Jimmy Spice’s, a unique chain of restaurants offering quality, freshly prepared dishes from around the world, launch powerful loyalty marketing programme with E-Novations and Toshiba POS solution.
E-novations has teamed up with Toshiba to roll out a unique POS solution for Jimmy Spices.
From the first restaurant in Birmingham in 2003, Jimmy Spice’s now has 5 outlets throughout the country, with the most recent opening in Stratford Upon Avon at the end of May 2009. Critical to the success of the business is filling the 250 seater restaurant at both lunch times and evenings, seven days a week. This can only be achieved via customer retention and targeted loyalty programmes to guarantee repeat business and attract new customers.
It was vital for Jimmy Spice’s to commence using targeted loyalty schemes at the time of opening, enabling the business to maximise revenue and realise the return on investment in the shortest possible timescale. Essentially they needed a tailored system that could be managed via the POS solution, linking a loyalty card with the customer database.
Jimmy Spice’s looked at several POS solutions designed specifically for the hospitality sector and came across E-novations Toshiba solution at one of the trade events in Birmingham. Chander Ahuja, General Manager, commented on the choice of solution,’ We looked at a lot of different systems, what impressed us most about the Toshiba, E-Novations offering was the clarity, robustness and ultra-small footprint of the Toshiba ST-71 touch-screen and the flexible functionality of E-Novations EMPERIUM software. The system was not only scalable, but E-Novations were able to tailor elements of the software to meet our specific requirements.
Jimmy Spice’s operate a sophisticated ‘loyalty programme’ linked directly to the Toshiba/E-Novations POS system. This enables tailored marketing activity directly to their database of over 5000 Jimmy Spice’s Family Customers. A range of initiatives including, themed nights, two for one offers, special occasions offers and food tasting nights, guarantee to entice ‘loyal’ customers to the restaurant, essential to maximising covers throughout the week. All promotions and offers can be accurately managed by the POS system, through the comprehensive reporting package. Through word of mouth recommendations and the ‘easy to register process’, Jimmy Spice’s are enticing 50-70 new loyalty members per day, and gathering valuable data to enhance the ongoing marketing programmes.
Commenting on the importance of loyalty and customer retention to the overall business, Chander Ahuja said, “Our Jimmy Spice’s Family scheme is critical to guaranteeing profitability. The valuable information the POS system provides, enables us to tailor and tweak promotions to entice the maximum number of customers and accurately measure the results. With real-time information we can react in very short timescales, for example, if we have few bookings for a particular evening we can text targeted offers directly to customers to generate business for the same day. This is also critical for staff planning to ensure we have appropriate staff levels for busy periods.”
Aside from the ‘revenue’ generating loyalty activities, the sophisticated POS provide s a range of benefits to effectively and efficiently run a chain of successful restaurants. The split bill functionality is perfect for a business with such a diverse range of customers, using the restaurant for a wide mix of occasions. This facility not only allows the bill to be split accurately amongst the relevant diners, but also allows splitting to specific item level. A popular feature for lunch diners and large parties.
The restaurant can cater for parties of all sizes up to the maximum capacity of 250 covers, making it a popular choice for parties and events. The POS system simplifies the management of such large groups with the ‘deposit management facility’. This enables the group to pay an advance deposit which is automatically deducted from the final bill and simplifies the whole payment process. It also guarantees no loss of revenue to the restaurant if numbers are reduced from the initial booking.
Stock management allows Jimmy Spice’s to have complete visibility of all stock, tracking both fast and slow moving items, essential for future planning. This is particularly important in the bar area where cocktails are made using a specific recipe with an exact number of ingredients. For example – the till will show a Long Island Ice Tea, but with direct links to stock, once this item has been sold the exact units of spirits and juices will be reflected within the stock usage. Stock management is also essential for managing waste and pilfering.
Speaking about the overall solution Chander Ahuja said, “The flexibility and functionality of the Toshiba/E-Novations solution fits our business requirements exactly. We have a scalable solution that can grow with our needs in the future. The Toshiba tills are robust and reliable, with aesthetics that complement our interior styling whilst the small footprint utilises minimal valuable counter space. E-Novations have provided excellent ongoing support in a very accessible manner; I would not hesitate to recommend the solution to other businesses.
Along with the ongoing growth and opening of additional restaurants, six are planned in major cities over the next twenty four months, Jimmy Spice’s plans to use the POS to manage other areas of the operation. These include linking the POS to the on-line booking system via telephone recognition and controlling all sites from one central-head office system to simplify stock.
