Larger customer and food ticket fonts!
Recently, I wrote a blog on customer receipts. The focus was that a number of the receipts out there are not very attractive looking.
After that blog post, I had some emails asking about a larger font on either a kitchen / barista ticket or on the customer ticket itself.
My support and development department looked into this and came up with a way to do it for our customers. The image on the left is the standard font and size that we typically print.
The image on the right is an example of a larger font.
Catering? We can help!
Over the last year we have seen more of our customers look at catering options with their products. Obviously that leads to more calls to us asking how we can help. Fortunately, we already have a number of wants to help with this.
It starts with creating a catering menu. Talk to our support about creating a specific menu group with your catered items. This allows your employees to have one button access to the items you cater and the prices you charge.
When a customer calls in, make sure you use our Customer Tracking system to add the customer. Often these customers
are already in your database and may simply be having you delivery items to a different address. They may even use a different contact number when calling you. In SP-1, we track up to 10 phone numbers per client.
In SP-1, when you add (or edit) a customer, you can select the phone number / email address button to update or add information for the customers profile. In catering this is advantageous because you now can get hold of the direct person that is placing the order if there is a question.
The next step is to use the Additional Addresses button to enter the customers catering address. This is important because you might be providing the items to a different location than what you have on file as the main address.
Once we have the order placed, we have two more options available to us. If you have done catering before then you know that sometimes when the customers calls, they are not actually placing the order right? Sometimes, it’s an office manager or assistant that is calling around to check on pricing. We handle this as well! At the ticket completion screen, you can convert any order into a quote only. What this does is save the order under that customers phone number for future reference. When (if) the customer calls back to place that catering order, you will have all the details laid out in front of you! This allows you to easily and quickly duplicate the previous quote and then turn it into an actual order.
Once the catering order is ready to finish, we can use our Deferred Order system to schedule this order for a future date and time. SP-1 will automatically print your order on the day and time that it is due. We even allow you to set the default time the order should be printed. If it needs to be ready at 4pm the order can print at 3pm! 
So the complete catering options look like this:
- Add customer with multiple phone numbers and addresses
- Take order and turn into a quote
- Duplicate the quote and mark it as a deferred order
- The order then prints automatically at the time it is ready
- Reporting for the manager and owner on all future orders
SP-1 can make this type of coffee shop or restaurant catering easy by implementing the built in features of our POS!
Call us for more information!
Mike.
WiFi Campers – Starbucks covers electrical outlets
More on the on-going fight between coffee shop owners and people that want to camp in the store working on laptops etc. This news Grid Lock: Starbucks Covers Electrical Outlets to Curb Laptop Lingerers – TIME NewsFeed illustrates the frustration.
The issue is not that people want to hang out in the store, it’s that the customer doesn’t continue to buy product while sitting there. Heck, I’m guessing that you want people in your store – the catch is you also want them buying product!
The best way I’ve seen to approach this without a confrontation is to use a product like WEBbeams. WEBbeams helps eliminate the whole issue by requiring a login code to access the WiFi connection.
When the customer orders product, SP-1 prints a unique, one time code. That code is then used by the customer to log on to the WiFi system in the store. The great thing is that the code can be for a limited amount of time. So, if you have campers that want to sit, surf the web and stay all day, they will be forced to buy more product.
Give us a call to learn more about WEBbeams and SelbySoft!
Mike.
Burger King introduces oatmeal to breakfast menu or How to revamp your thinking about POS
I saw this post online about how Burger King is introducing oatmeal to their breakfast menu. BK is trying to compete with McDonald’s in breakfast sales. To me, the most interesting part of the article was the comment by an analyst that Burger King needs to revamp and remodel their stores. At least BK is thinking about ways to compete and change their own status quo.
That comment reminded me of our own struggles with customer perceptions in the past. A few years ago we realized that we had to “re-skin” our software every so often to keep it fresh and new to our customers. We had gotten to the point where the software just didn’t “look fresh”. It doesn’t matter if it was true or not, it’s a perception.
It made me think about the way people use SP-1. Honestly, when is the last time you really thought about all the reasons you bought a POS for your coffee shop or restaurant in the first place?
Think about doing a remodel on your perception of your POS! Treat yourself like you are about to do some research and look for ways our POS can help you with your store. It’s easy to get caught up in a rut and use SP-1 as a cash register but we can do so much more.
Look over the following and think about the last time you looked at these:
- Customers who have not ordered in the last 30 days report. You don’t have to do a mailing or email blast. Just run the report, look them up and call them! Tell them you know they have not been in for a while and offer a discount to get them in. Want to set yourself apart from your competition? This will do it!
- Have you looked at an employee time keeping audit report? No? Are you sure your manager is not changing the clock in time for that cute girl / guy employee? Really, your sure?
- Look at a list of your specialty coffee drinks or food items for the last year and see which account for less than 3-5% of your total sales. Get rid of them or promote them differently.
How to help your coffee shop manager out!
Want to make your coffee shop manager happy? Get them a POS system. Sounds simple doesn’t it? I know, it sounds like a sales ploy to get you to buy a POS – That’s true as well. The fact is that we believe with all our heart that a POS will absolutely help you and your staff (including your manger)!
If you have taken the time to hire and groom a coffee shop manager to help manage your business, then a POS makes a lot of sense for you. Why? Because we know, through experience, that you rely on your manager to maintain the store, monitor employees and report back to you (along with dozens of other things). Without a POS system, your manager will spend part of their time focusing on putting together spreadsheets and emails so you get what you need. There is a better way.
Automate a good chuck of those tasks and allow your manager to focus on the things that are really important. Let them spend their time on coffee education, customer service, training of your staff and generally helping you make more money. With SP-1 as your POS in your coffee shop, you will see that your manager can provide the business information to you with less time wasted. Better than that is that they will have the tools available to them to monitor for themselves what is going on.
For example, your manager can see which hours are peak for sales by touching a few buttons. They can run reports to compare sales by employee to identify where training needs to be spent. You can use up sell suggestions to help not only make more money but also to open the door for customer education on differences between different coffees.
Finally, let’s not forget that YOU, the owner, have to stay on top of the manager and insure that they are doing their job right? Hourly reporting and void tracking are the best ways to do this.
Call us. See how we can help you and your coffee shop manager!
Mike.
MobileDash
New Fresh Cup Ad
I just have to post this here!
Our new Fresh Cup Magazine ads have been full page for last month and this month. Here is a picture of them in case you missed it!
We really appreciate that we have customers that are willing to share why SP-1 is their choice for a coffee shop pos!
