About Captain’s Table

Captain’s Table in Monroe, New York has been in business since 1934. Over the last 80+ years, the restaurant has grown from a roadside stop to a full-service establishment providing great food, live entertainment, catering, and more. In the 1970s, the Hafenecker family took over. Today, second generation owners Kathleen Aherne and Raymond Hafenecker are working hard to ensure this historic restaurant continues to serve the community while they plan for future growth.

The Challenge

In addition to frequent chargebacks, the owners of Captain’s Table were dealing with high processing fees and poor service from their previous merchant services provider. Even worse, there were ongoing credit card breaches in their local business community that were worrisome. With the restaurant’s MICROS^® Point of Sale (POS), they were still swiping credit cards because it was expensive and cumbersome to upgrade their system to accept EMV chip cards, which offer more secure transactions.

While their primary goal in switching merchant services providers was saving money on credit card processing fees, the owners of Captain’s Table also wanted local, reliable support and more secure transactions that were compliant with the latest regulations. Fortunately, Electronic Payments met all those criteria—and then some!

The Solution

In 2019, Captain’s Table switched their payment processing to Electronic Payments because of the savings offered. The restaurant’s processing fees were upwards of $80,000 a year and the owners needed a way to reduce those costs. And now, with the coronavirus pandemic, the number of patrons avoiding cash is increasing significantly. “More than 90% of customers are paying with cards these days—cash is dead,” said Raymond. With lower processing costs and local, one-on-one service backed by 24/7, in-house technical support, switching to Electronic Payments “was a no-brainer,” he continued.

The Results—and a Look at TableTurn^®

Captain’s Table now enjoys substantial savings on their card processing fees, face-to-face support from their local representative, and reliable service from the Electronic Payments team. A few months into the relationship, the restaurant was interested in learning more about Electronic Payments’ restaurant management platform, TableTurn^®. Wanting chip readers for greater security and to ensure compliance, the owners were looking for additional protection. They were content with their MICROS^® POS overall, but not the expense and bother of upgrading their system to include EMV chip card readers. TableTurn was the answer.

With TableTurn, Captain’s Table can now accept EMV chip cards while keeping the MICROS^® POS system their staff is comfortable using. And, TableTurn has resulted in remarkably lower chargebacks for the restaurant. “The time and aggravation saved in disputing and answering chargebacks alone is worth it,” said Kathleen and Raymond. “We spend so much less time dealing with chargebacks now—and we’re not paying those fees either!”

TableTurn Saves Money and Streamlines Restaurant Management

Captain’s Table started with the countertop solution, and is adding the wireless version so they can offer contactless payments and easily split checks with multiple forms of payment.

Kathleen thought the implementation of TableTurn was quite smooth. “As a matter of fact, we had no downtime during installation. We were able to still process our credit cards,” she said. And, when asked how the employees adapted to the new solution, she remarked that the chip readers were very easy to use. “The staff took to TableTurn quickly and in just a couple of days everyone was comfortable using it,” said Kathleen.

Both Kathleen and Raymond agree the best part about TableTurn and partnering with Electronic Payments is being able to trust the solution. “Confidence in the machine itself, knowing it’s safe and secure, and that we don’t have to worry about it and neither do our customers—it’s priceless.” They also raved about the support they receive, reiterating that they always get the help they need, whether it’s from the Electronic Payments team or their local representative and Electronic Payments partner, Josh at Envoy Business Systems. “Very hands-on, the support is awesome! Whenever I reach out, they’re ready to help. The team is great and I know I can always count on them getting back to me,” said Kathleen. While Captain’s Table gets countless solicitations from other merchant services providers, they’re happy with their service and have a great relationship with Josh. “He’s open and straightforward—an open book. He’s one of us and we trust what he says,” said Kathleen.

Raymond pointed out that now he’s able to save transactions digitally. “If I ever need to reference a specific transaction, it’s easy to review in my email instead of going through stacks of receipts. It’s so much less painful now.”

Kathleen and Raymond are thrilled with their savings on credit card processing fees. While lowering costs was their main objective in switching providers, they’ve been ecstatic with the dropoff in chargebacks as well as the EMV chip readers that TableTurn provides. They’re even considering offering dual-prices for purchases made with cash or credit cards to help offset the cost of doing business. Knowing TableTurn and Electronic Payments support that offering and much more gives them further peace of mind as they continue to expand their business.