Category Archives: restaurant software

Quick-Serve Restaurant Stocks Beat the Rest of the Restaurant Industry in 2011

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POS Quick-ServeQuick-serve restaurant stocks beat the rest of the restaurant industry in 2011.

The quick-serve industry as a whole saw a rise in stock values as it our-performed the rest of the restaurant industry. The S&P 500’s restaurant sub-index consists of five restaurant stocks, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., McDonald’s Corp., Starbucks Corp., and Yum! Brands Inc., as well as one full-service restaurant company Darden Restaurants Inc. The sub-index rose 29.9 percent last year. The group’s only company to drop in price last year was the full-service restaurant company Darden.

McDonald’s and Yum are also among 9 stocks that make up the Bloomberg U.S. Quick-Service Restaurant Index – this index rose 13.5 percent. While Bloomberg’s 17-stock full-service restaurant index dipped 1 percent. These results reflect broad economic trends. While people are continuing to eat out and take vacations, they are being more sensible and trading down their choices.

The fast-casual businesses are increasing the amount of customers they are attracting as people trade down from casual dining. Quick-serve restaurants are having great sales and profits when they have a menu that appeals to both value and upscale diners. Many restaurateurs are looking to invest and expand more in the quick-serve restaurant industry. If you are looking for a point of sale system for your quick-serve restaurant, look no further, Pinnacle Hospitality Solutions offers business solutions to integrate your point of sales system, accounting, credit authorization, online ordering, and inventory in a single easy to use interface that makes daily operations a seamless service from start to finish. For more information, contact Pinnacle today.

Want to Redo Your Menu? Just Blame the Federal Menu-Labeling Law

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MenuboardThis year the federal menu-labeling law will go into effect; requiring restaurants with 20 or more locations to provide calorie count and nutritional information on menus and menuboards. While some restaurant owners are in panic over the pending implications, others are seeing this as a good opportunity to reevaluate their menu strategy and menuboard design.

Many establishment owners and operators believe that putting calories on their menu will cause them to lose business as their high-calorie dishes turn customers away. Many who have begun to include the soon-to-be required nutritional information are not seeing an impact on sales. Providing information like – total calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrates, sugars, fiber and total protein – have impacted the mix of what is being sold. People might be intrigued to order different things, but they are not ordering less.

The electronic menuboards Pinnacle provides for their clients have the ability to post calorie counts and nutritional information for menu items. When making the necessary adjustments to your menu, Pinnacle recommends restructuring your menu look and strategy. Please read our suggestions below to optimize your menu to increase sales.

  • Increase readability and simplicity – the most important strategy for your menu is making sure consumers can find the item they want to order.
  • Include photos – at least one for each section to guide customers’ eyes toward their desired section.
  • Change the organization – the center of the menu is the hot spot, as eyes are naturally drawn there first – make sure to place the most popular items in the hot spot. Remember, vertical menuboards are easier to read that horizontal boards.
  • Color – choose colors that evoke hunger such as yellow and red. Also, alternate between light and dark backgrounds to break up your menu into easily to navigate sections.

Interested in redoing your menu? Pinnacle to can assist you in setting up your electronic menuboards. Pinnacle offers business solutions to integrate your point of sales system, accounting, credit authorization, online ordering, and inventory in a single easy to use interface that makes daily operations a seamless service from start to finish. For more information, contact Pinnacle today.

People on Facebook ‘Like’ Your Restaurant

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I think everyone is in agreement that word-of-mouth from a trusted friend is the best kind of marketing and endorsement. With almost 12 percent of the world’s population on Facebook and the average user having  150 friends (and that number is even higher in highly population cities like Miami and Orlando) it seems like a no-brainer to extend your marketing efforts to Facebook. But how do you build a following on Facebook? How do you turn your marketing efforts to focus on the social market on Facebook?

Start by building a following as customers come into your store. Have signage around the doors, bathrooms, registers, on table-toppers, and in other waiting areas directs your customers to your Facebook page. Consumers become your captive audience as you satisfy their need for distraction while they wait. Create a loyalty program on Facebook where users can build up bonus points for coupons and receive personalized birthday gifts. By installing a card-less loyalty solution, like Pinnacle’s SunDrop Mobile, merchants can build a large database and rapidly. Because SunDrop’s mobile loyalty solution is point of sale integrated, employees are guided through an automated capture process and every loyalty members ROI is captured and analyzed. SunDrop makes social connection “one click away” in their opt-in email registration process.

To market on Facebook, there a few steps and pieces of advice that can help every business participate in social marketing for free. First and foremost, your Facebook business page must provide value in order for individuals to ‘like’ your page. Remember when an individual ‘like’s something on Facebook, it is broadcasted to their friends and included in the newsfeed, posted on their personal wall, and forever plastered under interests in their about section. In order to win that proclamation of admiration, there must be a need your page nourishes. Most people will come to your Facebook page to view a menu, find contact information, and/or order online. Make sure this information and services are provided in clearly marked tabs. Also make sure any links to and from your website to your Facebook page are correct and pages load quickly.

When your Facebook fan count reaches 25, you are given the option to create a vanity URL. This is a personalized URL that should include your business name and location. This helps increase the traffic on your page by making it easier to find in search results. As your fan base continues to grow, make sure to continue to engage with fans on your wall and in comments. The more engaging your posts, the more people will see them. Make sure to check your free Facebook analytics to monitor the effectiveness of your posts. Last but not least, make sure to highlight how your company enjoys helping organizations and charities in your local community.

If you are interested in marketing online and on Facebook, check out Pinnacle’s point-of-sale social integration with their SunDrop Mobile platform. Gain the ability to have your offers and coupons broadcast on Facebook and watch is spread virally. SunDrop can be integrated directly into other software products and includes SMS text message, email and voice in addition to social media communication. Watch this YouTube video to learn all that Pinnacle’s SunDrop platform has to offer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ESdCLZFFJ_E#!

Restaurants Mark Strongest Net Positive Sales Since 2007

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Increase in SalesThis just out from the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI): Restaurants mark strongest net positive sales since 2007.

The RPI is a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry. It consists of two components, the Current Situation Index and the Expectations Index. The RPI measures the health of the restaurant industry in relation to a state level of 100. If the index is above 100, key industry indicators are in a period of expansion. If the index values lower than 100, this signifies a period of contraction in key industry indicators.

The Current Situation Index measures current trends in four industry indicators (same-store sales, traffic, labor and capital expenditures).  These indicators have signified industry expansion with its second time in the last three months that the Current Situation Index ratings are above 100.

The Expectations Index measures restaurant operators’ six-month outlook for four industry indicators (same-store sales, employees, capital expenditures, and business conditions). For the third consecutive month the Expectations Index stood above 100 which mean operators expect a positive outlook for business conditions in the coming months.

A look at some of the promising reports:

  • Capital spending on a rise: 46% of operators said they made a capital expenditure for equipment, expansion, or remodeling during the last three months (highest in five months).
  • Strongest net positive sales since August 2007: 54% of operators reported a sales gain.
  • Stronger customer traffic: 41% of restaurant operators reported high customer traffic levels between November 2010 and November 2011
  • Same-store sales gain: 50% of restaurant operators reported positive growth for the sixth consecutive month in November.
  • Operators optimistic about sales growth in the coming months: 41% of restaurant operators expect to have higher sales in six months (compared to the same period in 2010).

For a more detailed data and analysis, visit Restaurant TrendMapper, the National Restaurant Association’s subscription-based service that provides detailed analysis of restaurant industry trends; or to view the full report online by visiting the Association’s website.

If your restaurant is seeing an increase in business and expect this trend to continue like the rest of the restaurant industry, you may need to advance your technology. To make daily operations a seamless service from start to finish, check out Pinnacle Hospitality Systems. Pinnacle offers business solutions to integrate your point of sales system, accounting, credit authorization, online ordering, and inventory in a single easy to use interface with POSitouch. For more information, contact Pinnacle today.

Pinnacle Hospitality Systems Assists with Another Broken Egg Eggspansion

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Photo of Broken Egg Café Owner Ron E. Green

Leaving his lucrative position as a NASA engineer for the Department of Defense, Ron E.Green had zero restaurant experience when he opened The Broken Egg Café in Mandeville, Louisiana. Green’s goal was to service what he felt was an underserved and under explored segment in the restaurant market by offering breakfast, brunch and lunch of exceptional quality.

These charming cafés are decorated in French country flair and serve up delectable meals with upscale taste and affordable prices. Taking old-style country fair and adding a new-age spin, diners get to experience dishes like seared ahi tuna benedict with avocado hollandaise, bananas foster french toast, crabcake crostinis and blackberry grits. Wanting to be known for their great service, Green left no stone unturned as he looked for chefs, crash-courses and new technology to raise the bar of excellence.

As Green’s eggspansion spreads across the United States, each of the following 18 units know as Another Broken Egg Café, he looked to shorten his guests’ wait time and ways to expedite food faster to increase the amount of meals served each day. Fortunately, Pinnacle’s POS system for restaurants helped make communication between servers and the kitchen faster and more efficient.  Utilizing the POSitouch system and other expediting processes in the kitchen, Broken Egg Cafés went from around 250 meals a day to 500 to 600 meals a day in all of their restaurants. Pinnacle’s POS software system allowed servers to quickly and easily separate checks, send orders to the kitchen, authorize credit cards, keep track of inventory and much more. All of us at Pinnacle Hospitality Systems wish Another Broken Egg luck with their continued eggspansion! If you are interested in Pinnacle and POSitouch, please visit our website for more information.

Pinnacle Offers Solutions for Florida Casual Dining Establishment

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Simply the best

Over 30 years ago, the first Bagel King opened with the goal of providing customers with only the finest service and best food for their money. Owner Frank Perrotta expanded the small bakery into a casual dining restaurant, bakery and catering company with multiple locations throughout Central Florida. Today, the philosophy still stands to bring delicious kettle-baked, New York style bagels and baked goods to customers. Some items on the Bagel King menu include gourmet coffee, omelettes, French toast, chicken salad, hot pastrami sandwiches, and the bestselling Veggie Burst bagel and Hooties Wrap. Healthy smoothies like Banana Honey Oatmeal and Orange Julius round off the large menu selection. With over 20 flavors of bagels to choose from, it’s easy to see why customers flock to the Bagel King.

To ensure business runs smoothly in the busy restaurant, the Bagel King location in Deltona, Florida uses a suite of services provided by Pinnacle Hospitality Systems. Pinnacle is proud to offer hospitality solutions to casual dining establishments like Bagel King. In order to ensure operations run smoothly, Pinnacle installs POSitouch restaurant POS systems for ringing up cash and credit card transactions. Restaurant POS systems track all sales in order to hone in on loss prevention and to increase return on investment. Pinnacle also provides Dinerware Intuitive Restaurant Software to help employees handle tickets, pull sales reports and to provide overall excellent customer service in the establishment.

Pinnacle Hospitality Systems helps not only casual dining restaurants but also fine dining, hotels, country clubs, bars, nightclubs, stadiums and arenas. All hospitality establishments can benefit from having a suite of smart computer software designed to make business operations run seamlessly.

Pinnacle Hospitality Systems Now Offering Mobile Marketing

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More customers are using smartphones, offering a strong marketing vehicle.

There’s no denying that mobile is hot – with over 270 million mobile phones in use in the U.S. and 100 billion text messages sent each month, mobile is definitely one of the most popular ways for Americans to communicate. Mobile marketing is a powerful tool for building a brand community, establishing customer relationships and delivering customer service. Pinnacle Hospitality Systems has joined the movement for mobile marketing, as our customers know the impact and we now have a tool for them with our Sundrop Loyalty Text marketing solution.

Sundrop Loyalty Text marketing allows businesses to quickly and easily capture mobile data at point of sale to build a customer database. The loyalty marketing program uses your customer’s mobile number as a replacement for plastic loyalty cards. At checkout, customers give their mobile number to the clerk who enters it into the restaurant POS system. When you are ready to send out a text campaign, Sundrop’s mobile loyalty solution automatically segments your customers based on your criteria and sends targeted messages. It’s easy to measure ROI with POS-integrated tracking that monitors the performance and revenue of every single marketing campaign.

Pinnacle Hospitality Systems has integrated POSitouch restaurant POS and Dinerware restaurant software with Sundrop to provide mobile marketing and loyalty solutions.  POSitouch is the hospitality industry’s leading POS application for restaurant table service, quick service, hotels, country clubs, delivery and stadium/arena use. The Windows based, open architecture software is incredibly easy to use, maintain and expand. Dinerware provides restaurant point of sale software solutions to the hospitality industry including upscale restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, bars, fast casual restaurants, counter service restaurants, hotels, casinos, golf courses and wineries.

For more information on how mobile marketing can help your hospitality business, call Pinnacle Hospitality Systems at 1-800-771-7100.