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December 15, 2021

Exatouch® POS Restaurant Success Story: An Interview with Great Steak

Exatouch® POS Restaurant Success Story:  An Interview with Great Steak
Great Steak® restaurant in the Stonestown Galleria Mall in San Francisco is a local favorite. Business owner Fouad is especially proud of the menu, which is packed with delicious fare, including cheesesteaks, chicken sandwiches, world famous fries, loaded baked potatoes, salads, and more. The Great Steak franchise was founded in 1982 and has been been serving hot, grilled-to-order sandwiches across the U.S. ever since. Offering the finest ingredients, from specially cut and marinated beef to freshly baked bread, Great Steak provides “genuine, homegrown comfort food”. Along with supplying high quality meals, Foaud is continuously seeking ways to improve service levels, speed, and sales at his eatery.
In the following interview, Fouad describes why he selected Exatouch® Point of Sale to modernize Great Steak in early 2021 and how the system has transformed his business.

What prompted you to seek a new POS system for your business? Were there challenges with your previous system?

Our old system was from the Stone Age! We had a legacy POS from the 1980s that was incredibly inefficient. It wasn’t keeping up with the business’s needs and it hindered growth. One major pain point was that the card processing device wasn’t integrated, which meant we had to complete extra steps just to ring up a sale, slowing service. What’s worse, our old setup had a miniscule kitchen display system (KDS) that made it difficult for the cooks to view prep instructions for orders.

See this POS transformation for yourself:

What goals did you hope to achieve by upgrading your POS system?

Firstly, we were looking for speed. I wanted a new system to give my business more horsepower and agility, enabling us to serve customers quickly and efficiently. Secondly, I needed a larger KDS that would make it simpler for cooks to view and manage orders.

How did you decide which restaurant POS to choose?

After looking at several POS solutions, including Clover, Square, and a few others, the deciding factor for me was having a local team in place to help with the transition. Installing a POS system is a major upgrade for a business, and I knew I needed some assistance to ensure a successful implementation. My rep, Nick, from Electronic Payments of California gives me reliable, hands-on service I can always count on, and Electronic Payments’ in-house teams are there for me whenever I need them. Ultimately, they’re why I chose Exatouch.

What was your POS installation and training experience like with Exatouch?

I expected to receive in-person help from Nick and his team. But I didn’t expect the level of effort and the detailed service they provided. We had a few challenges with the menu setup and kitchen display configuration that required us to enlist the help of Electronic Payments’ Technical Support and Product Success teams. In the end, both Nick and Electronic Payments worked on my behalf to ensure Great Steak got up and running smoothly.

Has implementing Exatouch saved your business time and/or money?

I was participating in a dual-pricing program previously, which reduced my processing fees to essentially nothing. However, our ability to serve customers was hampered to the point where it was painful. With Exatouch, I pay an affordable monthly fee, but what I save in time is priceless. The efficiency we’ve achieved with Exatouch I cannot put a number on. I literally can’t picture running my business without Exatouch now.

Not only can orders be rung up in just a few clicks, we can track and manage them in real-time on our new and improved KDS. It’s also easy to add menu items, input modifiers, and track inventory—right from the POS station. We’ve been taking advantage of Exatouch’s other built in features like staff scheduling, too.

“I literally can’t picture running my business without Exatouch POS now.”

– Fouad, Owner of Great Steak

Which features of Exatouch have benefited your business the most?

The integrated payment device saves time because staff members no longer need to enter totals separately into the standalone terminal. Exatouch’s built-in employee time clock keeps me from having to gather data for payroll, which used to be time consuming. And the customer facing display (CFD) has nearly eliminated diner questions at the register—a huge time savings that ensures our line moves quickly. Since customers are able to see their orders rung in, with any substitutions or modifiers they want, they can automatically confirm their order accuracy and view the prices of their items. Finally, the KDS was a nice, big change for the kitchen. There’s no more squinting or inching closer to the screen to spot the incoming orders. Cooks can observe them at a glance and keep the orders moving to accelerate service. Plus, the KDS even pulls up completed orders if a customer returns to the counter, which was previously impossible.

Being in a mall food court, customers come in spurts and lines form fast. Exatouch enables us to ring up customers and get food in their hands quicker, giving us an advantage. We’re not just competing with the type of food we offer, but also how swiftly we can get people in and out. For quick service restaurants (QSRs) like us, speed is the name of the game.

How have daily operations changed since implementing your POS?

I get a report each morning with the previous day’s sales, which is ideal for monitoring the overall operation, providing additional insight, and identifying business trends. These days everything runs smoother and more efficiently with Exatouch.

How has the staff adapted to Exatouch?

It took them no time to learn how to ring up orders. They adapted quite well and picked up the system right away. The initial training from Electronic Payments’ Product Success team was very helpful! In the beginning we had questions about how to run certain reports and because Nick is local, he would come in person to show us how to do things. With him here, it feels like we’re not alone.

I also want to mention that when we hire new staff members, training them on Exatouch is easy. This is another way Exatouch is saving the business time.

Discover how Exatouch can help your business with employee management. →

Have tips increased for the staff since implementing the POS?

Yes, with Exatouch, customers can select a tip percentage on the CFD when they’re checking out and that has increased tips overall. Also, the system makes it simple to keep track of tips since we can run a tip report at the end of a shift.

Are there additional features of Exatouch you’d like to take advantage of that you haven’t explored yet?

Definitely! I have my eye on online ordering. I know Exatouch’s Delivery Manager application supports third-party delivery orders, too, including a simple user interface and a customer database with all the details I’m going to need like order history and delivery address verification.

How are you using Exatouch’s reporting features to gain business insights?

I mainly use the business overview report to understand how we’re performing. I also pull reports on specific menu items occasionally to gauge their popularity and see if any adjustments need to be made.

When I add new menu items, I let them run for a bit, then rely on reporting to understand how well they’re received by customers.

What do you love most about Exatouch and/or partnering with Electronic Payments?

I love the easy, fast, and friendly service. Exatouch is an upgrade for our business that the whole team sees, feels, and appreciates. It makes everyone’s workday better.

Is there anything you’d like to add that we haven’t asked about?

Thank you for looking out for our business and having such a great system. Exatouch is exactly what we needed.

“Thank you for looking out for our business and having such a great system. Exatouch is exactly what we needed.”

— Fouad, Owner of Great Steak

If your restaurant is using a dated POS system, schedule a demo to see how Exatouch can bring your operation up to speed.

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