A key feature of catering software is the automated reminders a system can provide to let a club know when a customer’s payment is due, according to Mark Del Priore, General Manager of Pine Hollow Country Club in East Norwich, N.Y. Pine Hollow recently changed its payment schedule so that 50% of the balance is due six months before an event, another 25% one month before, and then the balance in the week of the event itself. The software that the club now uses provides pop-up remin-ders, Del Priore says, when a payment must be collected.
“This is one feature that I’ve found to be different [than previous systems],” he reports. “Now we get money way in advance—and everyone always likes to get that money on time.”
The club has only been using the new software for about a year, according to Emma Merida, Catering Manager, so the staff still has a lot to learn about it. But while the club has yet to do any training on it, Merida says it has already proved to be very easy to use. “The way it’s all set up is really good,” she says. “You can select a buffet station option, and [the system] will automatically list all of the items we offer in our buffet.”
The system would be even more useful, Merida says, if it could integrate with other parts of the club. Many vendors of catering programs acknowledge this is an issue they are continuing to work on, to give properties more connectivity to other operations such as the golf shop or other event venues. Some programs are already set up to push account information directly into software that’s in use in other areas of the club or resort—and with new updates coming out every year, it’s likely that integration will emerge as the next big feature in the ever-changing world of catering software.
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