Don’t you get tired of constantly verbally reminding your server staff to promote a particular specialty item, to up sell desserts and wines, or to suggest new menu items to customers?  You could always hang up a note by the register, but how often does that really get looked at?  Aloha can help make the process much more efficient and effective by using the Suggestive Selling feature.  This feature allows you to set any menu item to flash on and off which makes it stand out from the other items on the submenu.  It is human nature to be subliminally aware of something that is different.

Programming this feature is easy.  Say you want to your staff to suggest the new appetizers and desserts you are featuring for the fall.  In Aloha Manager go to Maintenance > Menu > Categories, create a new category, and set it (on the top right) as SUGGESTIVE.  Put all the items that you want to set to flash into this category.  Refresh your system.  The next time a server accesses the Appetizer or Dessert submenu those items will flash calling attention to them.

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Facing a tough economy, restaurant operators have ramped up their value offerings to draw in cash-strapped consumers. Guest loyalty programs have long been a strong driver of repeat traffic. New research from the National Restaurant Association finds that such programs also helped during the recession.
Our just-released survey on customer loyalty programs shows that more than three in four restaurant operators who responded to the survey say guest loyalty programs helped them grow business during the economic downturn.
”Repeat customers are an important demographic for restaurant operators. Loyalty programs can provide strong incentive to increase visits from those individuals,” said Hudson Riehle, the Association's senior vice president of research and knowledge.
Ninety percent of operators who responded to the survey say loyalty programs give them a competitive advantage. The vast majority plan to invest more in loyalty programs because the programs drive growth.
The research found that:
* Seventy-seven percent of respondents said loyalty programs helped drive business during the economic downturn.
* Nine in 10 respondents said loyalty programs give them a competitive advantage.
* Of the operators who currently operate a guest loyalty program, 84 percent plan to maintain or increase their program investment in 2010.
* More than four in 10 respondents (41 percent) currently operate a loyalty program. Nearly half (47 percent) are planning to launch one.
* About three-quarters of respondents (74 percent) use social media to support their loyalty program. Facebook was the most common social networking site used (65 percent), followed by Twitter (40 percent), and blogging (17 percent).
“This new research clearly shows the value of operating guest loyalty programs, and offers great insight into loyalty strategies,” Riehle added.
The Association partnered with Loyalty 360 – The Loyalty Marketer’s Association and rDialogue to conduct the survey of 1,300 of our restaurant-operator members earlier this year. The survey aims to investigate the level of penetration of loyalty programs in the restaurant industry; identify the types of loyalty practices being utilized; collect the metrics being used to measure performance; and determine the level of dedicated resources supporting strategy, implementation, and management of the programs.
“These findings clearly show that dining loyalty programs continue to grow because they work to accomplish strategic business objectives,” says Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty 360.

From the National Restaurant Association

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The most important decision we ever make in the restaurant business is who we choose to let in the doors to take care of our customers. Every time we hire a new employee, we put a lot on the line. Just one bad decision costs a lot in terms of time and money, but a bad hiring decision will also cost in terms of lost productivity, efficiency, poor customer service and teamwork too. The one thing a bad hire is guaranteed to give you is more aggravation.

How would you feel if you were robbed of $1000? And not just once, but 12 or 15 times a year? Did you know that every time a frontline, hourly employee quits or is fired, that the cost to recruit, interview, hire and train a new person will be at least 150 times that person's hourly wage? Losing a minimum wage employee in Texas costs at least $1200 while in California it subtracts a whopping $1375 from the bottom line -- and, as the minimum wage and training costs increase, these numbers are just going to keep going up.  Have you ever figured out how much your store loses each time someone is fired or quits? Here's a ballpark example where we assume only eight new hires in a year at only a $7.00 an hour wage. Calculation: $7.00 Hourly Wage x 150 Minimum Cost to Rehire & Train = $1,050 Dollars Lost Each Time Someone Quits Or Is Fired.

$1,050 x 8 Hourly Hires Lost Last Year = $8,400 Lost Last Year

Let's look at it another way... If we assume a 5% net profit, you have to sell $168,000 worth of hot dogs, fries, and drinks just to cover your yearly cost of turnover. And, if your average ticket size is $8.00, it means you have to do 1,500 transactions per month to cover those costs. In today's world it is going to be a lot easier to reduce turnover than to increase customer counts.
So don't focus on turnover, focus on retention. Turnover is number based. Retention is activity based.  (From RestaurantOwner.com)

So if retention is our goal, how about having a sales contest with attractive prizes as another way of rewarding your employees for their efforts.  Your Aloha system has a great tool called Performance Measures that allows you to track sales by server or sales relative to other sales (example: how much beer and wine as a percentage total food sales) easily.  Your managers can view these reports from any terminal (in the front of house) during service which allows the results to be up to the minute and keep interest high.  If you have never used Performance Measures and you would like to more about this feature give us a call and we will walk you through the process to set it up and make running a contest easy.

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Customizing the toolbar will help you save valuable time by putting your favorite functions a mere touch away. Here's a quick guide for creating shortcuts to your most frequently used Aloha Manager functions:

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Hospitality Technology Magazine recently asked the question, “What is the next big thing in the hospitality industry?”  The overwhelming response was handheld ordering devices.  Aloha (Radiant) had anticipated this shift in 2006-2007 and in 2008 purchased the #1 handheld ordering solution in the world, Orderman.  

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Lets face it, everyone can use a little help from there friends.  Boise POS Solutions is no exception to that.  Our business grows and prospers only when our customers business grows and prospers.  Instead of just selling you hardware and software dropping it off at your establishment and saying “Good Luck” we try and go above and beyond to make sure that we have not only sold you the right equipment, but have taught you (not just showed you) how to use it.  Our philosophy is that by teaching you everything we know about Aloha and the way that it works, we are creating “customers for life”.  Now I know that “customers for life” sounds a little cheesy but it’s the truth.  Let me demonstrate, the more information we give you, the better you use the system, the better you use the system, the better you like the system, the better you like the system the more you tell your friends and business acquaintances about Aloha, and by doing so you help us to convert more customers to Aloha.  It’s a community.  

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Radiant Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: RADS) today announced that it will be offering a new suite of payment security products, known as Radiant Payment Guard, that currently includes Payment Guard MSR, and Token Replacement. These payment protection tools help businesses in the restaurant industry better protect their sites and consumers by reducing data security-related risks.

    “The new offering of the Radiant Payment Guard suite of products is another example of our effort to continue developing products, technologies and processes to ensure that our customers are able to comply with today’s standards, as well as protect against tomorrow’s hackers.”

“Criminals are targeting restaurant and retail businesses at an alarming rate,” said Andy Heyman, chief operating officer at Radiant Systems. “Radiant is providing a variety of hardware and software products, such as the Radiant Payment Guard suite, to help our customers maintain consumer trust and reach the highest levels of data security.”

The Radiant Payment Guard suite of products currently includes Payment Guard MSR, and Token Replacement. Payment Guard MSR is an encrypted magnetic stripe reader that is installed within Radiant point-of-sale (POS) hardware terminals, which are deployed within both the restaurant and retail industries. Payment Guard MSR enables data security protection on a physical level with encryption of sensitive consumer data built into Radiant’s hardware products. By the end of 2010, Radiant will be shipping all POS terminals with Payment Guard MSR, with most terminals shipping with this security feature as of July 1. The company began shipping Payment Guard MSR-equipped hardware in 2009 with the launch of the P1515, P1560 and P1760 POS terminals.

Radiant Payment Guard also includes Token Replacement, which is a payment security feature of the Aloha point of sale that has been in use by restaurant operators since early 2009. With Token Replacement, a unique identifier, or token, is allocated to cardholder data at the RBS WorldPay and Radiant Payment Services (RPS) host to prevent personal information from being stored on the point of sale. This ensures restaurant operators that payment processing occurs in a tightly-secure environment.

“Throughout our 25-year history, Radiant has always been focused on providing leading data security protection for our customers,” said John Heyman, chief executive officer at Radiant Systems. “The new offering of the Radiant Payment Guard suite of products is another example of our effort to continue developing products, technologies and processes to ensure that our customers are able to comply with today’s standards, as well as protect against tomorrow’s hackers.”

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Finding an objective way to track servers’ performance can be a challenge.  Aloha offers a configurable report titled “Comparative Employee Sales” that gives you an excellent tool to address this task. This report allows you to compare sales information by category for a particular day or range of days and is broken down by server.  For example what is the percentage of beverages sold compared to entrees?   Some examples might be to compare the following:
    Desserts to Entrees
    Wine to Entrees
    Total Beverages to Water Only
    Number of Customers (entrée’s) to Gift Card Sales

This report can be used very effectively to track employee sales contests and to promote healthy competition among your servers.

You can access Comparative Employee Sales in Aloha Manager by selecting Reports > Comparative Employee Sales.  Select a date or range of dates then select a base category and one or more target categories.  Since the category lists include both sales and non-sales categories you are able to group and re-group items as needed.

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1. Marketing has to pay for itself (it's never an expense, it's an investment)
The whole idea of a "marketing budget" is wrong. Most restaurants define it as a percentage of their sales. Wrong, wrong, wrong!
If you had a reliable and proven way of investing $20 and getting back $30, how many of these $20 bills would you invest? I hope you answered, "All the $20 bills I could get my hands on. And also all the $20 bills I could borrow!"  Good! Then why would you cap your marketing at some — largely arbitrary — number?  A-ha! You probably do that because you are NOT sure if a $20 bill invested in your restaurant marketing can reliably and predictably bring you back $30 or $15 or any money at all.  And if that's the case, you need to radically change the way you approach restaurant marketing. There is always a way to measure and to know how much money each marketing campaign is generating for you.

2. If it ain't broken, break it (to give a way to the new and better)
In many locales, we see restaurant chains move in and independents wane. And it is believed that this happens because the chains have more money in their corporate coffers and because they get better discounts from the distributors.  These are largely not true. On both counts (and I'll leave this at that now and cover this topic in the future articles.)  However, the main reason chains are generally more successful than independent restaurant is because they always break what's not broken. They constantly test new menu items, tweak their pricing, adjust their internal processes and marketing campaigns. And once they find something that works extremely well in one locale, they roll it out to all of the other stores.  Most independents we know abhor change. Aside from new paint on the walls every 5-7 years and the new menu covers every 3-5 years, most independent restaurants are frozen in time. Which brings us to the next point.

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Today’s restaurant business is more challenging than ever before.  It seems everywhere we look restaurants have been impacted by today’s economic climate.  So what are the smart operators doing to not only maintain market share but to grow?  The answer is promotions.

The traditional advertising channels have been enhanced by various methods of direct marketing based on your Aloha system.  Listed below are promotional methods to which you have access because you use Aloha.

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I’ll never forget the first time I walked into one of my favorite restaurants. I was greeted at the door, had a good experience with my server and enjoyed my meal. At the end of the meal, our server asked if I’d like to be part of their “Special VIP” club.  My first thought, of course, went to how much this “Special VIP” program was going to cost me. When the server explained that there was no cost to the program and that I would be receiving special email offers, I signed up and gave my information without giving it another thought.
A funny thing happened when I went back to the restaurant the next couple times.  The waiter called me by name and brought me samples of different wines he knew I would like based on what I had ordered previously. I also started getting special coupons in my email with free appetizers and holiday promotions. I admit it. I’m now a fan.  But earning true loyalty goes beyond just satisfying me as a customer. Whenever friends ask where they should go for dinner, I usually recommend the restaurant with raving reviews.  Obviously offering a great product or service is the starting point to building customer loyalty.  However, great businesses, including this restaurant, build loyalty programs into the fabric of the customer experience and use them to create something priceless to any business…word-of-mouth marketing.
When building a customer loyalty program, it’s important to integrate it into the culture of your business to fit the customers that walk in your door.  An incentive for a free meal after purchasing X number of lunches may work for a quick casual environment, but in a fine dining environment guests may be more incented by preferred seating areas, secured reservations or complimentary valet parking. It’s also important to make the program easy to understand for your customers as well as your store-level employees that will be delivering the message. No one wants to pull out a complex diagram just to explain the value of the program.  Successful loyalty plans are promoted at all levels of the business. Having contests for new member sign-ups is a great way to encourage your employees to successfully promote your programs initially.  Just remember, the goal isn’t solely to get customers to sign up for your program…it’s to get them to come back again and again through a combination of easy-to-understand loyalty programs and a great guest experience.   Your Aloha system offers an add-on called Loyalty that may be your tool to a successful loyalty partnership with your customers.
From the Radiant Systems Blog

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In an era when employees seek a “work-life balance”—which, on the surface, would seem to be an oxymoron in the restaurant industry—restaurants should not be looking for a new type of manager to lead employees, but rather training managers to adapt to a new way of thinking. They need to be more talent-focused than outcome-focused. The restaurant industry relies on the attitudes, the skills and the talents of its workforce, and a successful manager will see that talent pool as a valuable asset and a competitive advantage. Here are five tips managers can employ to be more effective in this area:

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Radiant Systems uses its exclusive new Command Center framework for service deployment.
With so much emphasis on software and hardware compliance with PCI regulations, a major point of vulnerability that often goes overlooked is the point of access for service technicians. Command Center removes those vulnerabilities while taking a proactive stance toward network security. Here's how:
•    Multi-Factor Authentication - NO technician can access your site remotely without an RSA SecurID device that generates a new ID number every 60 seconds. There are no passwords that can be remembered, and the device can be deactivated by satellite in the case of theft.
•    Proactive Breach Prevention - The Command Center Help Desk is automatically notified when changes are made to your system that may compromise its security, keeping you PCI-compliant 365 days a year, not just when scanned.
•    Real Time Monitoring - The health of both your hardware and software is automatically and continuously sent to the Help Desk where it is evaluated to ensure optimal performance and up-time. Experience fewer issues with faster resolution!
•    Strong Audit Controls - All actions taken at your site are automatically logged and tracked to a specific authorized user.
Radiant systems is the ONLY POS vendor offering this level of security.  This is just another example of how your investment in Aloha keeps paying dividends.
Focus on your restaurant, not your technology! Spend time with your guests, not your support staff! Aloha can take you there.
Contact our support department at 208-333-8900 for more information on Boise POS Solutions’ implementation of Radiant Command Center at your site.

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New & different graphics are available on your current Aloha system. In Aloha back office click on Maintenance then Store Settings and use the drop down in the Group to find User Interface. In the Enhanced Graphical Interface box select one of the various options and click save. Refresh the system, and your new look has arrived. There are 29 different themes to choose from. Play with them until you find what best suites your business.

If you have older terminals with minimum memory, you may need to add more memory to improve performance. Or, as always, you may choose to update your hardware with new STUFF. Call us and we can help.

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Server:  Thank you sir, here’s your check.
Customer: Can you please divide this check into three equal parts?

The customers didn’t say they wanted separate checks; the customers said that they wanted to divide this check into three equal parts.  And since you have Aloha, you can do it easily.  No math skills required!  The “Equal Pay” button is located on the settlement screen.  If you don’t have this button on your screen send us an e-mail, and we will provide you with instructions.  Once you have touched “Equal Pay” a 10-key pad appears asking you for the number of “equal pays”.  In our example enter “3”.  The check now has the total listed in thirds.  As each person pays, settle one third of the check.  This also allows you to easily use a mix of cash and credit cards to tender the check.

We all know that Aloha can split a check and that Aloha can split an item, and now we have added “Equal Pay” for your customer’s convenience.

A couple of weeks ago we asked if anyone knew the origin of the term “86”.  No one knew.  The answer is that the first atom bomb ever dropped in anger was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th 1945, hence “86”.

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You time your sprinklers, you time your eggs, and you even time your lights turning on and off when you are on vacation.  So why not take advantage of Aloha Events and time your restaurant?  Many of you know to use events to turn on and off things like Happy Hour, and Specials, but consider the myriad of other uses for scheduled events.  A very common way events are used is to tailor the menu that each person sees to their job code and time of day.  That way a server sees breakfast in the morning and dinner in the evening which facilitates efficiency.  

You can also use events to display different messages on the log-in screen or on the guest check at different times of day, or even on a specific holiday.  Consider using timers to control the promotions that you allow.  If you have a coupon that is only good on Tuesday, Aloha can show that coupon on your promo screen only on Tuesday.  No more having someone accept coupon at a time when it is not valid.  Do you want a particular server terminal to send all its drink orders to a particular bar between 5 pm and 9 pm on Saturday?  Well, Aloha events were made for you.     

Take the time to look at the multitude of different things that can be controlled by Events by logging into Aloha Manager then going to Maintenance > System > Events and browsing through the list.  Then tap into your creativity and give us a call with questions.

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Most of your employees are clueless about what it costs to operate your restaurant. In fact, most of them will "assume" you're making a killing unless you've made an effort to enlighten them about basic restaurant economics.

When I work with operators, I always try and bring this point to light by asking three or four employees, one at a time, how much money they think the restaurant is making. I take a dollar bill out of my pocket and ask, "Out of every dollar in sales that comes in this place, how much do you think the owner gets to keep?" Typical answers range from 30 to 60 cents. The lowest I ever recall hearing was 25 cents.

When employees think your restaurant is a high margin, extremely lucrative business, it can affect their attitudes, behavior and work habits. Employees that assume the boss is pocketing 50 cents out of every dollar in sales (when in reality it's probably less than a nickel), may find it easier to rationalize carelessness, waste and even theft.

It's important to show your employee "where the money goes." Call a meeting and give each employee 100 pennies. Explain to them it represents a dollar of sales that comes into your restaurant and you're going to show them where this money goes to pay all of your costs and expenses.

Out of the 100 pennies each of them has, ask them give you back their portion of expenses you pay each month. For example, you might start out asking for 30 pennies from everyone for food, 32 pennies for payroll, 5 for payroll taxes, 4 for the utility bill, 6 for the rent and so on until there are four or five pennies or whatever approximates your net income % remaining. Explain that this is how much out of every dollar you get to keep.

At minimum, your employees will now know that your restaurant is not the "cash cow" they had probably imagined and they might understand better why you make such a big deal out of portion control, counting products, scheduling and other cost control activities.

Let your employees know, in terms they can relate to, that this is a "low margin" business. Educate them and let them know what's going on in your restaurant and they will usually do the right thing.

The problem is that when you don't educate or withhold information, people make assumptions and as you can expect, those assumptions are usually wrong.

From restaurantowner.com.

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The bar is crowded.  The people are three deep screaming for drinks.  The music is rockin’.  You can’t hear yourself think.  The fat old bald guy who just got six drinks for himself and his friends says, “Start a tab for me”.  You’re having a tough time just making drinks and ringing up the sales.  Now this “meathead” wants you to start a tab and worry about keeping track of him while he parties.  You feel like choking him till hair pops up on his head.  Stop.  Control yourself.  You have Aloha, and you can handle it.  How about this for an answer?

“Sir, may I please have your credit card”.  The customer hands you his card, you ring up his drinks, hit the new tab button, and swipe his card when the typewriter keyboard appears. You then thank him and return his card.  So what have you done?  You have captured all the credit card information and started a tab for the name on the card.  On the working with tables screen you will see his name associated with a tab, and Aloha has stored the credit card information needed for settlement.  When the customer is ready to leave and asks for his check, you confirm that he wants to settle it using the stored credit card.  On your settlement screen you will see a new button at the bottom of the screen that says “Saved Credit Card”.  Touch that button and the credit card settlement you need is presented.  

By using Aloha to store credit card information you can safely run a tab and not have to be responsible for retaining possession of the customer’s credit card until the tab is settled.  If for any reason the customer doesn’t settle his check, you can settle it to the saved credit card so the house is protected.  

Of all the features that Aloha has that you may not know about this one will save your staff the most time while putting the most money to your bottom line.

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How many times has a server had to go back to the customer, and with a disappointed look on their face tell them that they are out of the item the customer so carefully chose?  Let’s review your customers dining experience:  After a warm greeting by your hostess, and an eloquent presentation of the day’s specials from your server, your customer settles in with your menu and thoroughly evaluates your offerings.  The decision making process is influenced by their mood, the description of each menu item, seeing what others around them are eating, and the recommendations from your server.  After digesting all this information they have now chosen the perfect item to satisfy their appetite.  The server tells them, “That’s a great choice” and places the order on your POS system.  About five minutes later the chef finds the server and informs them that you are out of the bologna sandwich they just ordered.  Your server must go back to the customer and convince them to settle for their “second best” choice.  This dining experience is now second best.  

This should never happen at your restaurant.  You have Aloha and the Item Availability feature will warn your servers of low quantities or of out of stock items.  On a daily basis, log in at a front of house terminal as a manager; select Special Functions, Financial, and then Item Availability.  With this feature you can set the number of “Bologna Sandwiches” you have and let the system count them down as they are sold.  You can also “86” an item so the server will know you are out of stock.  Think of using the “Count Down” for prime rib, a special pie made for today only, or any item that has a limited number of available servings.

When your servers are up to date as to what is available from the kitchen your whole operation appears more professional. A good server can then use that information to enhance the customer’s dining experience.  “…maybe you’d like to try our special bologna sandwich.  We only have three left; they move fast!”

How sharp are you?  Where did the term “86” come from?  Email us your answer.  All the correct answers will be entered into a drawing for a lunch for two at Chili’s.  Have your answer in by Wednesday, high noon.  The winner will be announced in the next Aloha Pipeline.

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