Location: Pensacola, FL
Type of Restaurant: Peruvian, Latin American, Grocery
Number of Employees: 10
OrderCounter Solutions: Hybrid POS, Online Ordering, Retail, Gift Cards
Mr. Pollo’s Hybrid Point of Sale (POS) Brings the Heat as Online Sales Rise
Customers agree that they can’t get enough of the zesty bold flavors coming from Mr. Pollo’s kitchen located in Pensacola, FL. Since opening, Mr. Pollo has awakened the community’s taste buds to its variety of authentic Peruvian dishes. There, customers can explore different dishes that complement their famous wood-fired rotisserie chicken such as pairing it with their crowd-pleasing Pollo en Salsa served over rice and beans. As word spread across town about this new restaurant the team at Mr. Pollo experienced heavy rushes and increased demand for their products.
Maria Arraez is the co-owner of Mr. Pollo who oversees the sales and operations of the restaurant. She also runs Latin Roots Supermarket, a Latin market located next door for customers interested in bringing home their bottled sauces or Latin American groceries. Maria knew that in order to continue to offer quality service for both of her businesses she needed to have a dependable point of sale system (POS).
“We had a system that wasn’t very reliable and it made operations stressful. I knew we needed to have a POS system that would be able to work better with our restaurant so that we would stop having problems with our POS system.”
After being featured on both local and national publications such as Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat and Forbe’s Top 100 Places to Eat, the team found their popularity spike and rushes of orders started pouring in. With recognition surrounding the restaurant, the team at Mr. Pollo knew they needed a system that could handle the flood of orders and decided to try a hybrid POS system.
Switching to a new point of sale system was a breath of fresh air for Mr. Pollo
When Maria was first in the market for another POS system she was determined to find a product that could be dependable and user-friendly. This way, there would be no time to waste and the team can continue taking orders without being slowed down.
As Maria says, “We already had a product that left us on edge due to it not being dependable. What we needed to improve our operations was a system that wouldn’t go out on us and that it was friendly enough that our whole staff could use.”
“When we first came across OrderCounter I was open to trying a hybrid POS system to see if it would be compatible with my restaurant. After we tried it I knew that this was the product that would help my restaurant succeed with its easy-to-use features; I also loved how fast the system worked. It’s a relief to know that the system isn’t heavily reliant on the internet so I can continue to run my system if our WiFi isn’t working. It’s also good to know that I can access my restaurant’s reports in real-time from my phone so I can keep tabs on my restaurant even when I’m not there. Honestly, from the moment I started using OrderCounter I knew that we made the right choice to switch to this system to help run my restaurant.”
When Mr. Pollo officially made OrderCounter their POS Maria loved how quickly the system was able to integrate into her restaurant. She was especially taken aback by how speedy her setup process was and how OrderCounter was behind her team every step of the way during the transition.
“We pride ourselves on running a fast-paced restaurant that leaves very little wait time for our customers. Due to that expectation, we needed a POS system that could help us continue that standard by promptly submitting orders to the kitchen. During our first few weeks using the product, it was like a honeymoon period due to how it was able to quickly take orders and send them to the kitchen. OrderCounter was also able to help us with the transition to a hybrid model to improve our operations significantly.”
Mr. Pollo made its online debut due to OrderCounter’s seamless integration
Online ordering has grown 300% faster than dine-in services since 2014. This has continued to increase due to how restaurants are limiting their dining services because of COVID-19. Before the pandemic, Maria didn’t think that her restaurant needed online ordering due to how well their in-dining sales were doing. However, as soon as the pandemic hit Pensacola Maria decided to make the decision to move her business online to protect her restaurant.
“Before OrderCounter, our online ordering presence was only on our social media channels. We knew we had to make the transition especially when COVID-19 came into the picture. I was taken aback by how easy it was to have our POS system connects to our website. Since making the switch, our orders have gone up and the system has proven to be very reliable.”
The idea of going online was nerve-racking due to not knowing how well Mr. Pollo would do with the transition, however, Maria found the change to be seamless due to her hybrid POS being able to effortlessly sync to her online ordering page. Maria especially liked how her online ordering could sync with her accounting software, QuickBooks, to make it easy to keep track of all of their online sales.
Customers love the fact that they can easily order their favorite Peruvian dishes wherever they are and can plan on when to pick it up due to its estimated pickup time feature.
The switch to OrderCounter’s online ordering helped increase business while bypassing 20%-40% commission fees charged by third-party ordering services
Though restaurants usually use popular ordering sites such as GrubHub, DoorDash and UberEats as a quick way to offer online ordering, problems such as ballooning commission fees and employees inputting the wrong orders from multiple platforms can arise.
Luckily for Maria, she was able to add online ordering by directly reaching out to OrderCounter and have her POS system link to her online ordering menu. That way, all of her orders would simply go through her hybrid POS system and are streamlined straight to their kitchen printer. This makes it so that all of the information she needs to know about her orders are in one system rather than having to go through multiple platforms to make sure that she didn’t miss any pending orders.
Even better is that Maria is able to bypass the hefty 20%-40% commission fees usually charged by third party ordering services and able to have two successful streams of income to keep Mr. Pollo financially secure during the pandemic and so she can strategically invest in other areas of her other businesses.
“After COVID-19 we knew we needed to switch to an online ordering system to help with our sales. Since incorporating the system we’re happy that it’s been very successful and that we don’t have to pay commission for our online sales. This makes it a very affordable investment that has greatly helped our business financially.”
Having a point of sale system that allows users to remotely update menu items is a win for both restaurants and customers
Luckily for Maria, she has a hybrid POS system that allows her to update her menu from wherever she is due to its remote features. Now Maria can apply real-time updates to both her dine-in and online menu if she’d like to run particular specials during the week without having to be tied down to a terminal. After she adds her latest deal she can quickly notify her hungry customers on her social media pages to increase both her in-dining and online sales.
“Online ordering has been a great investment for our business. The system allows us to quickly update our system whenever we want to run a competitive deal that has our customers flock to our online ordering. Overall this addition has helped our sales tremendously.”