Go Back to School and Back to Business with Phoenix POS

Back-to-school time can mean big bucks. Phoenix™ Point-of-Sale has a whole roster of features to help you better serve your student customers...and cool new ways to market to them.

Fundraisers...A "Fun"d Way to Boost Business
Help your local school–and your business–by offering fundraisers. Phoenix's "customer group" tracking feature lets you associate a customer with their favorite non-profit, such as a school, and track all the sales for the non-profit over any time period you specify. Encourage these customers to send their members to your restaurant, and you'll give them a rebate for their school.

"Local non-profit groups sell Mountain Mike's coupon books that have special offers, such as buy one large pizza, get the second large free," says Jonathan Bailey, supervisor over seven Mountain Mike's Pizza stores in central California. "For all those orders we charge an additional $1 delivery fee. Phoenix is set up so the coupon won't work unless that extra delivery charge has been added. It's a great money-saver."

Large-Group Orders Made Easy
Students love to eat in large groups. But you hate trying to split the ticket 10 or 15 ways. Phoenix's large-group order feature provides detailed subtotal info so businesses or large parties can easily split a ticket. Plus, individual tickets can be printed for each customer to ensure orders are delivered correctly.

Deferred Orders
Sorority rush week. Frat parties. Football games. If you serve college students, deferred ordering is a must. "With Phoenix, someone could place a deferred order two years in advance if they wanted," says Julie McGowin, owner of Brand X Pizza in Auburn, Alabama. "One of our employees entered a deferred order four months in advance for his graduation party. We also use the deferred order feature for events like sorority rush week."

Online Ordering...How Cool is That?
High school and college kids are among the most Web-savvy of your customers. What better way to reach them than by offering online ordering? Besides the "coolness" factor, Web-based ordering produces a higher ticket average than phone orders and boosts customer satisfaction. FireFly works with a number of reliable online ordering integrators such as Brygid Technologies to make Web ordering seamless.

"With 1,200 to 1,800 online orders a month per location, the Internet is an increasingly important component of our business," says Todd Parent, president and CEO of Extreme Pizza. "The integration between Brygid Restaurants Online and our Phoenix system helps us service our online customers more quickly and, at the same time, saves significant labor dollars."

Keep in Touch with Text Messaging
What student doesn't have a cell phone attached to their hip? Text-message marketing is a great way to advertise your latest Friday-night specials. Plus, Phoenix can be configured to automatically alert customers with a text message when their order is dispatched.

One-Number Ordering
If you have multiple stores, Phoenix Order Central, the integrated one-number ordering feature, is an easy way to reach your academic audience. "Phoenix POS's one-number ordering lets us serve customers in bigger and better ways than before at less cost," says Kevin Knudson of daVinci's, the Italian Sidewalk Caffe, in Lincoln, Neb. "We have a single set of delivery hours we can advertise everywhere and one easy phone number for our customers to remember."

Keeping Up with the Friday Night Rush
A favorite Friday-night dinner for students–and their parents–is a hot pizza. But the busy weekend nights can cause older systems to bog down. Phoenix POS, with its reliable Linux server, is known for its reliability and consistent performance. "Since installing our first Phoenix system nearly 18 months ago," says Bailey of Mountain Mike's Pizza, "we've had no server problems. On Fridays, up to 25 percent of our business can come within an hour. We can rely on Phoenix to step up and help take care of all those customers."