| EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS | 
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Is Your Restaurant Ready for an Emergency?
Emergency preparedness is crucial for any business, as we all hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Our country has suffered a large number of natural disasters recently from hurricanes and flash floods to tornadoes and wildfires.
Preparing your business for a potential shutdown, be it planned as part of area evacuations or hurriedly in case of emergency, can help mitigate the situation as it is ongoing and facilitate smoother re-opening of your business.
The National Restaurant Association encourages restaurants to be prepared in the event of a weather or other emergency.
Click here for a list of helpful tips every restaurant can use.
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| SOCIAL MEDIA |
| New Restaurant Social Media Index Launched by NRN 
If you thought there was any question about the importance of social media in the hospitality space, there is now an actual index that measures it. Nation's Restaurant News has just announced the RSMI to help measure social media, digital content, and brand development. By analyzing activity across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google from over 600 restaurant brands, operators will now be able to use the new index to measure effectiveness of their social media initiatives. Over 23 million consumers, thousands of keywords, menu items, and restaurant terms will be used in a unique algorithm to create the index. Click here to learn more. |
| DIGITAL MARKETING |
| Tips for Restaurants in a Digital World Digital marketing is a great tool for restaurants, but only if they follow the rules. Restaurants need to protect themselves and their customers in key areas in order to stay out of trouble with the Federal Trade Commission. The rules are designed to protect consumers and have a lot to do with protecting privacy. For the restaurant operator, this means that careful attention must be paid to your "privacy policy". For example, while you must protect consumer data it would be unwise to promise you will "never" share data. Data might need to be shared in the event of an investigation or if you sold your restaurant. Law requires publishing a privacy policy. Terms of use are another area restaurants must consider when using web sites or social media. Registration should be "blocked" until a customer checks acceptance and any disputes should be settled through arbitration. For the full article, click here. |
| ALWAYS HIRE AN INDUSTRY CERTIFIED DEALER |
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NRA Recommends the
RSPA Certification Program
 The RSPA Certification Program, which began in 2009 by the Retail Solutions Providers Association, identifies companies in the retail technology industry who provide exceptional levels of competence and performance in a professional manner. The National Restaurant Association has lent its endorsement of hiring an RSPA Certified Point-of-Sale provider who meets the high standards of support, sales and technical service.
Certification not only benefits the people and businesses that are RSPA Certified, but also benefits the industry as a whole. Certification offers assurance to the public. Merchants or other end-users know that when they purchase a product or service from an RSPA Certified reseller, they are entering into a relationship built on trust, integrity, and competency.
POSTEC wants to be trusted as your expert resource for your business technology. We are proud to display the RSPA Certified logo and uphold the standards expected by the POS and hospitality industry.
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Greetings! |
Between natural disasters and man-made ones, it has not gotten any easier to run a restaurant today.
Earthquakes, hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes and fires have tested our "preparedness" while we are still facing other issues including the economy and data security that impact our businesses.
Staying ahead of disasters should be a shared responsibility. When it comes to your technology, we can help you and your staff to be prepared in the event of unforeseen events that might impact your operation. Power outages, thunderstorms, and water damage can have a tremendous impact when it comes to protecting your POS system.
We offer a whole range of solutions that will help protect your data and system when there are issues. The cost of keeping your system protected is far less than trying to recover without it. Backing up data and maintaining proper security is essential but it does not have to be complicated.
Our company is in business to protect yours. Guarding your revenue, profits, and data is our job. Call us today to find out all the new ways we can help keep your business safe and secure.
Sincerely,
David
David Shaw
President
POSTEC, Inc.
678-424-4010
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Introducing the CARBON® Digital Menu Board Platform
Digital Menu Boards have become a hot topic on the minds of restaurant technology professionals. Due to this groundswell of interest everyone from POS companies to traditional sign makers are scrambling to cobble-together an offering, most without a true understanding of the requirements for delivering compelling and efficiently manageable digital menu boards. The team at DEEL! Media has been in the business of creating & managing digital menu boards for more than 10 years and has put all of that expertise into its new platform, CARBON.
CARBON can be easily integrated with any point-of-sale software for dynamic display of menu items & pricing. The company currently is currently working on a MICROS Integration Module which is set for release in October 2011. DEEL! Media already has Integration Modules for several brands of concession & box office point-of-sale.
DEEL! Media is a full-service provider of Digital Merchandising technologies & creative services. For more information about CARBON click here or please contact Matt Shaw at 800.783.9413, or by email.
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QR Codes Gain Foothold in Hospitality
 Restaurants are starting to use QR codes to reach customers. This unique code allows those with camera phones to access coupons, Facebook, or web sites. From Boudin Bakery to Taco Bell, operators are using codes for promotions.
According to ComScore over 14 million people scanned codes in June 2011. What is even more amazing is that 1 in 13 scanned codes while in a restaurant. While most people scanned from home, about 58%, another 39% scanned in a retail store, and 24% in a grocery store.
Most of the people who scanned were male (60%) and the majority (53%) were between the ages of 18-34. About one out of three had household incomes over $100,000. The most popular QR codes were scanned from magazines and newspapers (49%) followed by product packaging (34%), websites (27%), fliers, business cards, storefronts, or TV screens.
To read more about the power of QR codes, click here.
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Not PCI Compliant Yet?
Your Business is AT RISK!
There are inherent risks in running a business. One that consistently plagues merchants is the risk of customers' credit card data falling into the wrong hands. What should you do? Be Proactive!
You need to take the appropriate steps to insure that your business is PCI and PA-DSS compliant. PCI (Payment Card Industry) and PA-DSS (Payment Application Data Security Standard) are designed to provide you with the information and technical standards needed to mitigate the risks associated with storing, processing and transmitting your customers' credit and debit card data. The thing to remember is that you are "contractually" responsible to make sure the data is secure while in your possession.
Are you at Risk? Are you ready? Contact Alan Wright to find out if your business is PCI Compliant.
Don't take risks, click here to learn more.
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Restaurants and Merchants Fight
For Fair PCI Standards
 Although often confused as law, PCI requirements simply comprise a set of constantly changing standards designed to protect the card companies. No one is against data security, however, a serious issue arises where the developer of a payment system transfers liability for data security to the users (i.e. restaurant) rather than insuring security themselves.
Unfortunately, numerous merchants have had to shut their doors as a result of an alleged, yet unproven, security breach.When this is the case, it is evident that the system is unfair.
A well-known example of the payment industry problems is the saga of Cisero's, a family owned restaurant in Park City, Utah. The acquiring bank wrongfully confiscated funds from their account, charged harsh penalties and fines based on an alleged data security breach without any proof that such a breach occurred or that any fraud losses actually resulted.
Events like this can easily happen to you if you are not protected. The industry is coming together to create policies that are fair for all parties. Visit www.pcifairness.org to lend your support as well. Together, we can bring fairness to the payment industry.
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WHAT INTERESTS YOU?
Like Our Ideas or Want To Share Some of Yours?
The Z Report is looking for comments, ideas and suggestions about how we can help our customers better utilize technology.
Write us and comment as often as you would like: | |
mshaw@postec.com
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