Smokey John’s Bar-B-Que and Home Cooking has been serving up great food and great service to its Dallas patrons for nearly 40 years. While business is thriving, the restaurant itself was due for some updates.
Technology was a big consideration, as up to this point, everything had to be tracked manually. The restaurant used an electronic cash register that spit out paper receipts, all of which had to be tallied, daily, by hand. Employee hours were also tracked manually, making it difficult for the restaurant to determine who was approaching overtime.
In September 2013, Smokey John’s installed NCR Silver Pro Restaurant Edition, an affordable, iPad-based POS system that makes it simple to manage table assignments and server flow; access sales and other key metrics from a mobile dashboard; and route orders directly to the kitchen, bar or any other station. Since then, the Smokey John’s has been able to track employee hours in real time and make the proper adjustments to avoid overtime.
“For a restaurant that’s huge,” said manager Brent Reaves. “You can lose a lot of money by not properly tracking overtime. That feature alone has saved us thousands already.” The system also makes it easy for employees to clock in and keep track of their hours, so they know exactly what they can expect to see on their paychecks each week.
Repeat business has also picked up, as the system automatically sends out “miss you” coupons to those customers who haven’t visited in a while and customers can accumulate and redeem loyalty points. “Our customers are watching their points!”
Upgrading the technology has improved the customer experience: The move from dial-up for credit card processing to wireless has cut wait times in half. According to Brent, “It’s amazing how a POS system can just organize you. We’re processing tickets much faster now.”
How are you using technology to manage your restaurant and engage your customers?
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The post Smokey John’s: a restaurant technology story appeared first on NCR Hospitality Blog.
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