Presentation is everything, or so the old adage goes. Although you managed to choose the right chairs, the right colors and the right lighting, you might still be missing an important aspect to your business – the right equipment. Your customers may appreciate the fancy trappings, but all the ultra-modern chairs in the world won't bring them back when your store is fitted with machines that are constantly in need of repair or that are difficult to use.

Choosing the right equipment to meet your customers' expectations is one of the most vital, and often overlooked, parts of opening and maintaining any business image.

Understanding the Role of Equipment in Customer Expectations

It seems simple enough, when you think about it. Customers want to walk into tidy shops and find that everything works – especially when it comes to machines designed for self-service, like soda fountains, frozen yogurt machines and other food displays.

Customers seeking your services have certain expectations when they enter your business, be it a restaurant, convenience store, grocery store or yogurt shop – the first and foremost of these is that your products are readily available when they want them.

By investing in the right commercial equipment, you can automate much of the process, freeing employees for other duties. A small business requires efficiency - by adding specialty equipment that can do the work of several employees with only minimal intervention and maintenance, you'll save money on labor and meet your customers expectations at the same time. Everybody wins.

Here is an example of how a self-serve frozen yogurt business can save when using higher quality equipment:

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Featured Highlights

Split Case Pricing

With Cafe Carel’s System you’re able to define multiple price levels for a unit/case/ or pack easily. You can even do pricing for mix and match cases, split, whole or individual bottles.

Inventory Updating

With the use of the Data Collector Scanner you can automatically create data files and upload them into the system. Cafe Cartel’s system then accounts for the additional inventory and updates your master inventory list.

Vendor Re-Order Lists

Our Vendor Re-Order Lists can be set up and easily modified. Once you start using our system the data begins to collect and build. This result in several comprehensive reports that you can use to make informed business decisions. Let's say you set up a default for your re-order list at 5, but as you look over your reports you notice certain seasonal trends. or maybe there is a certain size bottle that sells better that others. Or maybe there is a rare expensive item that only needs to be restocked once it is completely sold out. This is not a problem with the CCS software. You can easily go in and modify your vendor re-order list alerts.

Inventory Reconciliation of Alcohol

Our system checks your inventory count against your physical count. This helps you to gauge multiple locations and address counts of theft or loss. By regularly reconciling your inventory in the system you can report more accurate figures on financial statements, balance an accurate inventory and safeguard your business against excess taxation.

Doing the reconciliation on your own instead of outsourcing it to a manager or specialist saves you money, time and insures accurate reporting.

We have an inventory database with 10,000 items to start

Our Inventory Database helps your get your liquor store off the ground. With the included inventory list you have a building point from which to begin your inventory tracking.

  • When liquor stores have an average of 15,000 items for sale, having a good base saves you time figuring out your recording system.
  • All you have to do is enter in your vendors and upload it into the point of sale.
  • Includes all the top brands such as Southern comfort, Captain Morgan and Smirnoff products.

We make it easy to Manage Inventory

Each industry has it’s own inventory requirements. CCS has the modules, the staff and the experience, to deal with many forms of inventory management. From portion control, and and kit building, to inventory reconciliation and mutli-site inventory oversight. Get more details about our quick inventory solutions with our comprehensive inventory management system.

Import your Existing Inventory

Cafe Cartel can Easily Import and Export any CSV or Excel spread sheet, making your inventory list building a breeze.

We have location tracking of items

With Cafe Cartel’s system you're able to lookup exact locations of items in your store. For example your staff may have stocked your recent inventory shipment and there is a new item that you are not sure where they stocked it. With CCS software you can simply look up the location and it will provide you the aisle and shelf and row number.

We have multi-location inventory

Our software handles multiple liquor store locations with ease. Look up an item in your other store location or track overall inventory of you locations. We can even help you with your initial inventory list.

Use our handheld Data Collector to manage your back room AND front room inventories. Just use the scanner when you’re taking out or moving inventory and upload the data file into Cafe Cartel’s system. When the data is uploaded your master inventory lists are updated to account for single and multiple locations.

Improving Liquor Store Inventory with Integrated Data Collector

All store owners know that keeping track of inventory is an important element in running a successful business so they accept the tedious hours spent on data entry and relaying information each time new inventory comes in. This was the case for one of our liquor store clients when they came to us:

“We spend hours almost weekly doing inventory. We have had to have our employees come in early to count the new product that comes in, record it and then enter it in the inventory lists manually, calculating for the additional inventory. Our biggest need is making our inventory tracking process more efficient. We currently run all of our sales from our cash register and use paper spreadsheets to record inventory. What do you recommend to speed up the process?”

This client’s experience is common. Inventory management can not only be time consuming and tedious but costly as well. Spending so much time and man hours on counting, costs you in payroll, morale, and takes away from hours you could spend on growing your business. We were happy to help by integrating their Point of Sale Package with our Data Collector Scanner to help improve their inventory tracking:

“We tried the inventory scanner right away and were impressed with how efficient it is. It’s easy to use, takes much less time and makes it easy to update our inventory lists. Now we don’t have problems like math errors and missing bottles.”

We were excited to get the feedback from this liquor store client and as always enjoy sharing our inventory management solutions! The Data Collector Integration works with our Point of Sale system to make the inventory process easier and more efficient. Find out more about our faster inventory reconciliation with the Data Collector.

Why use a Data Collector? A few reasons

  • Save time by scanning all of your inventory at once.
  • Don’t worry about clipboards or manual entry. The information is recorded on a data file on your POS desktop.
  • The POS integration updates your inventory lists automatically upon upload into the system. Use this to update the 10,000 item inventory database that Cafe Cartel’s POS database comes equipped with.
  • Now only one person has to handle inventory management cutting down on human error and wasted time.
  • Includes: Easy user interface, 1MB of memory, a real-time clock, and custom scanning applications.
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EMV Chip Reader for Credit Cards

Credit Card Integration

We support all major processors, EMV Chip readers. NFC Payments, Swiped, Debit and EBT.

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Quickbooks Integration

QuickBooks Integration

Integrate with Quickbooks. Easily upload the information at any time.

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Integrated Loyalty

Rewards Loyalty and Gift Cards

CCS will keep track of rewards programs, and gift cards as well as store credit. No addition fees!

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eCommerce

Magento eCommerce Integration

Link your eCommerce Store to your POS

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DVR Surviellance

DVR Surveillance Integration

Integrate your POS with your DVR to increase your security and oversight

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Fusion Barcode Scanner

Barcode Scanner Options

Use scanners not just for barcodes, but also drivers licenses, gift cards, rewards cards.

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Wirelss Opticon Barcode Scanner

Data Collector

Used for inventory reconciliation, purchase orders. Remotely count your items, scan in purchase orders.

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Integrated Payroll

Integrated Payroll

Integrate with payroll service. And easily upload files to your service if we do not currently integrate with your payroll company.

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Gift Cards

Gift Cards

Integrate Gift Cards for Free.

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Coin Dispenser

Coin Dispenser

Coin dispensers save time and reduce errors. Find out more.

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Coin Dispenser

POS Scale Integration

NTEP Approved Software

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FingerPrint Reader

Fingerprint Scanner

Increase security by reducing staff stealing yours and others codes, also make it easier to log in and clock in!

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Accepting Wic EBT Payments

WIC / EBT Processing

Accept Wic/EBT Payments through your POS. Properly calculate the items included

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Kitchen Display Systems

Kitchen Display

Kitchen Display Systems - Use tablets, monitors. Save paper!

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Increase Your Customer Base for Your Food Truck - Customer Loyalty for Food Trucks

Food truck entrepreneurs have taken street food to a new culinary level by serving restaurant quality meals out of a truck. Starting and becoming successful in this venture requires a few key components: innovation, creativity, and probably the most important customer loyalty. Building, maintaining and attracting a new customer base is difficult enough but when your shop is mobile you get a few new obstacles thrown your way. Here are a couple tips from Cafe Cartel to grow your customer loyalty for your food truck with our food truck point of sale software.

Establishing a Customer Base with Consistency and Convenience

When your food truck is starting out creating a customer base is sometimes tough. Make sure you're consistent to establish loyal customers.

  • Start out where you know a lot of hungry people will be. Metro areas, industrial parks or constructions sites are good to try out. Stop by a couple of office parks during lunch time.
  • Now that you’ve picked out a couple locations, create a route and time frames. Stay consistent so that customers who like your quick food on the go can find you again.
  • Try advertizing at the places you park by leaving a handout or quarter sheet at the leasing office or asking permission to leave a menu at the reception desk to generate interest.

Maintaining a Customer Base: :

1.) Customer Service: In many ways eating at a food truck is a very unique experience. By doing the the little bit extra your customers are more likely to leave with a positive association with your food truck. Thank them for supporting you with simple gestures:

  • Get to know your regulars. Have them fill out questionnaires or sign up for your loyalty program through email to get information for their customer profiles. Using the customer profile feature in the CRM section of Cafe Cartel’s Point of Sale you can monitor their favorite menu items, leave notes for your staff to recommend certain specials or wish them a happy birthday by including their birthdays on the calendar function. (You can scan their ID for easy customer profile creation too)
  • Something as simple as a receipt message or writing their name and a thank you message to give a personal touch. Do what works for your truck, and your overall message but make sure your customers feel appreciated for stopping by.

2.) Online presence The food truck following is huge on social media, make sure your online footprint is visible and easily accessible to your customers. Twitter is how one of the biggest food trucks in Los Angeles, Kogi, started marketing themselves and effectively changed the marketing landscape for food trucks.

  • Your website: Make sure it’s accessible, user friendly and clean. Connect your twitter or facebook feeds for updates on where and when you're going to be serving. Include any PR links you may have attracted and your menu!
  • Twitter: Twitter is ideal because it quickly messages your location and times directly to your followers for them to catch up to you.
  • Facebook: Facebook is a great platform to get information out and receive information from your customers. Post questions to your fans about where they would like to see you and post promos and daily specials, don’t forget pictures!
  • Instagram: The ultimate picture hub. Post pictures of specials, your line, your new digital menu board, babies eating your food, everything! Be active by posting about twice a day. Don’t forget to hashtag your trucks name when posting.
  • Yelp/Urbanspoon: Check these profiles periodically to see your stars, connect as much information as possible to these customer profiles i.e menu, pictures, website. Make sure you address negative reviews in your business practices (or see if you can get rid of fake nasty competitor reviews)
  • Manage all your accounts through Plum loyalty, Hootsuite, or Tweetdeck

3.) Integrate loyalty program Reward the loyalty of your frequent customers by establishing a program in Cafe Cartel’s loyalty program feature.

  • Create a points system that your POS keeps track of:
    • Encourage your customers to bring in friends or family to earn more points. (Keep the points easy and payouts reachable) Encourage social media marketing by giving point or rewards for checking in on foursquare or facebook.
    • Reward positive yelp reviews with half off coupon or a free item certificate.
  • One of the most effective loyalty programs are those that encourage customer engagement. You can achieve this with a milestone program. Milestone programs, set loyalty goals for your customers to achieve.
    • For example: A buy ten get one free option sets a goal for your customers and encourages customers to return. Keep track of customer purchases with your food truck POS.

Preset all of your loyalty program discounts in Cafe Cartel’s CRM feature for easy accessibility. Like customer service, figure out what method works well for you and your business and have fun with it!

Why CRM is an Important Tool for Your Retail Store

The better you are able to communicate and understand your customers the better you will be able to ultimately service them. Using the Customer Relations Management (CRM) functions in Cafe Cartel’s point of sale software can help you to accomplish this. CRM is a customer database tool that allows you to track and gather all aspects of customer interaction such as spending behavior, contact info, demographics, peak hours and overall effectiveness. Collecting this information gives you a clearer picture on who your customers are and how you can better cater your service.

CRM features that can help your business:
  • Marketing
  • Loyalty Programs
  • Email Campaign
  • Customer Profiles
  • Gift Cards
  • Discount and Gratuities
  • Invoice Reporting
  • Calendar Management
  • Integration your POS with CRM Marketing Features

    One popular feature of the CRM software is using the marketing tool to track coupons. Our frozen yogurt clients have easily linked their advertisers to their coupons and discounts coming in.

  • One client used this to measure their marketing campaigns effectiveness:
    • Their coupon campaign was doing well but using the CRM function helped them to see from where; the coupons were bringing in the most business. “We put a couple of our coupons in a local family gymnastics club. We now do a lot of coupon posting in similar establishments and have increased our sales and foot traffic dramatically.”

    Loyalty Programs Rewards Systems

    Loyalty Programs: Creating a loyalty program is easy for your retail store with the CRM loyalty tool while making it easy to monitor your customer loyalty program engagement.

    • The CRM feature on Cafe Cartel’s POS makes it easy on the shop owners side to structure the program.
      • One dispensary client shared how the CRM tool helps them set special promos on certain days of the week or hours in the day. Our client has Heavy Weight Wednesdays which gives the customer a little heavier than an eighth of product for a happy hour special. “We set it up beforehand and it automatically changes the pricing for the time slot. It’s easy because we don’t have to re-teach how to enter in the special pricing to each employee, it just takes care of itself.”
      • Take your loyalty programs a step further with a social media component with Plum Loyalty.

      Understand Email Campaigns

      Email Campaign: Manage your customer email list easily which makes your email management a breeze. This comes in handy when mailing out promo schedules and figuring out who are your regular customers.

      • Create multiple lists for your thrift or consignment shop for your different customer interests. One client who sells different re-purposed items such as clothing, records, furniture and antiques creates email lists based on their preferences, gathers their email through the customer profile feature and sends out offers based on their preferences.
      • You can even import your contact lists through your external email management app or site you already use such as Constant Contact or Mail Chimp.

      Profiling your Customers and their Behaviors

      Customer Profiles: This tool allows you to build a database of your customers and track their spending habits to give you a better understanding of how to appeal to them. You can track their loyalty purchases, purchase history, demographics etc.

      • Create email lists and text messaging campaigns based on customer profile information. You can even use sites such as mobo mix that help manage your mass text messaging to export and import contacts.
      • Create new contacts easily by scanning your customer’s driver’s license. Many of our liquor store clients have LOVED the easy addition because they have to scan drivers licenses anyways.
      • One liquor store client wrote in stating; “Once I started checking each customer’s purchase history in their customer profiles it made it easier to recommend new items. We turned a couple of them into regulars this way”

      Processing Gift Cards

      Gift Cards: The CRM center is also where you can view and manage a customer’s gift card purchases/ uses and values. Condensing all this information gives you more insight into the purchase habits of customers and how effective your gift card program is.

      Invoicing Customers Print out invoice summaries for customers, while using the database to keep track of your sales and services.

      Calendar and Scheduling in the POS

      Schedule, Manage appointments and check patterns to better service your clientele. You can also import and export your calendar management program.

      • This comes in handy when managing seasonal promos and specials and comparing to sales reports.
      • Our brewery clients have used this feature to see how well certain seasonal brews sell compared to their other recipes. “Last year's Oktoberfest recipe was a huge success but we re-released it this year and found we had lower sales. We went back in the calendar and realized we had another promotion going on at the same time of last year’s release. We reinstated the promotion and have seen sales steadily grow each year around Oktoberfest”