MICROS Blog

Love thy neighbour; the importance of a friendly rapport with your restaurant’s neighbours

Posted in For Restaurants tags: Restaurant Management

by Andrew Stevens

Yes you heard me. Love thy neighbour.

What on earth has that got to do with running restaurant?

Well, if you do not put a bit of love into your relationship with your restaurant neighbours they can cripple your operation.

Councils provide a pivotal role in getting any development applications that you might have to change your signage, change operating hours and licensing but your neighbours can bring you to your knees. They can object, object, and object; just to be bloody minded or maybe just because your restaurant hasn’t brought in the ...

How do hotels determine room rates?

Posted in For Hotels tags: Hotel Management

by Friedhelm Tringas

Do you find room rates a daunting topic? It most definitely is for a lot of hotel operators! Especially those who are not able to invest in specialist Revenue Managers and are bombarded with varying opinions from numerous sources.  Yet, like everything in life, room rates can be made to look more difficult than they need to be.

There is lots of information available to those responsible for setting room rates – yet limited guidance for one of the most important business decision facing them. 

Airlines are a classic example for their approach to ...

The Customer Centric Ecosystem

Posted in For Restaurants tags: Restaurant Customer Loyalty

by Ed Rothenberg

I’ve written 3 blogs for MICROS in the past few months. The first was on turning a restaurant customer into an invited guest, the second was on the “Imopadlet” … a whimsical perspective on mobile and consumer devices within the restaurant space. The third was on table management solutions for managing the customer experience at the hostess stand. The solutions I like to write about are solutions that help grow guest counts and guest traffic.

What we at MICROS are writing about is the overall shift in the marketplace towards a “...

Coupons; Re-thought for today’s restaurant entrepreneur

Posted in For Restaurants tags: Restaurant Customer Loyalty

by Tim Pincelli

The term coupon has many connotations in the restaurant industry and from what I’ve observed, mostly negative. Traditional print coupons have security or fraud potential, require additional auditing at server/bartender checkout and could lead to misrepresented offers if not properly explained.  They are also typically expensive to print, require distribution to thousands with little to no ability to audit or apply success measurements, and as a result typically turn into more of a customer service disaster than they’re worth.

The design behind an offer, voucher (good attempt to rebrand the term coupon), or coupon ...

The devil is in the detail

Posted in For Restaurants tags: Restaurant Management

by Andrew Stevens

“The devil is in the detail”

I have often wondered about the origin of this phrase. According to Wikipedia (not a totally reliable resource but it does makes sense) it actually derives from the phrase “God is in the detail” attributed to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, an architect (1886–1969). This makes a lot more sense to me. If you do not pay attention detail then nothing will work… as God intended it. Or, once the detail is in place everything runs like clockwork, you achieve some sense of nirvana.

Anyway, enough rambling; my ...

How to increase credit card security using Card Verification Values

Posted in Product Tips tags: Payment Gateway | OPERA PMS

by Tracy-Maree McGrath

The Card Verification value (CVV2) or 3 digit security code shown on the back of Credit Cards, confirms that the customer has the card physically in their hand at the time of processing a transaction over the phone. If a customer only has the 16 digit card number and expiry, there is a potential for a fraudulent transaction.  While the CVV2 code does not provide full identification of the card holder, it does help to prevent fraudulent attacks.

Visa studies have found merchants implementing the CVV2 code, have had a reduction in up to ...

Using POS Table Layout screens – “A picture paints a thousand words”

Posted in For Restaurants tags: Restaurant Operations

by Peter Goodwin

The well-worn saying “A picture paints a thousand words”, is so true when it comes to understanding what is going on, on the restaurant floor.  The ability to easily see where each table is at in their meal, and communicate this to floor staff, makes an enormous difference to operational efficiency and the service experience for the patron.

POS Table Layout screens allow staff to:

• Start or pick up a check by pressing on a table picture
• Determine which course each table is up to
• Know how long a table has been waiting since their ...

Handling service delays - “The computer says no”

Posted in For Restaurants tags: Restaurant Operations | Restaurant Management

by Andrew Stevens

If you have ever watched Little Britain you will be familiar with the sketch where a woman uses a computer to provide answers to questions posed by visitors to her office. The answer is always; “The computer says no”.

With the ever increasing reliance on technology it is all too easy to get caught up in blaming ‘computers’ for operational problems, when in fact these could be caused by a number of factors:

• Insufficient procedures in place
• Data entry errors
• Forgetfulness
• An out of date system

A recent example of a service delay ...

What restaurants can learn from Seinfeld

Posted in For Restaurants tags: Restaurant Operations

by Ed Rothenberg 

Most Seinfeld fans will remember the classic episode where Jerry, George and Elaine are waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant prior to going to a movie. During their long wait, the maître d’ continually assures the group that their table would be ready in “5, 10 minutes”, but the wait is elongated to consume the entire 30 minute episode. The group’s frustration grows as George is at his pressure-cooked best both waiting for a table and waiting to use an in-use pay phone, a famished Elaine is tempted to swipe an egg roll from ...

Handling nutritional information and customer allergies at point-of-sale

Posted in For Restaurants tags: Restaurant Operations

by Peter Goodwin

The expectation of customers to know exactly what is in their meal is increasing.  Regardless of whether you’re serving a professional athlete maintaining a strict diet regime, or a child with a severe peanut allergy, the nutritional information for your menu items is important, and accurate communication of these is imperative for a responsible and successful business.

Consider the consequences of a customer eating a dish in your restaurant after alerting staff to an allergy, and then having an allergic reaction because the information provided was incorrect. The ensuing legal and public criticism of ...