Restaurant Saves Thousands in Overtime and Cuts Wait Times in Half with Mobile POS Upgrade
“Smokey” John Reaves opened Smokey John’s Bar-B-Que and Home Cooking in Dallas in 1976. Since then, this family-owned and operated restaurant has developed a reputation for great food, great service and a commitment to giving back to the community. Today the business is managed by John’s sons, Brent and Juan, who wanted to upgrade the point-of-sale system (POS) as part of a larger renovation project.
Up to this point, everything had to be tracked manually. The restaurant used an electronic cash register that spit out paper receipts, all of which had to be tallied, daily, by hand. Employee hours were also tracked manually, making it difficult for the restaurant to determine who was approaching overtime.
According to Brent, this task alone could take up to a couple of hours each week – time he could have been spending making sales calls.
“You can lose a lot of money by not properly tracking overtime,” says Brent Reaves, Co-Owner, Smokey John’s. “That feature alone has saved us thousands already.”
The solution
In September 2013, Smokey John’s installed NCR Silver Pro Restaurant Edition, an affordable, iPad-based POS system that makes it simple to manage table assignments and server flow; access sales and other key metrics from a mobile dashboard; and route orders directly to the kitchen, bar or any other station.
The result
• Payroll: Smokey John’s can now track employee hours in real time and make the proper adjustments to avoid overtime. “For a restaurant that’s huge,” said Brent. “You can lose a lot of money by not properly tracking overtime. That feature alone has saved us thousands already.” The system also makes it easy for employees to clock in and keep track of their hours, so they know exactly what they can expect to see on their paychecks each week.
• Insight: Smokey John’s does a lot of catering business. Silver Pro makes it easy to compare catering revenue to in-restaurant dining. It also lets the restaurant see trends in terms of which months may be better for catering business.
• Time and accuracy: Brent also tracked sales and payroll taxes by hand, prior to implementing Silver Pro. “When I’m going to pay sales tax I look into system and it tells me exactly how much to pay. It’s a wonderful time saver and it’s just easy,” said Brent, who is also now able to track taxable catering versus the many non-profit customers he has in the community.
• Loyalty: “Switching to Sliver Pro was a key part of our renovation,” said Brent. “Customers see us as modern and up-to-date. It makes us look ‘big time’, we love it!” Repeat business has also picked up, as the system automatically sends out “miss you” coupons to those customers who haven’t visited in a while and customers can accumulate and redeem loyalty points . “Our customers are watching their points!”
• Customer experience: The move from dial-up for credit card processing to wireless has cut wait times in half. “It’s amazing how a POS system can just organize you. We’re processing tickets much faster now.”
Up to this point, everything had to be tracked manually. The restaurant used an electronic cash register that spit out paper receipts, all of which had to be tallied, daily, by hand. Employee hours were also tracked manually, making it difficult for the restaurant to determine who was approaching overtime.
According to Brent, this task alone could take up to a couple of hours each week – time he could have been spending making sales calls.
“You can lose a lot of money by not properly tracking overtime,” says Brent Reaves, Co-Owner, Smokey John’s. “That feature alone has saved us thousands already.”
The solution
In September 2013, Smokey John’s installed NCR Silver Pro Restaurant Edition, an affordable, iPad-based POS system that makes it simple to manage table assignments and server flow; access sales and other key metrics from a mobile dashboard; and route orders directly to the kitchen, bar or any other station.
The result
• Payroll: Smokey John’s can now track employee hours in real time and make the proper adjustments to avoid overtime. “For a restaurant that’s huge,” said Brent. “You can lose a lot of money by not properly tracking overtime. That feature alone has saved us thousands already.” The system also makes it easy for employees to clock in and keep track of their hours, so they know exactly what they can expect to see on their paychecks each week.
• Insight: Smokey John’s does a lot of catering business. Silver Pro makes it easy to compare catering revenue to in-restaurant dining. It also lets the restaurant see trends in terms of which months may be better for catering business.
• Time and accuracy: Brent also tracked sales and payroll taxes by hand, prior to implementing Silver Pro. “When I’m going to pay sales tax I look into system and it tells me exactly how much to pay. It’s a wonderful time saver and it’s just easy,” said Brent, who is also now able to track taxable catering versus the many non-profit customers he has in the community.
• Loyalty: “Switching to Sliver Pro was a key part of our renovation,” said Brent. “Customers see us as modern and up-to-date. It makes us look ‘big time’, we love it!” Repeat business has also picked up, as the system automatically sends out “miss you” coupons to those customers who haven’t visited in a while and customers can accumulate and redeem loyalty points . “Our customers are watching their points!”
• Customer experience: The move from dial-up for credit card processing to wireless has cut wait times in half. “It’s amazing how a POS system can just organize you. We’re processing tickets much faster now.”