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The National Restaurant Association estimates that the typical independent restaurant loses 4-5% in sales every year due to theft. Ask anyone in the industry about employee theft and you’ll likely hear stories of how he or she was trained to steal when first entering the business. Security is a challenge for even the best operators in the industry. Not many restaurant operators have the time or resources to sift through multiple audit reports and scrutinize every transaction to identify suspicious activity and potential fraud. When it comes to employee theft, most POS users monitor things like comps, voids, transfers and tip amounts. They review audit logs and restrict access through POS controls. All this manual activity combined typically takes manager or executive time, and when the restaurant is busy, it becomes more and more difficult to identify suspicious activity.
However, what if there was a simple way to easily identify potential historic and present employee fraud and deter theft in the future - all with no impact to your operations? Employee theft has always been a problem in our industry. Now we’ve found a way to deter against it. Click here to learn more!
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Case Study: Nichols Restaurant Gains $20,000-$40,000 in Profit after Installing Aloha Restaurant Guard
With a close-knit group of servers all working in one primary location, server theft was never considered to be a prominent thought for Jim Nichols, owner of Nichols restaurant in Marina Del Rey, California, a suburb of the Los Angeles area. In the spring of 2009, Jim Nichols’brother-in-law, Craig Potter, recommended the book, How to Burn Down the House: The Infamous Waiter and Bartender’s Scam Bible by Two Bourbon Street Waiters, and educated Nichols about the transfer scam. Nichols began to question if this undeniably realistic scam could potentially be occurring in his own restaurant. Until now, Nichols was very skeptical that his servers could be stealing from him. As insurance, he had previously written a policy against transfers that all of his servers had read and signed. However, Nichols was curious about Aloha Restaurant Guard after hearing about its capabilities. After running a trial report on his restaurant, Nichols found 11 employees that were potentially stealing from the restaurant. Click here to learn more about what Jim Nichols found and how it helped his restaurant.
Takeout Programs: The Keys To Success
Many restaurant operators are focused right now on driving traffic into their restaurants, but they might want to start shifting their focus to how they get their share of the carry-out and delivery market. According to a new report released by The NPD Group entitled, "A Look into the Future of Eating," the number of restaurant meals eaten at home is expected to grow by 20% over the next ten years.
Smart restaurant operators are getting ahead of the trend and implementing takeout programs at their restaurants. However, just offering takeout as an option to your customers may not build up that portion of your off-site sales. Successful takeout programs incorporate a wide variety of strategies including dedicating employees to the takeout operations, creating specialized menus and loyalty programs for takeout customers and offering regular menu items at a lower price. Click here to learn more about building a successful takeout program.
Data Security: Helping You Manage Risk
In 2009, three times as many restaurants were the victims of credit card data theft as compared to 2008. Significant criminal threats targeting the restaurant industry continue to evolve and are rapidly increasing because many restaurants lack the proper perimeter security tools, including firewalls, anti-virus software and secure remote access tools. No one “silver bullet”exists that will make a business compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, developed to help protect cardholder data. And, unfortunately, many restaurant owners are not focused on how to protect themselves and their business from data security-related risks. Radiant Systems, the manufacturer of the Aloha POS, has set up a new site, www.restaurantdatasecurity.com, to help operators better understand data security and PCI compliance. Please visit the site to access data security FAQs, what happens in the life cycle of a data security breach and much more.
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