Hello all,
I know this is a forum for professionals, but I am getting seriously desperate for help, and thus far my Aloha vendor has not been able to solve our problem. I apologize in advance if it's against forum rules for a non-professional to be posting here.
We have just switched from Maitre'D to Aloha. We are a very high volume sushi restaurant.
Using Maitre'D, we had all our sushi orders sent to one of two printers in the sushi bar, a chit printer and a summary printer. Items that did not need to come to the table at the same time were sent to the chit printer, and these items came out with it's own chit. In Maitre'D, our chit printer could consolidate multiple quantities of a specific item on the same chit, so if someone ordered ten California Rolls, a chit showing 10 California Roll would print. Things that needed to come to the table at the same time, such as dinner entrees, would print on the summary printer. We did not print everything using a summary printer because most of the tickets are so big that it usually takes thirty to forty minutes to finish making all the sushi items on one ticket. If everything was sent to the summary printer we would have dozens of plates coming out of the sushi bar without chits, which would make impossible for the servers to know what goes where.
Now with Aloha, we have been told that it is not possible to consolidate multiple quantities of a specific item on a single chit, so when an order for ten California rolls comes in, ten chits print. This technical limitation has left us with two options: Either have hundreds of chits printing when it's busy, or have dozens of plates coming out with no way to identify them . There are many, many tables that order multiple quantities of the same item. Being able to have a single chit for a plate of five spicy tuna rolls has enabled us to work very efficiently with very few mistakes. The chefs were also able to group similar chits from multiple tables together as they made them, so if someone wanted to make all the California Rolls on order, they could pick up all the California Roll chits, make them at once, and send them out with chits on each plate. It was much more efficient than having a chef work on one huge ticket at a time.
The only work-around I have come up with is to create an additional item to multiply the price, and use that item as a modifier. For example, we create an item called "3 Orders." To configure this item, we check the box for "Apply Price Multiple," then use "Modifier Price Method." We multiply the base price of the item times 2, and that gets added to the base price, to make a total price of three times the base price. This can be printed on one chit, because the base item is still a single item. There are many problems with this workaround, such as not being able to split these items on checks, not being able to apply the price multiple to any any price modification, etc., etc..
I have thought of all the ways the servers could work around the problem, the easiest being having everything print on the summary printer but send each item one-at-a-time. The bottom line is that whatever we do to change our business to suit Aloha, we are wasting efficiency. As I said before, we do a lot of volume, and I think we are in a situation where the efficiency we are losing is costing us more than a brand new POS system every year. We already have a month of time invested in programming Aloha, so I don't want to abandon it, but it is creating chaos on a daily basis. I'm sure I can think of workarounds by telling the FOH staff to send orders differently, but I am looking for a software or hardware based solution. As the business owner, it appears that throwing the entire system in the garbage would be a financial decision than continuing to use it. Mistakes due to this problem are costing us over $100 a day.
Thank you for any thoughts you can contribute. I appreciate anyone taking the time to read this.
I know this is a forum for professionals, but I am getting seriously desperate for help, and thus far my Aloha vendor has not been able to solve our problem. I apologize in advance if it's against forum rules for a non-professional to be posting here.
We have just switched from Maitre'D to Aloha. We are a very high volume sushi restaurant.
Using Maitre'D, we had all our sushi orders sent to one of two printers in the sushi bar, a chit printer and a summary printer. Items that did not need to come to the table at the same time were sent to the chit printer, and these items came out with it's own chit. In Maitre'D, our chit printer could consolidate multiple quantities of a specific item on the same chit, so if someone ordered ten California Rolls, a chit showing 10 California Roll would print. Things that needed to come to the table at the same time, such as dinner entrees, would print on the summary printer. We did not print everything using a summary printer because most of the tickets are so big that it usually takes thirty to forty minutes to finish making all the sushi items on one ticket. If everything was sent to the summary printer we would have dozens of plates coming out of the sushi bar without chits, which would make impossible for the servers to know what goes where.
Now with Aloha, we have been told that it is not possible to consolidate multiple quantities of a specific item on a single chit, so when an order for ten California rolls comes in, ten chits print. This technical limitation has left us with two options: Either have hundreds of chits printing when it's busy, or have dozens of plates coming out with no way to identify them . There are many, many tables that order multiple quantities of the same item. Being able to have a single chit for a plate of five spicy tuna rolls has enabled us to work very efficiently with very few mistakes. The chefs were also able to group similar chits from multiple tables together as they made them, so if someone wanted to make all the California Rolls on order, they could pick up all the California Roll chits, make them at once, and send them out with chits on each plate. It was much more efficient than having a chef work on one huge ticket at a time.
The only work-around I have come up with is to create an additional item to multiply the price, and use that item as a modifier. For example, we create an item called "3 Orders." To configure this item, we check the box for "Apply Price Multiple," then use "Modifier Price Method." We multiply the base price of the item times 2, and that gets added to the base price, to make a total price of three times the base price. This can be printed on one chit, because the base item is still a single item. There are many problems with this workaround, such as not being able to split these items on checks, not being able to apply the price multiple to any any price modification, etc., etc..
I have thought of all the ways the servers could work around the problem, the easiest being having everything print on the summary printer but send each item one-at-a-time. The bottom line is that whatever we do to change our business to suit Aloha, we are wasting efficiency. As I said before, we do a lot of volume, and I think we are in a situation where the efficiency we are losing is costing us more than a brand new POS system every year. We already have a month of time invested in programming Aloha, so I don't want to abandon it, but it is creating chaos on a daily basis. I'm sure I can think of workarounds by telling the FOH staff to send orders differently, but I am looking for a software or hardware based solution. As the business owner, it appears that throwing the entire system in the garbage would be a financial decision than continuing to use it. Mistakes due to this problem are costing us over $100 a day.
Thank you for any thoughts you can contribute. I appreciate anyone taking the time to read this.