller, Decoy Cafe has resolved its biggest frustration. Coffee is a family affair for the Spathis’. Brothers Bill and Chris have been perfecting the art of brewing for more than 30 years, ever since their first summer holiday job working in the family’s coffee lounge. These days, the coffee connoisseurs can be found on Melbourne’s busy Exhibition Street. Every morning, Bill fires up the roaster and Chris gets to work preparing the kitchen for the busy day ahead. The smell of fresh coffee wafts out into the street, welcoming Decoy’s loyal customers in for their morning cup. But Decoy had a persistent problem. Their EFTPOS terminal, provided by one of the big four banks, would frequently drop out during rush hour — forcing them to rely on an I-owe-you honesty system. We sat down with Bill to understand more about the Melbourne coffee scene, what makes Decoy unique, and how Zeller is helping business run as normal. How did you get started in the coffee business? We’ve always been involved in coffee, it’s in our blood. As kids, we didn’t get school holidays. We would jump on a train and head for the city, to dad’s coffee lounge. We’d arrive early in the morning and help dad take orders, serve customers and make coffees. Then, when my brother and I went to Sydney for a period in the early 90s, we continued the family legacy. We established and ran Retro Cafe for about 15 years, which was next door to Sydney’s State Theatre. It became a bit of an institution. We hadn’t started roasting our own coffee yet, though. Eventually, we came back to Melbourne and landed in Flinders Lane. This is when the cafe scene became very competitive — you had to do something different to stand out from the crowd. So, we decided to roast our own coffee. It’s difficult to roast beans in the middle of the CBD, due to council restrictions, so we ended up finding the site at 303 Exhibition Street. We’ve been roasting here for 14 years now. What’s changed in the three decades since? Back in the 70s, people ordered their coffee so hot it was sacrilegious — but that’s the way most people liked it. There was also far less diversity. At one stage, most people were buying coffee from the supermarket. People are more discerning now. Most are buying their coffees from local roasters. Single origins are our specialty, and we do it well. We roast single origins from Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, El Salvador, and beyond. All our beans are roasted in small batches, which helps us to make sure every roast highlights the beans’ unique characteristics and gives more consistency within each batch. The cafe industry has changed dramatically from the 70s to now, and it’s still constantly changing. You’ve got to keep up, whether that’s with a new offering like beans, better service, great staff, or new equipment. Last year, we renovated the cafe and installed a Modbar under-counter coffee machine for a streamlined coffee service. We also recently upgraded our EFTPOS terminals to Zeller. What made you decide to switch EFTPOS terminal providers? We were with one of the big four banks, and we were very unhappy with the number of dropouts. Our EFTPOS terminal would stop processing transactions at peak periods. Our upstairs area would be packed with diners eating breakfast, while downstairs would be busy with takeaway coffee orders and there would be a queue out the door. But the terminals would go down, so none of the customers could pay — they’re not carrying cash these days. We’ve built up a strong customer base. About 95% of our customers are regulars. So, when the terminals were down, we’d take a customer's name and they’d come back the next day to pay us. We don’t have any of those issues with Zeller, so I’m happy to say we don’t need to do that anymore. Our terminal has 4G and WiFi. If the 4G network goes down, WiFi takes over — business continues, as normal. "Taking payment from a customer is simple, as it should be." How did the outbreak of the pandemic affect the business? It's been tough, I won't deny it. We have a great product and a loyal customer base and that's allowed us to keep going. The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns impacted sales, as we lost all our corporate customers when offices emptied out in Melbourne's CBD. What's kept us going is essential workers and tradespeople from nearby building sites and an increase in the number of  “home barista” customers — people buying their coffee beans from us to make their own coffee, while working from home. Tell us about working with family. We believe that being a family business has helped us succeed and stay resilient even in these challenging times. Chris and l have worked together from the very beginning, starting in our late father’s restaurant as young boys. We work well as a team and I think it’s part of what makes Decoy a success. A lot of cafe owners these days will hire a manager, but we’re owner-operators, and there’s always one of us here. We do that because we really love working with customers. We give 100% when it comes to quality, service and staff. Chris and I share those values. We rely on each other. Decoy Cafe is located at 303 Exhibition Street, in Melbourne's Central Business District. Drop by for your morning coffee, a quick snack, or lunch, or pick up a bag of fresh coffee roasted on-site (also available on the newly-launched Dark Horse Coffee Roasters website).

Meet the local Melbourne business accelerating its cash flow through Zeller. Visitors come from all over the world to uncover clues, solve puzzles, and reveal the mysteries hidden behind the many doors of Rush Escape Game . From humble beginnings, Rush has grown into a destination for families, friends, and colleagues alike. Despite being thrown a curveball that effectively shut down its entire operation last year, mere weeks after opening a second location in Melbourne’s inner east, the team has big growth plans for 2021. General Manager Aaron Taylor is Rush’s first and longest-standing employee. Although too competitive for escape games himself, he loves watching customers’ “Ah-ha!” moments. In a world that is becoming more and more physically disconnected, Taylor’s passion for bringing people together is contagious. We sat down with Taylor to find out more about how Rush has emerged from a global crisis stronger than ever, and why Zeller is the trusted solution to help grow the business. Escape experiences are a pretty niche industry – how did you get here? Funny story, before this I worked in event operations in the Whitsundays. I was living in paradise, but never got to experience it because I was working all the time. Then, seven years ago, I moved to Melbourne on a whim – for a girl. Spoiler alert, that worked out. I had never heard of escape rooms, but I found the job for Rush and applied. When I interviewed, the first rooms weren’t even done. It was just me, the director, and his wife sitting around a half-finished foyer. The interview was wild, they didn’t know if the idea would take off, and could hardly promise me 10 hours of work a week. I decided to roll the dice, and here we are. Tell us a bit about Rush – what goes into running escape room experiences, and what makes Rush special? I think first and foremost that it’s Melbourne that makes Rush unique. We fit so well with the culture of this city, and I believe our early success stemmed from the people here and their willingness to try something new. As far as what goes into it, without sounding too cliche, it’s a lot of love. Everything is designed by our team, university students, nerds, and aspiring artists. Within our industry, many companies outsource the design and construction of rooms – but Rush remains true to developing from the ground up. We love that our rooms are designed by our staff. It allows us to maintain and upgrade rooms at the drop of a hat, which helps in an industry with ever-increasing expectations around experiences. It’s a key differentiator, and one of the reasons why I believe we’ve got the best escape rooms in Melbourne. What kind of people do you get through the doors? We get businesses using us for training or recruitment, families who come every month, bucks parties, goodbye get-togethers, and – my all-time favourite – those who just say, “We were bored and have never done this before”. It’s a real mixed bag. The great thing about our industry is that it is a little like Groundhog Day. Every two hours, a new group of customers walk through the door and go through the exact same rooms. You’d think that would make it boring, but it is wild. People are so different, they think and react individually. Our purpose is simple: we’re here to entertain, excite, and help people escape their everyday lives. The best thing about it is we normally see everyone on a great day, people are in good moods and we get to help them create memories. How did COVID-19 affect your business operations? We were horribly affected by the lockdowns – our entire business model is built around experiences and entertainment in person. We were one of the first to be shut down, and it stayed that way from May till November 2020. We’d also just opened our newest venue in Hawthorn, and our first room had been a viral sensation – it was booked out five months in advance. Once the lockdowns hit, we had to issue refunds and vouchers totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. We spent most of the year trying to find other ways to make money – some successful, others not – but our main goal was to keep everyone engaged and do what we could to support the mental health of our staff. This was very important to us as most of our employees are university students living away from home, many became very isolated through lockdown. In the end we did what we could for our staff and thankfully we were able to pull through and now we are just excited to have customers back in our rooms. How does your business manage cash flow,  is it stressful? Stressful when you don’t have it. However, we’re fortunately entering a post-COVID growth period. We also have a third venue in the pipeline and are already looking for venues four and five. To fund these new games, we need to have a healthy balance between cash flow and reinvestment. We’ve had some nasty surprises with cash flow. Our previous EFTPOS provider threw us a curveball when we had a large corporate client book multiple rooms in-person – transactions of that size would typically be done online, in advance. Instead of simply holding the transaction amount to ensure there were funds for a chargeback, in the event one was requested, our provider decided to lock our account and halted one entire arm of our cash flow across both venues which caused issues with payroll. We were even told incoming payments would be suspended, meaning our customers couldn’t make bookings. That would have shut us down again, right as we were trying to recover from the lockdowns. As a rapidly expanding business, the risk of a merchant services provider being able to shut down our cash flow for multiple venues – with no clear guidance as to why – is just too high. It sounds like it’s a crucial time for your business – what stood out about Zeller? We’re all about trying to keep things local. Part of what drew us to Zeller is the fact it’s a Melbourne-based business, with local support, as well as the competitive and transparent pricing. I’ve learned that cash flow and people are the two biggest barriers to success. If you can find a way to solve these issues early and well, your journey will be much smoother. We’re a company that believes in simplicity and timely management of our funds, so Zeller’s fast settlement removes stress and keeps things straightforward. What were you using before Zeller Terminal? We were using Square. The terminals were clunky – we needed to use a tablet to connect to Wi-Fi, and were constantly needing to troubleshoot. Square looked sloppy and unprofessional for us. The Zeller Terminal is simple and looks more like a traditional terminal, though with a nice touch screen upgrade. The terminal also connects directly to Wi-Fi, so there’s no middle step. It’s just so straightforward. Although in-person purchases only make up around 10 to 15 percent of our total transactions, these transactions are critical and very time-sensitive. Zeller Terminal supports us to meet this need with quick and reliable processing. How easily did your team adapt Zeller Terminal into their daily routine? The process of shifting to Zeller was straightforward. I gave all of our managers a five-minute lesson, then staff were shown how to use the terminal once during a shift. That’s all there was to it. Simple, straightforward, and with zero interruption. What excites you about the future with Zeller? We’re excited to use the Zeller Mastercard. Our current bank has issued a Mastercard for each venue, however, these cards are in the names of our managers. As people are promoted, move venues, or leave the business, we need to go through a large amount of paperwork. If we could securely link cards to specific venues, rather than one manager, we’d save a lot of time. We’re also excited to see how Zeller will grow in the coming months. We’re already planning how to leverage upcoming features, and looking forward to downsizing our operational stack so that Zeller is our one-stop shop. Finally, do you have any advice for other business owners considering changing providers? Make the switch, quickly. For us, it’s all about finding the right merchant services solution so we don’t have to worry about it. Zeller just works, and, because of this, we can focus on doing what we do best: providing immersive experiences. Put another way, Zeller is a distraction-free solution to a core business need. It takes almost no time to understand the system, create logins and get it going. We spent weeks assessing if we should switch, and within minutes knew we had made the right choice. With Zeller, the transaction process has been simplified and the downtime issues we experienced with Square are gone. I just haven’t had to think about it since we made the switch. Learn more about how Zeller Terminal can help your business grow with an integrated payments solution that gives you fast access to your funds. By sharing your details with us, we may contact you from time to time. We promise we won’t bug you — and you can unsubscribe from communications at any time.

Discover five ways Zeller helps keep business on track during the transition. Thinking about scaling up your business? Having the opportunity to expand to new locations, upsize to a bigger premises, hire more staff, or build out your operations is a sign you’re doing something right. Whatever step you’re preparing to take next, you should be proud and excited. There are some common mistakes merchants make during this transitional time, and the consequences that flow from taking on too much too soon can stifle – rather than encourage – growth. Fortunately, there are ways and means of scaling up sustainably. It all comes down to engaging the right tools. Here are five ways Zeller can minimise the potential for growing pains as you scale your operations. 1. Get a clear overview of all stores The more business locations you have, the harder it becomes to understand how each is performing. This is especially true if you’re juggling independent sales channels, staff and technology. Before you open a second location, take the time to gain a real-time oversight of your finances — something that will play a priceless role in future business decisions. Unifying your data in the one dashboard is a simple way to retain visibility over multiple locations, enabling you to quickly access key sales information from anywhere with an internet connection. Zeller Dashboard gives you real-time visibility over the financial health of your business, and each of the locations within it. When you accept payment via Zeller Terminal and make business purchases using Zeller Mastercard, you can see all of your incomings and outgoings at a glance. 2. Keep track of your customers When you run a single-location business, it’s relatively simple and straightforward to retain complete control over your customers’ store experience. You can take the time to get to know your regulars, give staff hands-on training, and provide attentive, personalised customer service. As your business grows, that positive customer experience can be compromised in favour of more sales. When you’re operating out of multiple locations, you lose some of that control. It’s impossible to be in two places at once, after all. One thing you do have control over is the technology you rely upon to grow your business. There are many customer relationship management tools on the market that can help you make your customers feel seen and looked after, such as the Zeller Contact Directory. Storing business and personal details in the one place will give you a clear oversight of every customer — what they buy, how they buy it, and where and when they bought it. This insight can be used to build clever marketing programs that offer rewards, discounts and communications that create a positive customer experience even when they’re not in-store. 3. Iron out inventory management Streamlined, accurate inventory management becomes more critical with every new business location you open. Issues such as displaced, miscounted and lost stock are a bigger threat to your business when you operate multiple shop fronts. With the right retail POS system installed, you can minimise the management required to keep on top of all your stock. Having one centralised platform makes it easier to transfer stock, track shipments and manage inventory levels. Many POS systems will also give you the ability to remotely order stock for any store, from any store, as well as identify and forecast product sales trends to facilitate smarter ordering. Make sure your payment system can seamlessly integrate with your POS system, adding an extra layer of data and control to your inventory processes while minimising the admin overload of keeping on top of stock. 4. Simplify your finances It can be difficult to keep track of the money going in and out of your business when you’re not the only one accepting payments from customers, or making business purchases. This is a common problem owners come up against when they expand their business. Plus, having more money to manage can be a hurdle in itself. One way to avoid the repercussions of mishandling your income and expenses is to employ a professional bookkeeper, but there are many tasks you can do yourself to keep administrative costs as low as possible. For day-to-day expense management, accounting software will help you keep track of invoices and get paid on time. For real-time information about the incomings and outgoings at each business location, Zeller Dashboard provides at-a-glance insights to ensure you know whether you’ll reach your sales targets. 5. Better coordinate your staff Expanding your store means expanding your staff and, while it sounds straightforward, the financial and time investment can be substantial. Hiring new staff will likely require a sizeable investment of your own time — you’ll need to bring them up to speed with products, systems and customer experience standards. Having intuitive tools can significantly streamline this process, especially if you use a fully-integrated system like Zeller Terminal . When your tools speak to each other, it reduces the need for staff to juggle multiple platforms. Keep in mind that, when it comes to hiring junior staff, there are some parts of your business you will likely want to keep secure. You may not want new junior staff to be able to process refunds, or change the settings on your EFTPOS terminals. With Zeller, you can secure these features with a PIN code. Taking the first steps towards growing your business can be daunting. Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to streamline the process and minimise any growing pains you may experience along the way. The trick is strategising for growth and ensuring you’re properly equipped to scale up. Having the right tools on hand will make all the difference. Now that you know how to smooth the path to expansion, keep up with the latest Zeller updates and announcements by subscribing to the Zeller Business Blog newsletter below. By sharing your details with us, we may contact you from time to time. We promise we won’t bug you — and you can unsubscribe from communications at any time.