In the beginning there are problems. That's when you need help. For Paul Palladino, a POS system fosters better relations with customers and safer, speedier delivery for Simple Simon's Pizza, the Tulsa, Okla.-based chain, with 210 units in eight states. The POS system enables managers to map directions for home delivery and track customer preferences, says Palladino, vice president of marketing. Kitchen operators use the system's inventory procedures to track recipe costs.
Managers can keep a close tab on inventory losses and therefore control theft.
Since the system was introduced four years ago, Simple Simon's has reduced labor costs by half and minimized cash-handling errors by less experienced employees. The POS system rates highly with Hospitality Works' Isidore Kharasch. But just because a restaurant has one doesn't mean it will be used. When restaurants come to us with financial problems, the first thing I ask to see is the data. When they show me a year's worth of numbers, many times no one has really looked at it.