The Challenge
Discounts as a percent of total sales continued to exceed budgeted amounts. Ted’s Montana Grill lacked the visibility to address the applied discounts in a timely manner. Specifically, Ted’s did not have the ability to quickly assess how the discounts were distributed and take appropriate corrective action.
The Solution
A current NCR Aloha Point-of-Sale user, Ted’s Montana Grill looked to NCR for help in solving this problem. In July, 2012, Ted’s added NCR Real-Time to their technology solution. NCR Real-Time is a hosted application that delivers key operational metrics in real time to a user’s smart phone. Because of its ability to provide immediate access to actionable information, Ted’s made the application available to the President, key executives, and the Directors of Operations. NCR Real-Time provided that small team with enough visibility and granularity to manage discounts more effectively than ever before by exposing information about how discounts were distributed, and by whom.
NCR Real-Time helped Ted’s executives see that many of their managers had improper control of discounts, as well as a lack of compliance with established meal policies. Armed with the data that NCR Real-Time provided, executives were able to engage in meaningful dialogue with restaurant management, with the needed supporting operational information being provided in real time. Word spread quickly among the restaurant teams that Directors had access to discount data immediately and as a result, behaviors changed across the board, reducing discounts as percent of sales by 70 basis points in less than six months.
