Paymark Insights: “I couldn’t run multiple shops without technology”
What began as a small husband-and-wife café in central Nelson has now grown into the Simply Asia Food Group, a business employing over 70 people across five brands and seven sites in the upper South Island.
Originally from rural Thailand, Bu-nga Krataitong and her husband Nuttavut Rodsienglum met while both working in the restaurant kitchens in Blenheim and share a philosophy of serving tasty, healthy food at affordable prices. This mantra has seen their businesses grow and thrive in a competitive market.
Simply Asia Food Group comprises five restaurants and two cafés: the restaurants are Bamboo Garden in Blenheim; The Lemongrass in both Blenheim and Richmond; Miracle in Nelson; and Chai-Yo in Richmond; the two cafés are Chai-You in Blenheim and SAMKO in Nelson. All seven sites serve Asian fusion food inspired by their family recipes and aim to provide customers with excellent customer service in a family-friendly atmosphere.
Managing such a large number of sites, brands and staff is always going to present challenges. The couple embrace technology to make the business run as smoothly as possible and help it continue to grow, and Paymark Insights has been a fantastic tool for Bu-nga and Nuttavut.
“If I would like to see the performance of every shop, at the same time, I can see it all in one place. That makes it easy,” says Bu-nga. “It provides me with lots of information.”
The returning customer data has been particularly helpful, allowing Bu-nga to think closely about how to tailor the business to meet customers’ needs: “We need to know what the customer expects, we need to know what the customer likes. So it means we can create our service to respond to what they like in their lifestyle… and enhance our customer experience as well.”
Paymark Insights generates a daily report across all the Simply Asia stores, which Bu-nga receives each evening. She checks it before she goes to bed every single night and analyses the results. If the performance is down, she looks for an obvious reason – such as a rainy day. Knowing that her businesses are tracking as expected gives her reassurance and helps her sleep at night.
Having a good understanding of each store and overall performance, all on her phone, means Bu-nga can feel confident in managing so many sites, and potentially opening up even more locations:
“I love what Paymark Insights do – I love all the features,” she says. “I couldn’t manage multiple shops like this without technology helping me.”