An independent restaurateur has many challenges to overcome to succeed in the world today. I hope that this newsletter will help in some way. Please feel free to give me a call or send an e-mail if you would like to get more information!

- Bob Arnold

Hospitality Insights

  A LionWise Newsletter             Vol 10      Issue 1

 

 In this Issue:

     - Increasing Profits with Gift Cards

     - Do You have Sales People or Order Takers

     - Optional LIONWISE POS Integrations

 

 

Increasing Profits with Gift Cards

 

 

Whether you have a Point of Sale (POS) System or are still using a cash register, you can begin a Gift Card Program that can help you generate more profitability.

The major advantage of selling Gift Cards is having the cash in your pocket today for sales that will occur down the road. Also, many Gift Cards that are purchased may never be redeemed. This is called breakage and can run as high as 30 percent for many operators. In other words, for every dollar in Gift Card sales, 30 cents is never redeemed.

There are two types of Gift Card programs that are associated with a POS System. Either the POS company has a software module to do Gift Cards internally or they

have an interface with a third party Gift Card company.

A third party Gift Card company can manage Gift Cards for operators who are using either a POS System or a cash register. A charge to the restaurant operator is made every time the Gift Card is swiped through the magnetic card reader. A swipe could be to check a balance on the card, add more value to the card or to redeem value on the card.  This charge is negotiated with the third party Gift Card company and the potential gift card volume of the restaurant owner’s property is a main factor in determining this rate.

In contrast, some POS Systems have a software module to do Gift Cards internally with a one time charge for a software license to use the program. There are no swipe charges because the Gift Card program is managed internally by the restaurant operator. One of the main questions that should be asked by operators thinking of implementing a Gift Card program

 

should be, From whom do I purchase my Gift Cards?

Many third party Gift Card companies consider this a main source of their revenue and will require Gift Cards to be purchased through them. This can be very expensive.

The cost of Gift Cards have two factors. One is the amount of artwork/colors used on the card and the other is the total number of cards that are ordered.

 

You only need to make a one time investment in a software license in order to use Gift cards on your LIONWISE POS System.

From any one of your LIONWISE POS Workstations, your staff may sell customers Gift Cards and you are assured that the revenues will make it to your bank everyday!

With LIONWISE POS, you are also able to purchase your magnetic gift card from the provider of your choosing.

 

Do You Have Sales People or Order Takers?

 

One of the greatest benefits of a POS System to a restaurant operator is the ease in which the performance of the wait staff and bartenders can be measured.

Reports detailing check average can tell an operator a  lot of valuable information about his wait staff.

The restaurant operator works very hard to get customers to come to his restaurant and not the

one down the street. Once the customer takes their seat, it is the skill of the waitperson that determines how much revenue will be generated by that visit.

Have you ever heard a customer look at a menu and say to the waitperson, What’s good today?.  What a great opportunity for the restaurant!  Does your waitperson respond, I don’t know or do they begin listing your most popular dishes?

 

I once had a waiter who always had a good night in tips. Contrary to some of the whining by his fellow waiters, it was not because he had the best customers. It was because he asked whether the customer preferred Tangueray or Beefeater if they ordered a gin and tonic. It was because he suggested appetizers or directed the customer to the more popular entrees. It was because he always joked that every dessert came with two forks, selling one

 

dessert where they might not have ordered any. Coffee with dessert always had a Sambucca or Bailey’s suggestion. He was a salesman!

Service That Sells, an excellent resource book for the restaurateur, answered the question: What if I train them and they leave?, with the answer, What if you don’t and they stay?

 

 

 

 

      

 

 

LionWise is a dealer for the Electric Connect solution, designed to enable high speed Ethernet packets to traverse over many different transmission mediums: in-premise electrical wiring, extended distance for twisted pair wires and long distance co-axial cables. This minimizes the costs and hassles of pulling and terminating Home Run Cat5 cabling. The network runs over standard electrical wiring.

A benefit of the LIONWISE POS interface to OpenTable is that when a dining course is triggered on the LIONWISE POS (e.g. App, Entree, Dessert, Check Paid, etc.), the information exchanged will automatically change the color of the table displayed on the OpenTable screen to reflect the dining stage.

LionWise developed an automatic export, which USBN then uses to calculate the variance between the amount of draft beer poured and the amount of beer actually sold. The data is collected from LIONWISE POS at regular intervals in order to keep the product variance data real time.

 

 

 


 

 

LIONWISE POS is integrated to the next generation of digital video security technology with WebEyeAlert giving you the ability to view both LIVE REAL-TIME VIDEO and RECORDED VIDEO via the web from anywhere!

This powerful offering works by combining POS text information about each transaction (which is generated by the customer’s LIONWISE POS system) and overlaying it on the video being received by the system. In this manner, either live or during recorded playback, the video presents both a visual and textual representation of the POS transaction and the staff member performing the action.

Moreover, the system enables easy and

quick identification of questionable transactions (exceptions) that require further investigation. Such exceptions can include, but are not limited to: sweet hearting, under rings, voids, no sales, refunds, and cashier mistakes.

LIONWISE POS integration uses the        WebEyeAlert NVR+ digital video recording system to create an event list of these exceptions, which the   customer can then remotely (and discreetly) sort, search, and playback with a single-click.

The discreet, remote access is done via a standard Web browser running on a standard PC. The system is also capable of triggering a notification via e-mail, phone call or pager when one of these exceptions is detected.

According to the 2002 National Retail Security Survey - due to  inventory shrinkage -  the retail industry lost over $31 billion     dollars, an amount that represented about 2% of total sales revenue.

Well over 38% of the loss was attributed to internal employee theft, while 32% was the result of shoplifting.

     

 

 

 

 

A dedicated partner with the Hospitality Industry.

http://www.lionwise.com

 

            

 

Bob Arnold

Sales Manager

(603) 997-2931

barnold@lionwise.com