Growing restaurant chain can’t get enough of Phocas

The journey to data discovery

Rashays realised early on that capturing and using data to improve the business was an ambitious, yet important goal.

The company needed an affordable analytics tool that integrates data from a range of sources, and was user-friendly for everyone, regardless of skillset, from the executive leadership team to store management and the sales staff. The company did not want to rely on data analysts to generate reports.

After reviewing the marketplace, Rashays selected Phocas, an award-winning analytics solution used by 1,600+ companies worldwide and recognized for its ease-of-use, speed and ability to deliver useable data insights to end users.

On-the-fly data analytics

With an array of targeted promotions and offers to consider, as well as an impressive menu spread across the chain, the company’s leadership team decided it needed a more effective way to stay on top of things.

Rashays determined it needed a more efficient process to keep track of key metrics such as sales by restaurant and customer preferences, to the success of loyalty programs and knowing exactly what works and what doesn’t at each location.

Phocas delivers the ability to quickly produce reports - that used to take days.

“Phocas is just so intuitive,” said Tepes. “We now build reports in minutes, and we can retrieve and analyze company-wide data like we’ve never done before.”

The implementation went smoothly, and more importantly, the ongoing customer service has been a real
eye-opener.

“The Phocas team is wonderful,” said Tepes. “Everyone’s been so helpful, and they go above and beyond what’s expected. Even at the implementation stage they were willing to write a report for breakfast, lunch and dinner sales when this was not even part of the brief.”

While it’s early in Rashays’ data journey, the company recognizes that Phocas will facilitate analysis of a broad range of metrics, including margin analysis, wastage analysis, payroll and rostering, purchasing analysis, breakfast/lunch/dinner profitability, beverage profitability and upsell/link sell analysis.

With Phocas, Rashays’ team uses data to better understand customer preferences to improve the loyalty program.

It can measure restaurant cannibalization, or the impact that opening new restaurants has on other locations, and it can estimate the effectiveness of targeted promotions. And armed with more accurate, relevant and timely information, store managers can use Phocas dashboards to make better business decisions for their locations.

A solid foundation for ongoing reporting and data analytics

Weekly reporting is important to running a busy restaurant chain and is a major part of guiding managers and operations.

Rashays has a critical need for a diverse range of data to help its operations run smoothly and increase the company’s potential ROI. Thanks to Phocas’ ease-of-use, report writing is now done quickly and has lifted a big burden from IT.

Phocas’ intuitive reporting and quick and simple data analysis has made Rashays a more efficient operation. Company executives and store managers can now have a clear picture of performance by location, time, and even menu item.

Tepes’ favorite part of Phocas is the matrix feature that allows him to compare dimensions – place, people, product – so he can quickly and easily identify who is buying certain products, but not others, and run targeted promotions accordingly.

“It’s so easy to see and analyze at any level; stores, products, members, sales, and really, anything else we want to see,” added Tepes.

Currently Phocas is used by four people in the head office team, but the company plans to roll out Phocas as a whole-of-business-solution opening up stock analysis, payroll reporting, and profit and loss analysis.

“Soon we will extend the number of Phocas users across our business,” said Tepes. “We plan to add eight people at our head office, two at our central warehouse, three in our central kitchens and 26 people across our restaurants and kiosks. We can’t get enough of Phocas.”