We met with Fabio Mariño, the technical and systems manager of Surf and Yoga Costa Rica. Surf and yoga have customized vacation packages, great accommodation alternatives, transportation services, and full assistance before and during the visit to Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

 

How long ago you started using the Loyverse application? 

We started with one POS for testing about a year ago and then we contracted the Advanced Inventory for 2 stores. Beyond the use of Loyverse, we were developing our own system but at some point, we make the decision to implement the options offered by Loyverse to use everything that Loyverse has built, so that we would not develop the whole module ourselves. The decision to use and interact with Loyverse was because there were already some interfaces set up, where clients and guests are automatically loaded, and we also make the sales from Loyverse and update to our system.

 

Could you tell me about how and when you started the business? 

An Argentine started going to Santa Teresa as a way to escape from the daily hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires, he was working for big companies in the marketing area. At one point, he preferred to isolate himself a bit and went to Santa Teresa and realized that there was a big movement of people interested in relaxation tourism.   

He was in a cabin in the jungle doing surfing and yoga and saw that many people were interested in his way of taking the situation and were encouraged to do it because he had done it, so he started a small tourism agency, then he found an opportunity to manage a hotel. This started 5 years ago, and now the hotels are already his.

 

Each hotel has a yoga place where guests can practice yoga and also learn how to surf, so it is a hotel, it is oriented to people who want to relax and want to be in contact with Santa Teresa, that is not to lose the philosophy of being in connection with nature, so all the services offered by the hotel are related to that.  

The hotel has some restaurants that offer healthy food, and then, well, Loyverse allowed them to quickly start to have that control of the orders. They saw the usefulness of having the order directly in the kitchen, as they were taking the orders, and that was very useful and had a very fast start. So they immediately adopted Loyverse and now the idea is to get more benefits out of it, to take more advantage of it to be able to use all the options that Loyverse offers.  

 

 

You said that the business started almost 5 years ago, and you have been using Loyverse for 1 year, right?

Yes because the administration itself and the growth was happening and with the pandemic in between, the hotel had a big explosion in May or June last year where they needed a tool to help them with the high demand of work, so that's where they stopped doing it manually, they tried technological tools that help them to grow, because the idea is to be in constant growth, obviously they had to automate and use the tools because it could not be that they continue working like that. That is why I also started to get into Loyverse, because I am trying to exploit to the maximum the utilities provided by each of the tools. 

 

How did you find Loyverse? 

They were looking for different point-of-sale software and Loyverse seemed to be the fastest and easiest to implement, and it covered the specific need of the person taking the order and the order was already automatically in the kitchen. And they use it that way, they do not have a terminal in the kitchen, but they work with a printer in each restaurant and in each kitchen and they work with that.  

 

 

Besides the advanced inventory, what other features have you used in the Loyverse?

We create 5 POS that are being used in phones with the application, and we are also trying to implement the Production using the composite items, because in the kitchen the employees prepare some products, there are some formulas that are used to prepare these products that are stored for later use during the week to make pancakes for example.

In some moments it was complicated to create composite items because the unit of measurement of the items has a lot of variety, for example the oil has different containers, or the fruit for example a kilo has different quantities and it is complex to be able to keep the stock of a kitchen, where these products are not sold. It is complex to use, not the Loyverse system, the creation of composite items is something we must pay attention to in order to have that control, but it is possible to do it.  

And in addition to the point of sale we are using the Dashboard application to review reports and sales. We also use the Back Office from where I can log in anytime and anywhere to access the reports. And I have checked that the KDS would replace the printout of the order, the order going to the kitchen, but we have not implemented it yet.

 

That would be some of the tools that you use the most in Loyverse. What is the more helpful tool that Loyverse is providing for your business at the moment? 

At the moment it would be the option of being able to take orders at the table directly with the phone and, to have the control of the orders. Lately what the staff are using are the discount options because sometimes they go to families, or for the staff, or teachers, each one has a pre-established discounts so you can assign the corresponding discount and you can apply it and then you can also control the discounts that were applied.  

 

 

What are the long-term goals of your business? And it would be good to know if Loyverse is included in your plans.  

Our goals are to continue growing. We are at a point of great growth where the goal is to maintain the flow of people we are working with and to be able to incorporate new services from the technology side. To give additional value, where the guest does not have to interact so much with the hotel staff. And from there, Loyverse would also allow us to place our guest order, add some information to the order and perhaps define a time when he will come for breakfast and when he arrives, he will already have his breakfast ready based on what he ordered through the interface. So that he does not have to wait until he comes to have it prepared.  

 

 

 

Would you like to leave any advice for people who are starting some kind of business and can read it in the article? 

 

The reality is that if you are interested in a business, from whatever place you are interested, see yourself as a customer in that business you want to go into, and think about what you would like the business to provide to satisfy yourself, because that also has a question of empathy in terms of, When you provide a service that you would like to obtain from a third party, it is more the way in which you can contribute. When you get into a business that you do not know and that they told you that it is good and that you have to invest in it, but that you do not feel identified, it is not the same relationship that you have with the growth of the business, so let's say that this would be a good point to start with.   

Then, obviously, to get advice and to use tools that can be useful in the business and that are already armed and to try to see why it is useful to so many people and to find the reason why it is useful to so many people. So do not invest time in things that may have already been solved before, as long as they are in line with the need they have.   

 

Mr. Fabio, thank you very much for your time in the interview. We wish you much success in all your plans for the future.

Believe Surf and Yoga's Social Media: https://www.surfandyogacostarica.com/