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FestiVoix puts its faith in RapidBar

There’s a good chance you’re already familiar with this large-scale music festival. Held in Trois-Rivières, this major outdoor event offers 9 days of festivities and over 100 shows on 15 different stages. Needless to say, it’s quite a logistical challenge!

Last year, Élodie Gougenot, Ticketing and Operations Coordinator, decided to entrust the festival’s inventory management to RapidBar with the aim of providing the event with better inventory control, given that more than 350,000 visits are logged every day!

Here’s an interview that sums up the collaboration between such a major event and RapidBar’s inventory management solution.

Élodie, how did the collaboration between FestiVoix and RapidBar begin? 

“I’ve been working at FestiVoix for almost a year now, running all the bar and ticketing operations. Initially, I found that the biggest problem was inventory logistics. Much of the management was done by hand or with the help of Square, but we couldn’t reach our target of having 100% computerized inventories to limit losses as much as possible.

Our ultimate goal was to find an application that was user-friendly, easy, and quick to balance inventories. And ideally economical, since we’re an NPO.

One evening, I started looking around for different options, and came across the RapidBar website. I contacted the team and loved their speed. After a few exchanges, they sent me tutorials and explanatory videos. Already, the approach was easy and the service super friendly. “

Tell me about the logistical challenge of your outdoor event.

“We had a lot of trouble organizing proper logistics to avoid losses at our various points of sale. The entire flow of festival products was a problem before, during, and after the event. We used Excel spreadsheets, but in the event business, things move around a lot, especially since we have 17 bars to manage with refrigerators and beer vans.

In short, during FestiVoix, our inventory travels from one site to another, to the fridges, and then on to the bars. There are internal stock transfers, except that over 9 days, and with so many products being transferred, it really wasn’t practical to rely on paper. In our case, we really need to count sales by the ounce, and most platforms didn’t allow this, while RapidBar made it possible.”

Did you feel supported right from the start by the RapidBar team?

“Yes, Ian and Fabrice have always been there to answer my questions. As soon as I started exploring the platform, I loved it. What I also appreciate is that the team embraces customer recommendations. I submitted lots of ideas, and either they were already in progress, or Ian and Fabrice were willing to make additions. The team changed a lot of things that will help me for the next edition of FestiVoix.”

What changes did you ask the RapidBar team to make to better suit the needs of FestiVoix?

“I asked for more additions than changes actually, and I’m very grateful that the team was able to adapt the product to our needs. Now, for example, we can add a date of receipt to orders. This is useful because we often don’t receive the full order for our products. So to be able to add a date of receipt with a quantity X and duplicate it to see the rest of the items we haven’t received is really great.

What’s more, the team is working hard to establish a correspondence between Square and RapidBar for a real-time view of sales. So when there’s a sale in Square, it will automatically appear in RapidBar. And it will be the same for refunds, products returned to fridges, resalable items, or losses.”

What has using an inventory management solution like RapidBar done for you?

“It’s changed my life (laughs) because now I can see exactly what each bar or station has in its fridge. It’s super handy. Plus, it’s very easy to use, even for inventory. You measure the bottle, enter the ounces, and it calculates automatically. When you sell a shooter or an ounce, for example, it’s all summed up in bottle format. That’s really cool!

Another great thing about this application is that you can track transfers from one place to another by date or by product. Last year, I had a glitch with a product, and I immediately contacted the team, who pulled up all the transfers that had been made with that product. Let’s just say it made things a lot easier!

I love RapidBar because the employees who work in the bars place their orders with the coordinators via their cell phones. They make their lists according to their needs. The coordinator receives the order, approves the transfer, and then the inventory is automatically readjusted. It’s a world away from paper that can become lost, illegible, or wet in the rain.

Here, all the coordinators have a tablet and each morning, they see the quantities they have in their respective bars and make replenishments while the inventories are adjusted. It’s wonderful.”

When changing the way things are done, some team members may be reluctant. How did it go for you?

“What I did was call all the zone coordinators and managers together for a training session where I presented a PowerPoint showing exactly what to do, where to click, which section is for what, etc. I also made a video on my phone where I filmed myself placing an order. They found it super intuitive and it went really well.”

Is there anything else RapidBar offers in the way of solutions?

“With RapidBar, we minimize the margin of error and reduce the risk of loss. This inventory application is now indispensable. Restaurants, bars, hotels, and even events should know about this inventory solution and use it for its ease of execution and operation, as well as the clarity of the application. You click on a heading, you know exactly where you’re going, what you’re looking for, etc. 

I’d highly recommend giving it a try, especially for people who, like me, have several sales outlets or warehouses. If they want control over their products as managers, it makes sense to have software that simplifies things for you. Especially since RapidBar is home-grown software, dedicated to the food and beverage industry. It’s just perfect for us.”

To learn more about the FestiVoix de Trois-Rivières, click here: https://festivoix.com/english/

Photos credits: Cyrille Farré