At‘s Baggers, the HeineMack company’s Nuremberg, Germany, restaurant, food is delivered to tables on tiny trolley cars traversing roller coaster-like tracks. Patrons start their schnitzel or strudel on its epic journey with a tap to touch-screen, self-service point-of-sale-system ordering terminals positioned at eye level where they sit.
And at the franchised Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar restaurant in Southgate, Mich., operated by JK&T Wings Inc., it may appear as if some of the wait staff is goofing off with Apple iPod Touch multimedia players. In reality, they are using the palmable devices to efficiently field orders for transmission to the kitchen while staying closer to guests for better service and more upselling opportunities.
The urge to explore new POS system functionality and hardware form factors is not uncommon among restaurateurs looking to cut costs, improve service or generate a little consumer awareness. Joining HeineMack and Washington, Mich.-based JK&T Wings in testing or deploying something new within their POS systems in recent months are Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. of White Plains, N.Y., which is also using iPod Touch POS terminals, and Domino’s Pizza Inc. of Ann Arbor Mich., which recently revamped its proprietary Pulse POS system.
In a twist on the emerging trend of restaurant companies sharing the eyes of their guests with third-party advertising aggregators who provide the operators with display screens and entertainment and marketing content, the proprietors of Bazil Restaurant in Rochester, N.Y., are working with a vendor who is providing self-service touch-screen ordering terminals for free, in exchange for being permitted to show advertising to customers.
Domino’s POS developments are in keeping with what the IHL Group consulting and research firm of Franklin, Tenn., says are two key technology trends: frugality and the desire to better secure payment card data.
IHL, in its “2009 North American Retail POS Terminal Study,” said that overall shipments of POS-system terminals were down in North America by 4.2 percent in 2008, compared with 2007, with table-service restaurants among the segments seeing the greatest slowdown in such shipments. It said 2009 will be “more challenging overall,” in terms of pressures on POS suppliers and customers, but it added that there will be strategic opportunities for terminal vendors, as buyers continue to replace systems and software in order to comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, or PCI DSS.
Lee Holman, IHL lead retail analyst, summed up the mind-set of the operator community as he sees it regarding POS when he remarked, “Every restaurateur is looking into whatever he can use to cut costs.” He added that whatever operators innovate or order likely will need to have a Microsoft Windows-like feel, or at least an intuitive graphical interface, “as their biggest [POS] cost is still employee turnover and the related training.”
Though none of its clients is prepared to publicly detail its initial experiences using iPod Touch POS terminals, Hospitality Solutions International of Scottsdale, Ariz., the vendor loading the devices with POS software, indicated that lower hardware acquisition costs and ease of training are two of the benefits suggested by early testing.
JK&T Wings is using five HSI-outfitted iPods for tableside ordering and management functions at its Southgate casual-dining restaurant.
Starwood also confirmed that it is testing HSI-supplied iPod Touch devices with 3.5-inch-diagonal touch-screen displays that can easily change their orientation between portrait and landscape modes to accommodate the content being shown. The lodging operator is using the devices for order entry in poolside food-and-beverage operations at multiple locations, including the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel in Hawaii, The Phoenician resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Westin Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
At The Phoenician, the staff is using 10 iPods from Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple and TM-P60 wireless printers from Epson America of Long Beach, Calif. At the other properties, it is fielding five iPods at any one time and keeping five more on hand for backup.
HSI representatives said none of the operators now working with iPod mobile POS devices are using them to settle payment card transactions. In the case of the hotel properties, they indicated, the devices are being used only for cash transactions and tabs being put on guest-room accounts, while JK&T employees are using fixed POS terminals to process payments and close out checks.
The HSI sources said payment card numbers could be entered manually by waitstaff, if desired, and they have heard that a magnetic-stripe payment card-reading device for use with the iPod Touch is in development, but they could not say for sure when, if ever, the device will be marketed.
Interest in iPod Touch for mobile POS likely stems from the device’s wireless capabilities, display versatility, claimed battery life of about six hours for multimedia playback, 4.3-ounce weight and relatively small dimensions of 2.4-inches-by-4.3-inches and a thickness of one-third of an inch. The display system on the iPod Touch and closely related iPhone permits users to resize text and graphics on the fly by merely spreading or closing two fingers making contact with the touch screen. This capability makes for a better user interface than is found on devices with fixed displays, the HSI representatives maintained.
But iPod Touch hardware has not been ruggedized for commercial use–and it is unclear if Apple’s extended warranties would apply to business uses. However, with prices ranging from $229 to $399, depending on the amount of data storage desired, the Apple technology is priced below some of the ruggedized devices now favored by many operators.
High-volume independent restaurant Sam’s Chowder House of Half Moon Bay, Calif., is among the users of mobile POS favoring industrialized hardware, such as Motorola Inc.’s MC50 enterprise digital assistants with Motorola MSR5000-00R magnetic-stripe payment-card readers. Though technology prices were not disclosed, Sam’s owner Paul Shenkman has said that he realized his return on investment in one month using those devices from Holtsville, N.Y.-based Motorola in concert with Digital Dining POS software from Menusoft Systems Corp. of Springfield, Va.
Shenkman indicated that he achieved that result by using the mobile POS system to keep servers near tables and guests for improved efficiency, service and upselling. The end result, he said, was that sales rose by 30 percent as average table-turn times fell by 10 minutes to 15 minutes, the per-person average increased by $4 and front-of-the-house labor expenses shrank by 12 percent.
Though he declined to provide per-person averages or other financial metrics, another proponent of mobile POS is Darek Heath, vice president of operations for seven-unit, restaurant-cinema-hybrid operator Movie Studio Grill of Dallas. The company’s outlets incorporate full bars and full-service dining from a menu of made-to-order foods, including signature pizzas, into movie theaters showing first-run films. On average, the operations specialist said, the facilities are 38,000 square feet and feature up to eight separate screening rooms, which combined, can accommodate up to 1,500 people at one time.
Movie Studio Grill uses about 30 hand-held POS terminals at each location and is transitioning from another software brand to Digital Dining, which is in use at MSG’s newest location in Houston. At that location, the company uses removable magnetic-stripe readers for payment cards in concert with SoMo 650 hand-held terminal hardware from Socket Mobile Inc. of Newark, Calif., and wireless printers for pay-at-table functionality. For now, it settles credit tabs at other locations using fixed POS terminals.
“Even in this economy, our per-person averages have been good,” Heath said. “We’re still getting appetizer orders and we’re still selling bottles of wine.”
“A lot of that [success] goes back to the hand-helds,” he added, indicating that the increased efficiency means “if I can get back into the theater before the movie starts, I can sell another drink.”
Beginning in June at Bazil in Rochester, guests won’t have to worry about mistakes in their orders caused by third parties, as that is when a four-table section of that restaurant is scheduled to go live with the Tableside Service technology from content creator and advertising aggregator Chosen Media Inc. of Baltimore.
Bazil owner Anthony Danielle said the introduction of Tableside Service “is a great opportunity for us to serve our customers and bring the dining experience at Bazil into the 21st century.”
The touch screen system will permit users to play trivia and other games and opt in to the restaurant’s loyalty program, as well as peruse the menu and interface with the POS system to self-order foods and pay tabs using credit or debit cards, the developer said.
Of his expectations for the system now being prepped for prime time, Bazil’s Danielle said, “Not only will we be able to offer improved customer service, better track our inventory and gather more customer intelligence, but we will also be able to generate additional revenue from the advertisements that will be placed on the screen.”