Piper, I too would like some more info on the menu difficulties you had with Big Holler so I know all the right questions to ask while in Vegas in a couple weeks.
I’ve used BigHoller with great success! Stacy & crew have been most helpful over the years…
But, they are not operators, but techies & they don’t always see our business from our many points if view…
But once you understand what their’s & POS can do together, everything is fine…
You will/might have to think outside of your normal comfy box to get all your specials & discounts working correctly, as we operators have a zillion ways of doing things…
I’ve done all sorts of discounts & coupons…ya just gotta think 'em thru…
I’d never use an expensive system again, and I’ve used all the majors…POS is the way to go…
That said, I don’t use the inventory feature, as an Auditor, it does little for me in real life…
i don’t use the call box as my VOIP system gives me the telephone # & we always ask/confirm…
At the old location, we got over 70% of our biz from online orders…
We also use text messaging to thank our new & returning customers…
The problem is that I have specialty pizzas set up as toppings on top of a cheese pizza base. So if you order my Large “Supreme” for instance, it sells a Large cheese pizza, and a “Supreme” on top of it. The “Supreme” has a price that adds to the cheese, and has a separate inventory recipe to account for the toppings. This is the way POS recommends setting it up, and I completely agree. The software works beautifully in this configuration. It makes reporting much easier, and more importantly, makes the integrated inventory system function much smoother.
Big Holler’s system can’t handle that - they need specialties to be sold as one item. So when the order comes into me, I need to have just one item called “Supreme” that includes everything including the cheese pizza base. That breaks all of my reporting that uses the number of pizzas sold for the day, and breaks my inventory system. On top of that, it wouldn’t allow half and half specialty pizzas. Before deciding it wasn’t an option for me I ran the stats and found I have 14% of my pizzas being sold with a half specialty. That’s 14% of my customers that can’t order they way they want - and then getting agitated because they have to call in anyway, hence defeating the purpose of online ordering.
Stacy told me it couldn’t be done because they didn’t have pictures to go with the specialty pizzas. I told her fine, I don’t need a picture with it. She told me it has to have a picture. I told her to use the one that I saw in their gallery that says “Specialty Pizza”. She said that wasn’t an option. She said she had never encountered a menu set up like mine, and I would need to change it to accommodate their system.
Oh really? Here’s pcueeze and Daddio with the exact same complaint two years prior: http://thinktank.pmq.com/threads/big-holler-point-of-success-questions.10143/#post-69594
I told her fine, put my specialty pizzas on another “build your own” menu. She said that wouldn’t work because using them as toppings would list all of the specialty pizzas at the cheese price on the main menu. I told her fine, I would word the menu to explain how it works. She still said it couldn’t be done.
She also told me “all of this was programmed years ago, we can’t just go changing it”… which leads me to believe there is no programmer on staff there. They have a system that isn’t likely to change in the near future.
As I said in my last post, I went into their online portal and figured out a way to do it myself in about 10 minutes but at that point I was done. It also didn’t allow for you to remove a topping for a specialty pizza - and over 30% of the specialty pizzas I sell have some sort of modification where a topping is removed.
I understand that Big Holler doesn’t really “get” the pizza thing but unfortunately, like many POS users, I happen to own a pizzeria!
Let me iterate that NONE of these problems are related to Point of Success. I love the software, Inborne, Jeff and the entire crew over there. I can’t even calculate what my ROI is on switching to this software - it’s through the roof. I understand (or at least believe) there was a rush to get online ordering functionality in the software and it made the most sense to partner with a business that already had a system up and running, but I would have much preferred to wait for a solution (or at least a connector) designed, coded and supported by Inborne’s engineers that already understand their software and users.
Online ordering has become important to businesses like ours. If I purchase an online ordering module directly from my POS provider I think it should work with the software out of the box.
Not sure who you are asking. We do not have any issues with pricing set up… but we are not using a low budget system. Our online ordering picks up changes we make on the system in our store. Orders placed appear on our make-line screen, labels for boxes print and the credit card info is entered by the customer when they order (including the tip if they wish to) and cleared.
The order appears on the make-line screen and when made the drivers screen. When the driver checks out the run the run slip and credit card slip print out and the run (including the payment and tip) are assigned to that drivers till.
All reports on customers, orders, driver runs taken, payment information is all accessible for the day, week, month from the manager station in the office. When we are busy, the manager station can also be an order station. When slammed, we will put an order taker in there just to answer the phone and take orders.
Piper I am looking into your online ordering issues and I will get back to you personally and with a post to this thread as soon as I have more information.
We chose to partner for online ordering because with the scale of the project we’d need to charge many times more for the service than we believed most customers were willing to pay. The decision was not taken lightly or rushed. After contacting more than a dozen companies we chose BigHoller because they were willing to work closely with us and had a combination of features and pricing that were attractive. Through our experience in restaurant POS software development we knew that not everyone would find what they were looking for with BigHoller but the majority of customers could use the service effectively. This has proven to be true.
I am concerned with the customer service issues and I’m working on this too. No matter whether BigHoller can offer what a customer is looking for or not, that company owes our customers a professional and friendly experience. I believe you didn’t have that experience and I’m going to solve that problem now.
i think BH can be overwhelmed at times, just as POS can be…but both have always returned my calls in a timely fashion…
for the price & service & function, I’d never change either…
Piper’s problem was not related to pricing items in the order. The pricing issue was a side effect of the workaround he tried to get the order to come into Point of Success like he needed it to.
Piper I am looking into your online ordering issues and I will get back to you personally and with a post to this thread as soon as I have more information.
After three calls with BigHoller I believe we have a plan.
- Customer Service
Features count for nothing if customers have a bad experience. For several months we have teamed with BigHoller on customer service calls. One of our techs conferences with the BigHoller rep and the restaurant. This has helped a lot with menu setup, troubleshooting and support. It’s been a great success and we’re continuing the practice. BigHoller assured me that they are paying a lot of attention to customer service now and in the future.
- Technology
We are working with BigHoller to help make their system more pizza-specific. What they have works well for 90% of pizzerias but we need to go the rest of the way! They are working on an additional pizza interface that will support removal of toppings from specialty pies and a few other features.
We haven’t done a good job informing customers about BigHoller feature additions. They definitely have not stopped developing the software or adding features.
Here are the most recent additions:
Delivery zone maps and customer location for delivery - Maps of delivery areas can be drawn and displayed on a restaurant’s site using Google mapping technology. Customer addresses are checked for delivery eligibility using the map.
Mobile browser ordering - BigHoller has just released the ability for an ordering site to be sized and adapted automatically for use on a phone or tablet. The ordering experience is similar to an app without the need to install anything at all.
Call center ordering - This is an above-store ordering, order management and order balancing system. Manages customer call-in and online orders together.
Have you or anyone here has or had POSnet pos system. This is my first time trying to buy a pos system and it’s down to POSnet or prism?
Any info would help.
Thanks
So does this mean that POSuccess offers the mapping capability for in-house orders as well or JUST for online orders? Our delivery area is challenging and the map feature is a must. PLEASE let me know!
Hello,
We have been using Point-of-Success for 2 years. Great system, some limitations but overall does what you need. My advice:
- Go all-in-1 terminals, less wires and the newer models have no fan. Computer fans and flour are not. A good comination
- Use your kitchen screens and forego printers in the kitchen. They just released an Expo tool that works perfect for make stations and Expo.
- 1 box label printer for takeout
- AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Contacting William Klein with A POS for their support program. They can bundle everything you need and their support is the best I have ever experienced. The money they have saved me by getting our issues resolved far surpass their annual fee.
Feel free to reach out to me, very familiar with what you are going through…
hey Jt you posted in my thread about keeping deck oven clean. I use point-of-success also. And I use William also for support. That guy is amazing. His last name is spelled Klaehn though. www.acustompos.com. 419-960-1953. I am very pleased with this company. They answer the phone 24-7. They must regret the day they signed me up. lets just say I get my moneys worth. 