Back to the Future: Can an iPad Digital POS Help Fix Friendly’s?4 min read

Last Wednesday (October 5, 2011), Massachusetts-based Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, which operates Friendly’s restaurants, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — shuttering 63 of its 490 restaurants and laying off about 20 employees at each of the “underperforming” locations. In a press release the same day, the company said that 424 of its restaurants would remain open during the financial reorganization and announced that it has “embarked on an aggressive campaign to enhance restaurant operations, improve the guest experience, [and] strengthen [its] team.” Harsha V. Agadi, CEO of the 76-year-old iconic family-friendly restaurant chain, told the Globe

that, as part of its restructuring, Friendly’s was “already working on a [trendier-looking] new store concept,” called “American Classic,” built on an iPad digital POS and healthier food options, which will launch in two locations in Springfield, Massachusetts, next March.

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE AND LIST OF CLOSED LOCATIONS HERE

NY Magazine’s blog, Grub Street Boston, mocked Friendly’s “American Classic” strategy, saying that trying to give Friendly’s a trendier look is “like putting Mister Rogers in a leather jacket”; arguing that an iPad digital POS isn’t going to help Friendly’s “attract an entirely fresh legion of twenty-something fans who are dazzled by the concept of gadget-aided ordering”; and deriding the idea of focusing on healthier foods since, Grub Street contends, “people go to Friendly’s mainly for the ice cream.”

But, contrary to Grub Street’s contention that Friendly’s decision to implement an iPad digital POS is an attempt to use “gadgets and ‘trends’ as a Band-Aid,” the company’s strategy demonstrates keen insight into the power of the iPad menu technology.

An iPad digital POS can help Friendly’s “enhance restaurant operations” in a number of ways. For example, it can:

1. simplify the editing process when new items are added or old ones removed from the menu,

2. inform guests of feature specials or seasonal selections,

3. instantly update the iPad menu in real time, if needed,

4. eliminate the costs involved with updating, reprinting, and replacing a printed menu,

5. reduce the amount of paper and ink the restaurant uses, and, consequently, the restaurant’s carbon footprint,

6. improve restaurant efficiency by saving valuable server time and freeing staff to focus on hospitality,

7. reduce waiting time for guests and improve customer convenience (see our previous blog post, “Landmark Restaurant Reinvents Customer Engagement with iPad POS”),

8. improve customer service and guest satisfaction,

9. increase sales,

10. connect the restaurant with tech-savvy Millennials — the 84 million people born between 1976 and 1995, who, today, define the highly sought-after 18-34 year old demographic,

11. enable management to remotely monitor every aspect of the restaurant’s operations,

12. provide management with real-time operational performance data, which can be automatically updated, tabulated, and analyzed on a transaction-by-transaction basis,

13. collect and track valuable customer information such as contact information, tastes, habits, food and ice cream preferences, allergies, most recent visit, which the server can use to further enhance the guest’s dining experience and develop a stronger bond between servers and guests, and which the chain can leverage to create effective, targeted, advertising and marketing campaigns, precisely tailored to its customers.

(Be sure to read our previous blog post, “Feature-Rich Digital Menus Save Time and Money for NYC Eatery.”)

An iPad digital POS can also help Friendly’s “improve the guest experience” by letting guests:

• easily navigate Friendly’s entire menu,

• obtain detailed descriptions of each food offering, including ingredient, nutrition, and allergy information,

• narrow their search based on personal preferences,

• peruse food and restaurant reviews

• engage in a wide-range of food and ice cream-related entertainment,

• make special requests,

• interact directly with the server by sending messages back and forth,

• call the server to the table when needed or desired, right from the tableside iPad menu,

• decide when to order and pay, with touch-screen point-of-sale and payment (see our previous blog post, “Award-Winning Professor Lauds iPad POS System at Stacked”),

• request an emailed receipt of the transaction,

• create a personal list of favorite foods and ice cream flavors, and save it to the iPad digital POS,

• receive and give instant feedback through social networks, and

• send a recommendation via text or email.

All in all, the iPad digital POS should make Friendly’s “American Classic” a user-friendly dining experience guests will keep coming back for.

Disclaimer: This is an independent report sourced from one or more news articles and or press releases; none of the company’s, entities or technologies digressed in this report are affiliated with or a client of Open.

Open offers a unique All-in-One Solution that features an iPad digital POS and that also includes a reservation app, integrated POS with remote access and an easy-to-use online interface. Click Here to learn more.