If you ask local diners why they should go to Charlton’s Grill & Tap in Johns Creek, Georgia, they’ll tell you it’s for the wings. The eatery is known for jumbo, crisp wings prepared with a variety of homemade sauces and rubs—and Charlton’s encourages diners to mix flavors  to come up with creative combinations they love. The family-owned and operated restaurant, which opened its doors in 2016, also provides great customer service, supported by state-of-the-art technology—but management didn’t find it that way when they prepared for the restaurant opening.

THE CHALLENGE

When owner Bob Charlton purchased the restaurant, he discovered the point of sale (POS) system hasn’t been properly maintained. Charlton, the former executive VP of sales and marketing for a systems integrator, was familiar with POS systems, and quickly discovered that he has a problem. The POS system has never been upgraded—in fact, it was running four versions behind the current software—and the POS hardware and printers were outdated. The restaurant couldn’t alter the system at all to make it usable.

Charlton knew he needed a cloud-based POS system that he’d be able to access from a laptop or smartphone. He also needed a solution that allowed him to focus on his new restaurant, not on IT, but still easily manage changes and updates. Charlton’s Grill and Tap didn’t anticipate the issues it discovered with the existing POS system and printers. They wanted to easily enable online ordering, offer a loyalty program and printers that required zero IT support to print receipts and takeout orders. They has to work fast as they only has 3 days to implement a new POS system and thermal printers for the restaurant.

THE SOLUTION

Charlton originally contacted Matt Shaw from Postec, Inc. because he thought the TOast restaurant POS and management system would best suit the business’ needs. But after Shaw listened to what Charlton was looking for, he recommended a Mobilebytes system and Star printers. Mobilebytes iPad POS provided Charlton’s with the anytime, anywhere cloud access it was looking for, and it made communicating and engaging with customers through the POS system easier. Charlton’s also chose Star SP700 and TSP650II printers, two for the front of the house and one in the back.

The new POS solution was also easy to roll out and simple to set up. The Mobilebytes and Star system took less than two days to install and go live, setup took less than eight hours with the assistance of Postec, Inc. and staff training, including placing sample orders, took less than one hour, helping Charlton’s open its doors in less time than other POS systems could have.

When an order comes in, the order double prints—once for the kitchen to intitiate food prep and once for the front of the house to prepare the take out order. The Skip-the-Line feature is provided through the Mobilbytes app. When guests are within 90 feet of the restaurant, their phone will connect to the restaurant’s iBeacon and they will receive a notification through the app asking if they would like to “skip the line” and order ahead through the mobile app. Anyone dining in can order online with orders printing for the front and back of the house so they’ll be ready when guests arrive. Guests that want to have alcoholic beverages with their meals, however, have two separate checks, since alcohol can’t be ordered online. To compensate, the restaurant offers a free drink promotion to encourage online orders. Charlton’s also launched a loyalty program, supported by the Mobilebytes app.

Download the full success story here: Star_MobileBytes-Charltons_Case-Study

PHOTO CREDIT: OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

With the increase in popularity of fast casual and fast-fine dining establishments, full service restaurants are under increasing pressure to provide top-notch dining experiences. Each diner’s experience begins the moment they step through restaurant doors and approach the host stand.

Seatninja Host is a low-cost solution that allows full-service restaurants to connect with guests and consistently provide a VIP Diner Experience. The digital seating system was created to emulate the paper tools that 90% of restaurants still use for managing walk-ins, waitlist parties, and reservations. Seatninja Host is a complete front-of-house system that will enable your staff to interact with guests via SMS or mobile application, gain visibility into where all seated guests are in the dining cycle, identify tables with VIPs and special occasions, quote accurate wait times by party size, manage and follow server rotations, quickly look up guest’s dining history, and more.

THE SITUATION

As a result of the growth in fast casual and fast-fine dining establishments, guests are becoming more and more intolerant of mistakes in lost reservations, long wait lists, and misquoted wait times. Guests are also starting to expect automated and seamless reservation and waitlist procedures at the front-of-house within a modern and up-to-date full-service restaurant. To appease unhappy and impatient customers, restaurants lose hundreds of dollars in revenue each month to guest comps or freebies to avoid bad press and poor Yelp reviews.

THE SOLUTION

Seatninja Host organizes and automates most of the host stand functions, such as taking and managing reservations and waitlists, managing seating, wait time estimates, and server rotation. The solution automatically suggests tables for guests, accurately estimates wait times, and organizes the guests into a seating line. The solution uses a two-way texting system to communicate with guests to let them know their table is ready and allows guests to disperse to other nearby areas and thus removing the pressure from small, over-crowded lobbies. In this way, it never loses a reservation or waitlist party, maximizing restaurant seating, without overbooking.

For easy server reference, the integrated Star Micronics TSP100III printer prints out a reservation or waitlist “chit” that includes each guest’s visit details including, name, number in party, visit history, permanent guest notes, current visit reservations notes, table number and any party flags assigned, i.e. birthday, anniversary, high chair required, etc. For additional server management, each server’s schedule can be printed from the system as well. The schedule includes the name of the server, the tables assigned to each server and his or her’s scheduled time in. This further ensures that each guest receives a VIP customer experience delivered not only from the front-of-the-house stand, but also their server as well.

THE RESULTS

The Seatninja and Star Micronics solution deliver an immediate ROI on the monthly subscription. Setup takes, on average, less than an hour. The solution is paired with an iPad tablet upon deployment. Training is quick and easy, completed in an hour or less and staff typically and staff typically reaches proficiency with the solution within two shifts or less.

Full service restaurants who deploy the solution may see some or all of the following results:

• fewer table checks ($75 per month in savings)
• additional table turns ($400 per month in additional revenue)
• decrease in reservation no shows ($400 per month in savings)
• decrease in walk outs on waitlists ($400 per month in savings)
• no lost or damaged paper replacements ($100 per month in savings)
• reservations can be taken automatically during off hours ($1500 per month in additional revenue)
• reduced comps for mistakes ($100 per month in savings)
• automatic table assignments for reservations ($124 per month in savings)

Sunglass Menagerie has proudly served the New Jersey beach community for the past 38 years offering a variety of sunglass options for every type of beach bum. Sunglass Menagerie was originated in the late 70s before big brand sunglasses began to take off. Being one of the first sunglass stores in the country, Sunglass Menagerie’s goal is to have a pair of sunglasses for every face that enters the store. Over the past 30 years, Sunglass Menagerie has expanded to open 6 stores along the Jersey shore, and plans to open 5 more stores this upcoming season. With Sunglass Menagerie’s success and recent expansion, they sought a point of sale system that would work seamlessly across all locations. Star Micronics’ mPOP™ with Vend POS for retail was the perfect solution.

Sunglass Menagerie was experiencing huge success over the past few years, and needed a point of sale system to keep up with the high volume of transactions during their busy season. Prior to the install of the mPOP with Vend, Sunglass Menagerie used an analog cash register that they referred to as ‘a cigar box with a calculator’. When they decided to upgrade their technology, customers immediately noticed. Being based in beach town locations, Sunglass Menagerie typically employs high school or college students that are looking to make some extra cash over summer break. Their old cash register was very difficult for employees to set up and operate. “Employees could never be sure if the machine would even start up or work properly for the day,” said Colton Karch, Store Leader of Sunglass Menagerie.

The ‘out of the box’ solution offered by Star and Bend was simple to set up, only taking about 30 minutes. “A temp employee was able to get the first mPOP set up and running within an hour,” recalls Karch. Sunglass Menagerie never experienced a single technology issue with the hardware, and the Vend software offered a user-friendly solution for employees. The Vend POS solution allowed employees to run real-time reports, see their daily sales numbers, and complete seamless customer transactions, all to improve the overall customer experience.

The Vend and Star Micronics mPOS system brought many benefits to Sunglass Menagerie. One of the largest was inventory control. For the first time, Sunglass Menagerie has the ability to gain instant access to inventory reports to ensure that they never run out of popular items. Management can now check-in remotely and know exactly what they have available in each store, resulting in less lost customers.

The mPOP was also able to provide a smoother workflow for employees and management. Employees no longer have to worry about the system shutting down, and management is no longer receiving phone calls on how to change the receipt paper or that the machine ran out of ink.

“It’s comforting to know that we are no longer losing sales due to the system being down. Employees understand and enjoy using the new system. Knowing exactly what we have in stock and being able to see their sales numbers makes the employees more excited to set new goals and sell more sunglasses.”

– Colton Karch, Store Leader, Sunglass Menagerie

Download the full success story: Sunglass Menagerie Case Study

Shag Spa and Salons offers hair, nail, massage, and skin care services in The Woodlands, north of Houston, Texas. Shag Spa and Salons strives to provide the best experience possible for all clients, every day. With over 60 service providers and a diverse and growing clientele, it’s essential that all operations run smoothly at every level. Appointments need to be simple to book; client information must be easy to access and checkout must happen seamlessly, so that the customer experience is smooth all the way through their visit.

Shag was in search of a robust cloud-based software solution that would allow them to run all aspects of the salon, even when working remotely. The system needed to have easy access to client information with the option for clients to book online. It also needed to integrate with multiple merchant accounts and offer completely branded receipts for all products and services.

Shag Spa and Salons uses Rosy Salon Software, a cloud-based application to schedule and confirm appointments, track client information and transaction history, make product recommendations based on current or past services, and allow easy checkout with integrated POS. Various merchant accounts and processing machines are used along with Star Micronics thermal printers to complete the transaction with customer messaging on a completely branded receipt.

The reception desk at Shag Spa and Salons can easily look up customer information, book an appointment, and check clients in or out with just a few clicks, which offers a more efficient and personalized customer experience. Clients can also book online, reserve products, and purchase gift cards or memberships from any device, any time their schedule permits. This offers convenience for the client and saves the salon precious staff time. Also, automated appointment confirmations and text alerts help reduce no-shows, keep clients on time, and notify service providers of a change in their schedule. In addition, the integrated POS handles multiple merchant accounts and the Star TSP100 printers offer a customizable receipt complete with salon branding and return policy

“We own fine of the Star TSP100 printers between our two salons. They are rock-solid, are a great value, and last a long time, even in the high demand of our always-busy salon. If i could measure the amount of thermal paper that has gone through these printers, it would be hundreds of miles of receipts. These printers just go, and go, and go!”

– Fred Klages, Co-Owner, Shag Spa and Salons

Download the full case study here: Shag Spa and Salon Case Study.

Nitehawk Cinema is a three-screen independent movie theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY that is currently renovating a historic theater from the 1920s for their upcoming second location. Nitehawk is unique in that they are not only a movie theater, but they operate as a full-service restaurant as well, including pairing specialty dining and cocktails with different screenings.

Nitehawk Cinema was working with a very outdated ticketing and point of sale system, and needed something that fit their operation of being a full-service dine-in theater. Their goal was to create a more seamless experience for movie-goers and find a solution to keep the aesthetic of the theater consistent. That’s when Nitehawk partnered with Filmbot who worked to build a brand new, customized ticketing system from the group up that fit all the needs of Nitehawk Cinema.

Filmbot is a software development company that specializes in building systems to help modernize the movie-going experience. Through their new ticketing system and website, Nitehawk Cinema could allow customers to order their movie tickets either online or at the theater, and pick up those tickets from one of their two self-service kiosks or from the bar point of sale. Filmbot and Nitehawk Cinema decided that Star Micronics’ TUP500 kiosk printer and TSP700II WebPRNT receipt printer were the best hardware solutions for the new system. Nitehawk needed a solution that would allow them to print tickets and receipts from a Web-based application in real-time. “Without Star Micronics’ WebPRNT technology, they wouldn’t have been able to install the new system,” says Jessica Yazbek, Senior Engineer at Filmbot.

The new kiosk and point of sale system provides an overall more efficient way for customers to get their movie tickets. Nitehawk Cinema customers have had great feedback on the ticketing systems and the process of ordering and picking up movie tickets.

Additionally, the install was very easy and basically provided a plug and play solution. Nitehawk Cinema used one day to prep the new solution, and has it up and running the next morning. By the time the theater opened that day at 4:00 pm, the bartenders were fully trained on the new system and were ready to go.

“We launched about a week ago, and since then, the whole systems has been flawless,” says Matthew Viragh, Owner of Nitehawk Cinema. “It’s actually a Web-based POS system, so the reason we selected Star printers was because of their Web-based capabilities. We’ve been really happy with the performance so far.”