A:

• At our arena, we offer in-seat service for our courtside guests only. And currently, we provide manual ordering only. The menu is left in the cup holder at the seat. Use of a mobile app is the goal eventually.
• Servers both take orders and deliver food/beverage to the seats.  No fan pick up.
• Tickets are premium priced, but no discrete charges for the service.
• Passing along a row can be an issue at times, but not a big one.  Most fans get it.

As best you can, insure you utilize your best, most efficient servers and keep them dedicated to working with the same guests each event. This relationship not only encourages more personalized service (and the ticket renewals that approach engenders) but also more efficient service as servers will learn what people purchase each and every event, expediting service.

A:

• At our arena, we do offer in-seat service on our club level. We use Quest point-of-sale handheld devices for order taking. The server will swipe the guest's credit card or accept cash up front along with entering the guest name, section, row, and seat number.
• The order is automatically sent to a kitchen for prep and is delivered directly to the individual by an in-seat runner.
• An 18% arena service charge is added to the guest check for this service. We only offer in-seat service for all hockey events and ACC conference basketball games, no concerts or family events.
• We have more than 12 seats across for most of our club seating. The guests have no problem passing food and beverages down to the customer. If the puck is in play, the server or runner will kneel in the aisle not to block the guests' views.

A:

• Right now, we are using manual ordering with an in-seat server; we are about to soft launch a smart phone app but are concerned about the usage rate, so we are not yet willing to make it the only option.
• We do delivery right now.
• In some areas, it is all-inclusive; in the areas it is not, we add a small amount to the cost of the item: about 10% instead of a flat service charge.
• No issue with passing along rows.

I suggest whatever method you use you make sure to have a Kitchen Display system available from Micros if that is your POS system; this helps keep track of orders and has diagnostic reports that help determine if there are service issues.

A:

• At our stadium for the past ten seasons, we have offered in-seat service to our 6,000 club seat clients. We are leaning towards offering other methods of proving service to our club clients this year: Selling wrist bands that would allow them "all you can eat" items that are vended in the seating areas, vending of beverages, grab & go stands, quick-lane service at concession stands.
• We used a manual order taking system and wait staff dedicated to a specific seating section.
• All orders were delivered by NPO runners (not the wait staff). Since the runners were NPO groups and they were not the same people week after week, it seemed like there was a learning curve for those who had never worked a game when it came to locating seating areas.
• The percentage of orders that we received for beverages was MUCH higher than food orders which slowed down beverage service. Often times the food would come out prior to the beverages, and guests did not understand why all items did not come out at the same time.
• There was a slight up charge (25¢) for food & beverage items over general concession for the convenience of in-seat.
• Yes, there was an issue of passing down rows. Many of our seating rows are 26 seats long. Guests in the middle of the row are difficult to access for order placement. Those on the ends are passing money and food often!

Other feedback:

• Guests that were entertaining clients liked the convenience of running a tab throughout the game
• Very labor intensive
• With only 12 seats in a row, I would think it would work nicely. Guests would rather pass food than have others walking in front of them all of the time to exit the row