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JULY 2010 Newsletter
Improve Your Guest Experience
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Seven o’clock on a Friday night and guests are starting to pour through your front door. You’re slammed in a good way, but are having a hard time managing reservations, providing accurate quote times and seating your guests quickly. Losing even just one table due to their guest experience has a big impact on your operations. Aloha Guest Manager allows you to improve your guest experience by seating your guests quickly, quoting accurate wait times and tracking guests. Click here to learn more about Aloha’s table and guest management software.
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Take Advantage of New Features Offered in Aloha POS v6.5
- Support for token replacement for credit and debit cards when using Radiant Payment Services and RBS WorldPay processor– Post authorization, the processor uses token replacement, and not the full card account number, making the system inherently more secure
- New threshold type for cash tip declaration– You can now require employees to declare their cash tips only, and the Aloha system will automatically declare their non-cash tips.
- Display your loyalty program discounts in real-time at the check level - For restaurants using Aloha Loyalty, this eliminates confusion as to what the original item prices were before the system calculated the discount amount.
- Allow quick refunds with one button touch– Use a Quick Refund button that copies an original guest check to a new check in ‘refund’ mode. Increase your speed of service by using a single button. No need for you to start a new check and re-enter the same items that you want to refund.
- Create interactive clock-in and clock-out messages – Create a message in the form of a question, and solicit a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from your employees when you can’t meet with them face-to-face. Configure the system to provide a manager alert based on the response.
- Display first name for clock-in and server information messages instead of an Employee ID or last name
- Split checks and items equally with the touch of one button– Increase speed of service in situations where there are multiple guests at a table who want to split the check equally, but each guest needs a separate check.
- Implementation of AES 256-bit encryption for payment card and cardholder data
The New Wave of Criminal Attacks
Since the inception of the first data security standard, most of the focus has been placed on ensuring that a business' POS software was validated against the latest payment application standard, which is now known as the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA DSS). Unfortunately, most restaurant operators believed and still falsely believe that having a PA DSS validated version of POS software is all that is needed to be PCI compliant. PA DSS validated software does not equal PCI compliance...don't fall into the trap of thinking this way.
The new wave of criminal attacks is not targeted at stealing data from the payment application. Hackers are now getting into sites that have poor network and perimeter security. They capture the data as it travels through the computers at the site before being sent to the bank. The scary truth is that these types of attacks work against any software - including those validated as PA DSS - because the hackers are now attacking in transit data instead of stored data. This is just one of the reasons why it has become even more important to protect network and perimeter security and shut down any insecure remote access tools.
6 Steps You Can Take Today To Become More Secure
Install a commercial grade, managed hardware firewall – not the one you picked up from Best Buy five years ago
Use only secure remote access into the business
Use strong passwords and rotate them every 90 days
Install anti-virus and keep it updated
Use POS and BOH ONLY for transactions and patch those systems – no web surfing
BEC Goes Social!
We’ve recently launched a new blog that is designed to offer readers information and perspectives on the world of technology and the hospitality industry. Click here to read our latest post and sign up for our RSS feed.
We Want to Hear From You!
What features do you wish you had in your Aloha system? Send us your list of recommendations to newsletter@becpos.com.
Aloha in the News:
Andy Hass, director of IT for Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill, discusses the benefits the restaurant chain has experienced since implementing Aloha Restaurant Guard in the June issue of Hospitality Technology magazine.
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