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Education

As a result, the shelves looked empty, even when there
were items on the premises that could have been shelved. It seems clear the extension of
Sure, some empty shelves may have been impacted by unemployment benefits was not
supply line issues, but many told me it was just a problem
of not having time to restock shelves. one of the reasons people did
not return to the workforce after
There are two areas where we can assist merchants and
potentially help them reposition their current employees. resigning from their jobs.
The first is to automate their inventory; the second is to
speed up the checkout process. We can provide solutions
for both.
With these options, the wait staff is freed to manage more
For example, in the retail world, several existing POS sys- tables, with no reduction in the quality of service or sup-
tems will create barcode labeling for products and man- port they currently provide. Servers won’t see an increase
age inventory. Merchants would need to take the time to in work, but they will see an increase in income, as their
scan and price their inventory initially, but once done, tip revenue will increase due to the number of tables they
checkout could be accomplished with a scanner. As an will be able to support.
ancillary benefit, changing pricing on items would be-
come a little easier; it would require only printing new One ancillary benefit can be found when tip amounts
barcode labels. consistently exceed a 20 percent threshold. By adding the
tip before authorization there is no chance of the transac-
I know, you are thinking that it takes employees to ac- tion downgrading solely for that tip adjustment.
complish these tasks. But, the input of items can be done
as speedily as possible during off hours, or slow times. Many retailers and restaurants will tell you that the only
And since the POS system speeds up checkout time and reason they haven’t upgraded their system was the cost
helps shorten the time it takes to manage inventory, it of the equipment and the fee for the software. The simple
frees up staff for other necessary activities, reducing the answer to this objection is that if they free up time for
need to hire more employees, who are hard to find right their current staff they won’t need to hire as many people.
now. This will address their immediate pain (which is a result
of today’s new normal) while offsetting the perceived cost
Restaurants may not have as great a need to manage in- by the reduced workforce expense. And as their business-
ventory, but they do have a great need to speed up the es grow, merchants may then need to hire again, and by
checkout process. Their current checkout process and then there may even be applicants.
dealing with tips takes time. For example, when you dine Jeff Fortney, a senior associate at The Strawhecker Group, is a long-time
at a nice restaurant, they bring you the bill, you provide payments industry executive and mentor. He is focused on sharing his
your card, and they leave to run the transaction. They industry knowledge and experience with others to help them grow their
return with the card and your receipt so that you can business. He can be reached at 214-458-1379.
add the tip. Once you complete the receipt, the wait staff
picks up the receipt. Before closing, someone must do the
tip adjustment on this (and all other) tickets before they
batch out.

A few restaurants have upgraded their software to add a
QR code to the initial receipt. Using their phone, diners
can open the QR code and pay their transaction while
adding the tip. Thus, they eliminate the time it takes
to recover the transaction and enter the tip. Some mer-
chants have that option in their current POS; options are
available for others to add this function without disrupt-
ing their current process by using a third-party service.

Some restaurants instead offer full pay-a-the-table func-
tionality. Some of these use handheld units carried by
staff; others use standalone devices on each table. Pay-at-
the-table solutions are gaining traction, as more people
find the ease of paying in this manner reduces the check-
out time and speeds the entire process.

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