Category: Uncategorized

Feb
24
2011
February 24th, 2011 by ssadmin
Forced Modifiers, Up Selling and New Product


Let’s start by making sure we understand what forced modifiers are.  A forced modifier is used when a specialty item is ordered and SP-1 then requires the order taker to pick an ingredient or modifier from a list. 


For example, in the picture below, we have a whole garden sandwich ordered.  The forced modifiers in this example is for a side choice. The employee would then be forced to select one of those side choices. 




Because you can assign a charge to a forced modifier, this can work as an effective up selling tool.  For example, if I select chips – there is no charge.  Pasta, potato salad or macaroni salad are all items that would have a charge. 


There is another use for forced modifiers however.   Introducing a new product or method of preparation to a customer.  In a sense, educating the customer on your store and menu.





In the picture above, we have an example of using this for education in a coffee shop.  In this example the customer asked for a brewed coffee.   The first forced modifier was the type of coffee being used and this is the second forced modifier.  This is a prompt for what the brew method should be.


What we are trying to accomplish here is the is both up selling our customer and also providing a tool to help your staff introduce new items to your customer.







Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Order Entry, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

Feb
22
2011
February 22nd, 2011 by ssadmin
Custom Gift Cards



Interested in ordering gift cards?  Don’t forget to think about custom gift cards.  Too many people go with a  generic card that does not remind the customer of your unique business. Having your logo on the card increases the likely hood that they will remember you.


What if you don’t have artwork for the logo etc?  There are other ways to target your customers with the gift card design without having to spend a ton of money on graphic design.   


One common method is to put a high quality picture of your primary coffee or food on the front.  Nothing reminds us better than an image of the product we love.   There are even plenty of websites that offer royalty free pictures for anything from $2.00 to $50.00 for the pictures.  These are usually really high quality digital photos.

Other customers have simply taken a high quality picture of the location itself and used that for the front of the card. This is a great way to promote your cards as your customers recognize the building and the signage.


The back of the card is a great opportunity to market and promote as well.  Don’t be afraid to wrap the color that you use on the card around to the back of the card as well.   When a customer looks in their wallet, we want them to associate the color on the back of that card with your location.


Don’t hesitate to look at www.facebook.com/selbysoftinc for some examples of custom gift cards! 






Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Gift Cards, Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

Feb
16
2011
February 16th, 2011 by ssadmin
Coffee Fest Chicago!





This week we will be traveling to Chicago for the Coffee Fest at Navy Pier!


We will be at the show from Feb 16-21.  If you are in town, stop by and see us!


Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Shows, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

Feb
10
2011
February 10th, 2011 by ssadmin

Have you ever thought of your gift cards as a marketing and fund-raising tool?  If not, I feel you might be missing the boat on one of the unique advantages to plastic gift (pre-paid, loyalty, rewards, customer profile) cards.  


Most stores receive at least a couple fund raising requests a year.   You may offer a discount, cash, free food etc on occasion to help out your local charity or non-profit organization.    Using a gift card may be a better way to go however.


Because you can pre-load gift cards with a dollar amount, you can easily setup a fund raising card system when asked.  The scenario would play out like this. . . You offer to sell the organization gift cards at a discounted amount.  So, maybe $20 cards for $15.  They then sell the cards for the face value of $20.  They make $5 on each card and you make a potential new customer and goodwill in the community. 


Another great example of using gift cards as a marketing tool is to keep some pre-loaded cards on you as a business card.  A $1.00 pre-loaded gift card works great for friends and associates.   It’s an easy way to introduce people to what you have to offer. 

By the way – we have a number of example gift cards at our Facebook page – Don’t forget to “like” us while you are at it!   Sample Gift Card Pictures


Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Gift Cards, Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

Feb
08
2011
February 8th, 2011 by ssadmin

Who handles your credit card processing? 

Good question isn’t it? There are many payment processors to choose from. If you’re not sure which company is the best for you, we can help! SelbySoft has some preferred relationships with credit card processors that can save you money and help streamline your business operations. 

One of our relationships is with Mercury Payment Systems®.  Mercury® offers several  advantages that make them a great choice for our customers and a great partner for SelbySoft. Here are some of the reasons Mercury is one of our preferred processors: 

Customer Service. This is the most important thing we consider when evaluating partners, since it matters most to our customers.  Mercury offers free, live customer and technical support, 24/7. They have shown a dedication to customer service that has helped our merchants maintain a reliable credit card processing system.

Mercury Stand-In. This service is unique to Mercury.  If there is an outage within the authorization network, Mercury implements their stand-in service that allows merchants to continue credit cardprocessing. Mercury “stands in” so business continues as usual for our merchants.    

Direct Integration. SelbySoft and Mercury have a direct integration which  eliminates the need for a third party system like PC Charge. A direct integration helps cut future costs since no updates or support are required., Gift Cards. Mercury has a cross-store gift card program that supports pooling of gift card funds – ideal for merchants with franchises or multiple locations. Mercury also offers their customers free, unlimited gift card transactions.

Lastly, Mercury can be very competitive with their rates. They also offer month-to-month contracts for merchants who prefer less commitment with a payment processor.

I invite you to find out more about Mercury Payment Systems online at www.mercurypay.com
Contact: 
Bill Downey 
Sales Executive
Phone: 800-846-4472 ext. 4247
Email: bdowney@mercurypay.com
Fax: 970-335-4059.



Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Order Entry, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

Feb
03
2011
February 3rd, 2011 by ssadmin
Automatic discounts for customers





Here is a neat feature that we have in SP-1.  A lot of our customers offer a discount for seniors, fire, church, police, teachers etc.  One of the benefits of having a POS is to make life easier for your staff and for a more convenient order process for your customers.


If you offer any of these customer specific discounts, you can assign them to the customer profile.  In the example below, David gets the “Fire Dept” discount of 10% whenever he orders.  




If the customer comes in, your clerk can simply swipe the gift card and the discount is automatically added to the ticket.   If it’s a phone order, then simply enter the phone number and the discount will be added to the ticket.



Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged with: , ,

Feb
01
2011
February 1st, 2011 by ssadmin
Why Update?

I am asked this on a fairly frequent basis.  With all the computers and software that we use on a regular basis, it seems like there is always something that has changed or needs updating.


It’s enough to make you think that you spend half your time updating!


The answer (speaking of POS software)?
Do you have to update?  No.  
Should you update?  Yes, Yes and Yes.

If it were only that simple. . . 

Why?  Why do we create updates and why do we ask you to install them? 

First and foremost it is done to enhance your software.  No industry or product can remain the same over the years and still be pertinent.   Let’s face it, are you still operating your store exactly the same way you were in 1990 or even 2000?   That’s before Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Social Media, Free Marketing online, and a ton of other things. 



Over the years we have learned that our customers needs and the industry itself changes – we try to change with it.   These changes to our software help you remain current and provide you with tools to help compete.
Examples of this are:
Revamp of the gift card system – Easier to use, redeem up to 5 gift cards, etc.
Birthday notifications – alert the staff that the birthday has come up. 
Hands Free marketing – automatic email marketing on a monthly basis. 
MobileDash – receive sales numbers directly in email or on a smartphone. 
Increased social media marketing – neat stuff coming soon!
FAST order system – take orders the way customers say it. 
Enhanced reporting – custom exporting to manipulate data. 




Security is another reason to update.  Every year SelbySoft works behind the scenes to enhance the security of our software and to help keep you secure.
Examples of this are:
SelbySoft Transfer program for secure backups – remote backups automatically. 
Enhanced employee log ins – secure passwords. 
Fingerprint id systems – secure logins.
Theft and Employee Audits – controls to alert you to theft. 




What about the legal ramifications?  We all know that tax’s, overtime regulations and PCI / PA-DSS all change over time.  Don’t be caught with a system that is not calculating your numbers correctly because the law or regulation changed!
Examples of this are:
PCI changes – Credit Card industry standards.
Overtime changes – changes to overtime laws in places like California.
Tax changes – multiple states now have updated taxing situation. 


So there you have it. . . A couple of reasons that updating makes sense.  For those of you not maintaining updates on your system, call us – we would love to tempt you with all the new features we have since your last update! 


Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in POS Features, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

Jan
27
2011
January 27th, 2011 by ssadmin
How do you handle delivery?

For those of you that offer delivery service, you have had some big questions you had to address.   It seems like such a simple situation when you open a store but delivery is actually a very complex affair.
SelbySoft has some solutions for you however!  Today we will talk about the different ways that stores charge customers for delivery.
Most of our delivery customers choose to have a minimum delivery amount.  With SP-1 this can be based on the ticket or a menu group.  An example of the ticket amount would be that you may want a total ticket dollar amount of $10.00 in order to deliver.  An example of the menu group would be to only deliver if they order $10 of pizza, regardless of how much they order otherwise.  This stops the an employee from taking a salad delivery only.
Once a minimum charge is setup, you can choose to allow the customer to pay the difference between the minimum and the ticket total in order to meet the requirement!  For example, if a customer buys $8.00 of product, then SP-1 will add $2.00 to the ticket to meet the $10.00 minimum.  You can also add an option for overriding the additional charge if needed.
If the customer meets the minimum delivery requirements, then we get into what and how do we charge them?
With SP-1 you have four main methods of doing this. . .
Per ticket – With this you can add a charge per ticket for the delivery.  For example -$2.00 per delivery.
Per item – A little more complex.  In this method, you are charging based on the menu item and / or the order type.  So, if a customer orders 1 pizza for delivery, you may charge $1.00, 2 pizzas, $1.00, 3 or more would be $3.00 for the charge.  This can be used for a variety of different charges as well.   There is another method of doing this as well by using the accumulation switch.  With that turned on, the per item charge is accumulated.
Street Names:  With this activated, you can set a delivery address based on the specific street a customer lives on.
Map:  With this optional software, you can setup a delivery based on the range.  So under 1 mile is free, 2 miles out and more is $2.50
All of these options allow for delivery charges based on the time of day or day of the week as well!

Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Delivery, Employees, Order Entry, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

Jan
20
2011
January 20th, 2011 by ssadmin
Server Close Out


The server close out report was created for those of you that operate a table service environment.   This report is great for the “server banking” aspect of a table service restaurant.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the “server banking” concept. . . It’s a method of having your server carry a “bank” of change with them in order to cash out tickets table side.  The server is then responsible for maintaining their own cash accountability.  

The Server Close Out report is used by the server once they are done with their shift.   The server will select the Server Close Out button in order entry to print the close out to the receipt printer. This gives a full reconciliation of the servers bank. 

As you can see by the example, this has a full list of all the tickets with totals, tender type, amount collected, tips and table number. 

We then take that amount, subtract checks, credit cards, accounts, gift cards, and gift certificates and report the cash sales.  

Next we take the cash sales and deduct any tips and check overages (writing a check for cash back).  That provides you with a total dollar amount the employee owes the house! 






Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Reporting, Uncategorized Tagged with: , ,

Jan
18
2011
January 18th, 2011 by ssadmin
One Touch Scroll



Here is a simple but neat new feature.   You already know how to scroll through reports using the up and down arrows on the screen, scroll bar or your mouse wheel. 

We have a new way to view reports now.  Those of you with touch screen phones might find this easier!  

When viewing the reports to the screen, simply hold your finger on the screen for a little over a second and you can now scroll up or down by moving your finger on the screen!  









By the way – it also works with a mouse. 




Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Reporting, Uncategorized Tagged with:

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