"With Its Open Architecture and Time-Saving Features, Phoenix POS Serves Our Brew Pub Well."

As the southern gateway to Sequoia National Forest, Kernville, California, is an outdoor sporting paradise—and it's where Kern River Brewing caters to tourists and locals alike. Owners Eric and Rebecca Giddens and Kyle Smith rely on their Phoenix POS system to keep their full-service restaurant on a steady course toward success.

"We have 100 seats and support a full menu, including our home-brewed beers and root beer," says Eric Giddens. "We're a small town, but we can get up to 50,000 people in the summer. After our 'starter' POS system broke down, we shopped around and decided on the Phoenix system.

"Phoenix has an open HTML interface that I like. It works well now, and is a good platform for the future, unlike the proprietary architecture of other systems."

Out-of-Office but Not Out of Touch
"I can log on to the Phoenix system from my iPhone and see what's going on. We have a lot of flux in customer traffic. If I see that we have 50 open tickets and only three servers working the floor, I know that I or someone else needs to get in to help out.

"I also like the Manager's Home page that gives me at-a-glance labor/sales data, and average sales for the day, week, last week, or last four weeks. It makes it easy to digest a lot of information."

Talking to Employees the High-Tech Way
"Phoenix has an e-mail function that really helps with employee communication. I can send an important message by e-mail with confirmation required to ensure they got the message. We also use the instant messaging feature to remind employees about things like $2 Tuesday (when beers are $2)."

Saving Time with Server Banking
"With Phoenix, our servers carry their own banks instead of having a central cash drawer. Before, I had to enter in credit card transactions, balance the cash drawers, and hand out tips—which could take up to an hour and a half on a busy weekend. Now I'm done in 10 minutes. It's very clean that way."

Automated and Easy-to-Use
"Phoenix is tailored to our needs and has an easy-to-use interface. For instance, I can create and color-code a menu button for our daily specials.

"Phoenix works well in a table-service and bar environment. Servers can enter in drink orders, which pop up on the bartender screen. The bartender makes the drinks and sets them on the bar for the servers to pick up.

"Another simple feature that I like is the bathroom check on the POS screen. Everything's built in to the system, so we don't have to think about those little details."

Building Loyalty, One Customer at a Time
"We have 150 customers signed up for our new frequent diner program, a number that I expect to double in the next couple of months. A customer accumulates points for every dollar they spend; Phoenix tracks that for us. After 50 points, the customer gets $5 off. It's automatic in Phoenix, a virtual coupon. With our old system, we'd have to print out a ticket for the customer to keep track of.

"The frequent diner program also lets us track customer favorites and collects e-mails for marketing purposes. For instance, we can e-mail our frequent diners with specials, such as half-price Tuesdays, when appetizers are half off. It helps us fill in the slow times.

"We're just tapping the surface of the program. We want to increase our marketing to locals and reward regular customers. It's just a matter of being creative."

FireFly: People You Can Rely On
"The best feature for me is the people at FireFly. Everyone knows us by name and is very helpful. With the FireFly team in place, I have a lot of confidence in the system."