How Dojo increased revenue by £1,000 a month for coffee shop group Neev + May

Front-end and back-end gains with Dojo

For millions of people, good coffee is one of life’s greatest and simplest pleasures. It’s a pause from the hustle and bustle of life, taking your mind off work, recharging your batteries and nurturing your spirit. 

So, it should be no surprise that there are over 25,000 coffee shops across the UK – fuelling a coffee culture that sees 98 million cups consumed every day. While coffee shop owners know they have a very engaged and thirsty market, they also know they have a whole lot of competition. 

Starting out as Camden Coffee House in 2009, Neev + May has three coffee shops across London in Ladbroke Grove, Balham and Croydon – with 14 full-time and part-time staff. With 37 coffee shops in Balham alone, Neev + May owner Sunni Parekh knows the key to success in a crowded market boils down to these three things: quality roasted coffee, attentive customer service and marginal gains. 

With 95% of all Neev + May sales coming from cashless payments, Parekh switched card machine providers from RMS to Dojo to achieve these critical marginal gains, in both the front and back ends of the business. 

“Everything Dojo does – next-day payments, reporting, integration, live transactions, just everything – they’re really on it,” he says. “From a customer perspective, it looks good and is simple to use. From my perspective, it’s really easy for my staff to use, the till and the machine talk to each other and – boom – you know how much you’re taking. It’s made a huge difference to our operations across all three sites.”

Driving revenue

Before switching to Dojo, transactions were slower with the previous card machine provider. But now with Dojo, everything is quicker – especially when it comes to clearing the queue. Staff now have more time to focus on the important things, like serving more drinks rather than waiting around while the transaction completes. This means happier customers and more transactions. 

“We have seen a rise in revenue due to an increase in speed and efficiency since using Dojo,” says Parekh. “If everything’s working beautifully, within a minute of an order, the customer is walking out of the shop with their coffee. Before, you’d have to make the coffee, then go to the terminal, then confirm, then go back to the till to check it’s done, and that would take up valuable time. 

“Now, the processing time with Dojo is ridiculously fast! You tap the machine, and within seconds it’s done. It saves at least 35 to 40 seconds on each transaction, and that really adds up in a fast-paced coffee shop. If you’ve got a 10-person deep queue, you’ve saved yourself at least five minutes.” 

According to research conducted by Adyen Payments, queuing is the biggest frustration for half of UK consumers – driving 4 out of 5 shoppers out of a store.

“If you’re popping to a coffee shop and see a long, slow queue, you’re going to be deterred, aren’t you? Especially if you’re in a rush. So it’s really helped us increase revenue. We are definitely achieving a lot more at our busiest times with our turnover; potentially 25% more. Across the three shops, that’s around £1,000 a month.”

Reducing losses

With RMS, Parekh says the terminal wouldn’t connect to the till. This would mean having to manually type the value of a transaction into the card machine, resulting in charging errors. A regular mistake was accidentally typing in ‘50’ instead of ‘5.00’, so the customer would end up paying 50p instead of £5.

“Missed transactions and key error transactions would cost us around £100 a month across the sites,” says Parekh. “Now, with Dojo, the till fires it across to the card machine, which means that error no longer happens.”

Back-end gains

Dojo’s app and dashboard have also been a game-changer for Parekh. The insight and analytics give him real-time visibility across all three sites, helping him to run his business while on the move. 

“It allows me, when I’m not in the cafe, to know exactly what’s happening on each site. The back-end usability is just fantastic. I can cross-check every transaction, and it means as an owner, my eyes are on the ball more across the sites. The insights and metrics are just phenomenal.”

By adding stock to the till, the Dojo app automatically alerts Parekh when stock is getting low. This saves time in manual stock-taking and ensures they’re not over-purchasing. 

“It really helps to take away some of the time-consuming burdens, and allows my staff to serve and entertain customers really efficiently. They aren’t there to count tea bags; they’re there to make and serve great coffee.”

Gold-standard customer service

Like most of the 5.5 million small businesses in the UK, Neev + May’s success has come through a whole lot of hard work. And in the midst of all that hustle, Dojo offers collaborative support to help give small businesses like Neev + May the boost they need to not only stay afloat but to go above and beyond their own personal goals.

“We’re a small business, but Dojo makes us feel like a big business,” says Parekh. “They give us so much respect, whereas other companies give you the impression you don’t mean that much to them. 

“It’s always a two-way communication with Dojo. And they’re really responsive – I email with a query, and six minutes later, someone’s in touch. It’s really sharp. They clearly invest in their team, and it shows.”