SumUp Merchant For a Day: Thomas Discovers Alpine Cuisine in the Heart of Berlin

At SumUp, we work hard every day to improve the lives of our merchants. Our products are built to be intuitive and to make it as easy as possible to accept card payments. In order to improve our services, we believe it’s important to not only work FOR our merchants but also WITH them. This is why we launched our “Merchant For a Day” program.

The idea is simple: A SumUp employee visits a business for a day and gets to know the everyday life of the business owner while working alongside them. The SumUp staff member gets trained to help with typical tasks, gaining valuable insight into the business. This helps us understand our merchants’ needs even better than before while also using SumUp’s products outside of a test environment.

Our Communications Manager, Thomas, kicked off our programme by visiting Sandra at her breakfast restaurant/café, Meierei. We sat down with him to summarize his experience.

Which SumUp merchant did you become for a day?

“Meierei” is a very beautiful breakfast restaurant/café in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. The restaurant was opened almost ten years ago by the two owners, Sandra and Hubert, who are both originally from Augsburg, Bavaria. Meierei puts a focus on Austrian traditional food and sweets. From handmade Apfelstrudel to Gulasch and seasonal salads, everything is made in-house with lots of love. It’s a place for friends to meet but also attracts tourists since the neighbourhood has become increasingly popular in recent years.

What did you do during your short ‘internship’?

First of all, Sandra gave me a small tour around her place. The location is super lovely with fascinating wall paintings of mountains and green grass that are remnants from the previous business, a cheese store. I was then mostly behind the cash desk accepting orders and making payments using our own device. I was also preparing the pre-made dishes and serving the guests. All in all, I got a good overview of the business’ daily tasks.

What surprised you the most?

Even though it was at times very crowded, Sandra was always up for a quick chat with her customers. She has lots of regular visitors from the surrounding area that grab their coffee on their way to work. It’s not the anonymous Starbucks vibe. People here are patient and calm and appreciate that personal interaction.

What was the most challenging part for you?

Keeping an eye on everything and being able to multitask is not easy, especially during rush hour. From the customer perspective, this always looks so easy, but there’s a lot of training and routine needed to stay calm and focused while having an eye on everything that happens around you.

What did you bring back to the SumUp office as an insight?

A large proportion of her customers pay by card, even small amounts. It’s important to make the checkout as quick and seamless as possible, especially for highly frequented businesses that process lots of transactions per hour. Therefore, our system needs to be 100 % reliable at any time. Tipping is also a very important feature in gastronomy and must be integrated very natural way in the checkout process for the customer.

Thanks Sandra and Meierei for hosting Thomas! If you are in Berlin next time, stop by and grab a piece of their delicious apfelstrudel. You won’t regret it! Meierei Berlin, Kollwitzstraße 42, 10405 Berlin, Website: http://meierei.net.