"Control the Present, Predict the Future..."

Hello Everyone…

F&B Hand-Held Terminal…

Sit in your clubs dining room and observe your wait staff.  A typical transaction (if you are using F&B software) goes something like this.

1.   6:00 PM: Customer is seated by the hostess, server shows up (hopefully quickly) and welcomes everyone, maybe rattles off the day’s specials, and takes drink orders.

2.   6:05 PM: Orders in hand (typically written on a chit) the server proceeds across the dining room to a remote corner where the F&B computer resides.

3.   6:08 PM: If no one is already at the computer the server will enter in the drink orders for the bartender.  More often than not, ironically when the place is busy, the server has to wait for one or more others to put in their orders.

4.   While the bartenders are preparing the drink orders the server will probably visit another table and perhaps repeat the trek across the dining room.

5.   6:14 PM: When the drinks are up, the server will gather those, take them to the table and distribute.  The server may ask if there are questions about the menu and if they would like some appetizers while they peruse the menu.

6.   6:18 PM: Appetizer orders in hand, again the server treks across the dining room to the computer in the corner and enters App orders for the kitchen.

7.   Back across the dining room to the next table.

8.   6:28 PM: Eventually the apps will come up and the server will deliver those while taking the dinner orders.

9.   6:31 PM: Again trekking across the dining room to the computer in the corner, chatting with others waiting their turn, and entering the dinner orders, maybe another round of drinks etc…

     Ok… in case you are missing the point – the wait staff spends a great deal of time walking between the tables and the computer to enter orders.  At the end of the dinner it continues. 

1.   7:20 PM: The server will go to the computer to print the check.

2.   7:22 PM: The check is put in a folder and dropped off at the table.

3.   7:28 PM: The folder is later picked up and taken to - you guessed it the computer.

4.   7:30 PM: The sale is processed and the folder taken back to the table (of course another trek or two across the dining room).

There is a better way. 

     OK… again for those that are not keeping up – we have eliminated the time for the server to queue up at the F&B computer, enter the orders (which in turn speeds up the remote printing of bar and kitchen orders), walk back to the next table etc.  May seem trivial.  Obviously if you only do a couple dinners per night it is trivial.  But if you run a very busy restaurant, you are trimming valuable minutes off every interaction with the table.  Conservatively let’s say we trim 15 minutes off what is typically a 1.5 hour ordeal.  At the end of the dinner it continues:

     The closing transaction can easily take another 10 to 15 minutes off that table turn time.  Let’s say overall we take an average of 20 minutes off the turnover time and dinner is served from 5:00 PM and the goal is to have the dining room clear out around 11:00 PM for cleanup and shutdown.

     So we have taken a typical one and a half hour table turnover and reduced that by 20 minutes from a 90 minute to a 70 minute turnover.  Let’s say we have a dining room with 20 tables and if we save that time on each table thru the dinner hours, we can easily fill each table one or two more times during the night.  Average bill for a table is $150.00.  Multiply that by the 20 to 40 tables and you potentially pull in an additional $3000.00 to $6000.00 per night.  Of course you have to be able to fill those tables based on your product, service, price, and audience but hey… I can’t do it all for you!  Multiply that $3K to $6K by how many time per month you can fill the place (obviously you need to plug in your own numbers for all the variables above to get an accurate potential) … start writing me commission checks. 

     You may even manage to get by with less wait staff since the staff with handhelds will spend more time on the floor vs. your current staff that congregate around F&B terminals and bar service area.

     POS Express ver 3.0 has been validated for PA-DSS by the PCI Security Standards Council.

     Give us a call to get started with this Add-On to our F&B system (Mike Stanovich 800-793-1872 or Mike@ClubProphetSystems.com ).  We will also have a couple of these at the PGA Merchandise Show Jan 28-30 for you to see for yourself and will be at the Bixolon booth at the NRF show in NYC Jan 11-12… way cool!

Until Next time,

Enjoy J