For many restaurants and bars, regular customers are a big part of their business, sometimes maybe too big.  These regular customers are also a source of profit loss exposure.  Bartenders and servers recognize that it is much easier to skim some easy money using their regular customers.

The Regular Customer

Regular customers usually know in advance what their bill is going to be, or at least have a good idea and consequently, sometimes don’t ask for printed checks.  An astute server knows this and also knows that it is okay to announce the total, rather than presenting a regular printed check.  Another characteristic of the Regulars is that they don’t question any irregularities from the server or bartender they know.  A third, more egregious situation is when the server/bartender is actually in cahoots with the customer.

The Sting

Once the server knows the customer is not going to ask for a printed check, your restaurant now has a huge potential profit leak!  The server doesn’t even need to enter the order in, or can enter it in as a “open food” or “open bar” order with no price.

Depending on the point of sale (POS) system and how it is configured, clever servers have figured out how to use it to their benefit.  If the cocktail server and bartender are cooperating with each other, the server can just “call” the drinks, charge the customer and split the profits with the bartender.

The same goes with quick-serve restaurants when the cashier and kitchen are “working” together.  The details of the POS system setup vary from system to system, but if the customers don’t get receipts for every transaction, your business is pretty much a free-for-all.

What to do

Solving this potential problem takes some work.  The POS reports need to be evaluated every day for signs of excessive Open-food, Open-bar, or misc. sales.  This does not catch those situations where the servers or cashiers are not ever entering the orders into the POS system.

Another safeguard is to be sure the managers enforce a policy of a visible receipt in front of every customer or table.  Unfortunately, a receipt could be present, but not have all the items

on it and the manager might not ever know. 

Once the server knows that the customer is not going to ask for a printed check, your restaurant now has a huge potential profit leak!

The only way to be sure none of these problems are occurring is to evaluate server ordering behavior, looking for specific ratios and trends.  This is accomplished by comparing ordering behavior among all the servers in the same shift and department and comparing this behavior to each other, as well as evaluating each server’s behavior over time.  Behavior is determined by looking at what the server is ordering and calculating a number of ratios of specific items and categories within the servers.

Brian McMillan is the Director of Product Development of In Sight Commander Systems of Orange, CA, a provider of analytical tools for behavior analysis for restaurants and bars.  He can be reached at www.insightcommander.com or at 714 940-9800.