Getting To The Point Of Sale

Today’s POS systems can provide front-to-back benefits.

by Jamie J. Gooch (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
February 2007
 

Point-of-sale (POS) systems actually reach far beyond where goods and services are provided to club and resort members. An integrated POS system can reach way back into accounting and member services, or out to a Web site or third parties via the Internet. As a result, departmental data is no longer isolated from other business information. Furthermore, POS hardware is also on the move; wireless technology allows the POS system to be anywhere it’s needed, be it in the pro shop, at the ninth hole, beside the pool or in the banquet hall.

POS integration and mobility are combining to improve member service and management efficiencies. Getting to that point, though, can take some time. Managers looking to update their POS systems need to first do their homework and get members and coworkers on board.

Thomas B. Wallace III, GM, Oakmont Country Club

“Before January 2006, we were in desperate need of new POS,” says Thomas B. Wallace III, General Manager of the Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club (C&RB, May 2006). “The club was running an antiquated system that couldn’t keep up with the demands of what we as a club needed. It was difficult for the accounting department to not have the POS and accounting system integrated. The system was poor at tracking, processing and integration. It was incapable of budgeting, importing or exporting reports, and entering or monitoring member profiles. It was a constant struggle to produce the results demanded in this day and age.”

Research Required
It was obvious Oakmont needed to upgrade. The club includes an 18-hole championship golf course (which will host the U.S. Open in June), a golf practice and teaching center, tennis courts, a pool, a shooting range, two guest houses and a public golf course. It serves 400 active golfing members and 400 national and social members. Oakmont needed a POS system that would enhance members’ experiences, re-gardless of whether they were in a clubhouse dining area, at the pool, or at home using the club’s Web site.

Oakmont’s research on POS began with senior management developing a list of system requirements and desired capabilities. The list grew to include functionality needs, reporting priorities, and hardware requirements. A subcommittee was formed that involved members who work in the technology industry, senior management, the executive chef, the chief financial officer and service team members. The subcommittee refined the requirements into a form that could be used to evaluate competitive bids.

Frank Fragale, Owner and GM, River Bend Country Club

Third Time’s the Charm
Frank Fragale, Owner and General Manager of River Bend Country Club in New Bern, N.C., had a similar experience. Fragale, who had purchased POS systems for two other golf courses in the past, knew he had to do his homework to modernize his club in 2003. He wanted a POS system to help River Bend do a better job serving not only its 315 member families, but also public guests who use the 18-hole golf course at the semi-private club.

“I took a year to do research,” Fragale says. “I was already familiar with some POS systems, but I needed features I hadn’t had before. I needed more services in more places than I had at my previous courses.”

Fragale began by visiting technology vendor booths at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. He spoke to vendors, tried out POS systems, and returned with some potential suppliers. He whittled that list down by speaking with other club owners via the National Golf Course Owners Association. Next, he involved employees to make a matrix of the club’s needs.

Decisions, Decisions
For both Fragale and Wallace, the final decision came down to four questions:

Which system would best take care of the club’s needs in the timeliest manner?

Which would provide the strongest support system to accomplish the conversion?

What feedback was received from other clubs running the same systems?

What would it cost as a whole, including upgrades to software and equipment?

Oakmont Country Club’s subcommittee convinced its Board that the investment in a new POS system would be justified through better data mining that would allow the club to examine new information and use it to improve the member experience. It even outlined how the POS would be used to better serve members by increasing satisfaction and improving relationships.

“From planning through necessary due diligence, staff evaluations and eventual system implementation, it took us a little over 14 months from when we started to when we went ‘live,’ ” Wallace says. “We could have accomplished it in less time, but waiting until Oakmont went into its shutdown period in January and February to make the switch made the most sense.”

Reaping the Benefits
Though Oakmont and River Bend use POS systems from two different vendors, each is able to customize its member service. Their systems can store and display member information, such as spouses’ names, birthdays, anniversaries, member type and status, favorite food and drink, dining room preferences, food allergies and more. The added information has allowed both clubs to speed service to its members.

“The system has also quickened the order process for a la carte dining,” Wallace says. “For each menu item that requires a modifier (salad dressing type or a cooking temperature, for example), a modifier screen will prompt the server with choices. These modifier screens eliminate typing in side orders.”

“When we built our member file, we used the fields for things like spouse’s name, shoe size and shirt size,” Fragale says. “You can get a really fine level of detail. It takes time to input and maintain the data, but the benefit is worth it. In the pro shop, for example, we can remind someone about their upcoming anniversary, or let them know that new golf shoes in their size just came in. It makes you look like a genius.”

A danger to taking orders directly into a POS system is that, if the user interface is not well-designed, it could take longer to input an order than writing it out. But that has not been an issue at Oakmont or River Bend.

Fragale says his 30 employees, young and old, caught onto the system quickly. With two days of use, employees were faster on the POS system than they had been on the old registers. River Bend made dining even more efficient by placing a printer in the kitchen of the restaurant, so members of the wait staff don’t have to leave the dining area, and chefs don’t have to decipher handwriting.

“Our system has an overall ease to it that lets our employees navigate through it rather quickly,” Wallace says. “It allows them to easily delete items, add a quantity to an item, split checks, transfer a check to another member’s account, pick up a check, add comments to either the kitchen or the accounting department, and close checks.”

An itemized list of exactly what a member purchased can be accessed by the club, or online by the member.

But reporting isn’t confined to food and beverage purchases. The integrated POS allows Oakmont’s CFO and accounting staff to produce more timely and accurate reports. The club’s financial position can be evaluated with a few keystrokes.

“Our closing process and analysis is now mere days rather than several weeks, and it has more detail,” Wallace says. “For our annual outside audit, queries and requests for prior detail can be answered in minutes—and directly from the system, without searching for hard-copy reports, as in the past. In addition, we can develop more refined cash forecasts and long-range plan options. That lets the Board examine financial alternatives with a much greater confidence level.”

Fragale says his managers use the reporting features of River Bend’s new POS system in different ways. The golf course superintendent can schedule aerating after getting a report that shows when the slowest days and times are. The restaurant manager can see the most popular specials and liquors. The pro shop manager uses the POS to better manage inventory. And the payroll department likes the POS system because it also replaced River Bend’s time clock.

“The more data you provide to the system, the better the reports are,” Fragale says. “The better the reports, the better the management.” C&RB