Ask TrueGuest: How Does Using Table Numbers Improve Internal Controls and How Do I Assign Table Numbers?

Dear TrueGuest,

I read a couple of articles on your site about using table numbers to reduce employee theft.  How does that work?  Also, how do I assign table numbers in my restaurant?

Great question!  Using table numbers is not only a key tool for guest service but a great tool for reducing internal theft.  However, judging by the receipts we see in hotel restaurants, very few hotels take advantage of using table numbers in restaurants or seat numbers in bars.  Why does using table numbers help reduce internal theft:

  1. Using table numbers makes it easy for a manager or supervisor to monitor an employee’s open checks.  As a manager, I used to stop in the restaurant often and pop open the floor plan on the point of sale system.  Anytime I would see an open check at a table without anyone sitting at, I knew there was a problem that needed to be investigated.  My policy was always that checks must be closed as soon as payment was made.
  2. Using table numbers and seat numbers makes it hard for servers and bartenders to reuse checks and steal the cash.  We’ve written quite a bit in the past about problems with servers and bartenders reusing checks.  See this article on check splitting and this section in our internal control guide for bars on reusing checks.  If your restaurant and bar have a good table and seat number systems, it is more obvious when servers and bartenders reuse checks.  For instance, if a guest at table 22 pays cash for their buffet, the server cannot easily reuse that same check with table 34.
  3. Using table numbers and seat numbers also adds another layer of perceived controls.  It seems simple, but the more controls you have in place, the less employees will test them.  Experienced servers and bartenders know that restaurants who do not have simple controls like table numbers in place probably aren’t doing a very good watching out for internal theft.

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WSJ Reports Businesses See Rise In Employee Theft

WSJ-LogoThe Wall Street Journal posted a great article on the rise of employee theft as a result of the recession.  You can read the entire article on MSN’s Money page here.  The article reports that ‘New research shows that employers are seeing an increase in internal crimes, ranging from fictitious sales transactions and illegal kickbacks to the theft of office equipment and retail products meant for sale to customers.’  The article also mentions that ‘To many employers’ chagrin, the workers guilty of the most grandiose theft frequently turn out to be those deemed to be highly trustworthy’.

We have seen a dramatic increase in internal theft while in the field and expect to see a continued increase in 2009, especially in employees who rely on tips for a large part of their salary.  Many hotels have been forced to dramatically reduce the number of hours as occupancy declines and many of the hotel restaurants have slowed down.  Many employees are now really struggling to make what they made in the past and most cannot afford to take a pay cut and still pay their monthly expenses.     Continue reading

The McScam

It turns out that hotels are not the only victims of crafty employee theft.  Here is the fast-food version of the breakfast buffet scam:

I was in West LA last weekend and had time to get a quick bite to eat with some friends.  Most convenient, of course, was a major fast-food restaurant down the street.  Some of us were not very hungry, so the ones who were ordered first.  Everything was normal at first; we ordered food that the cooks in the back had to make, the cashier entered the transaction into the computer, processed the payments, gave a receipt, etc.

Then the ones that just wanted small items came to place their orders.  As I waited for my food to the side, I noticed that she started to use a small calculator instead of the register that she had used with me to add up the cost of each order.  One of my friends ordered a drink and large fries (both items the cashier could retrieve herself).  She punched the amounts into the small calculator and asked for $2.79.  My friend paid with cash, the cashier put the money in the drawer, did not present a receipt, and provided the drink cup and fries.  Another one of my friends ordered a specialty coffee drink.  The cashier listened to the order, then asked, “That’s it?”  Once my friend nodded his head, she then recalled the price from memory and asked for $2.19.  She then did the same with the money as the previous transaction.

There was a good flow of people coming in to order food and as I waited for my food, I could not help but laugh.  For every transaction that she did not have to send to the cooks or have to process a credit card, she would not ring the transaction into the register.  One can only imagine how much money this cashier was making, but even worse, how much more money the fast-food restaurant was losing.  She obviously had been doing this for some time and because the restaurant was in a very high volume area, the managers or owners probably do not even notice.

Take it from me, she was being so obvious because she knows that she probably won’t get caught.  These things happen often in places I go.  Managers and owners just need to take a closer look at their operations.

Got a McStory to share?  Post it in our comment section.

Book Report: Burning Down the House

burningWho has read ‘Burning Down the House: The Infamous Waiter & Bartender’s Scam Bible’?

This book was actually written to teach bartenders and servers how to steal from their restaurants and bars. The tagline on the back reads ‘Diners and Managers, beware!  Waiters and bartenders, give yourself a raise!’

It was written by two servers who work on Bourbon Street.  It is a quick read, you could probably finish it on your lunch break.  It is a very dangerous book! It covers the simple scams like check representing and the more complicating scams like the wagon wheel. A couple of the scams are far-fetched or out of date, but the book does a good job of describing all of the ways a server or bartender can steal from your hotel.  The book is also pretty entertaining.  It is written in an edgy fashion and includes chapters like ‘Suggestive Stealing’ and ‘The Buffet Scam’.

Please add your comments about the book below… and if you buy the book, don’t leave it sitting around your office where your servers will see it!

Finally, Some Solutions to Control Your Banquet Bars… and Increase Sales!

We often get calls from hotels whose banquet bars are out of control. Whether the liquor pour cost is high, the employees are stealing cash or clients have complained about being overcharged on a host bar, the main culprit is usually a poor system for recording sales.

While our hotels all have the most advanced property management systems at the front desk and the most advanced point of sales systems in our restaurants and bars, our banquet bars have cheap cash registers purchased from Costco! Or worse yet, the old adding machine tape next to the cash drawer!

Finally, technology has caught up with the demand. Most hotels use the MICROS 3700 or the MICROS 9700 point of sale system in their restaurant and bars. Now it is very easy to add on an affordable, portable terminal and put in the same controls in your banquet bar as you have in your restaurant bar. The terminal runs on wireless internet and connects to your existing point of sales system so it is ultra-portable. All that it needs is power. Depending on the size of your hotel’s banquet space, most hotels can get by with only one or two terminals.

How will adding a point of sales system to your banquet bar increase sales?

1. Your hotel will now be able to accept credit cards at a banquet event. People tend to spend much more money at a place (especially a bar) when using a credit card.

2. Many people at a business event will not purchase drinks unless they can use a company credit card and get a receipt. If you have ever attended an HFTP event, you have been in line behind a group of Controllers that want to pay with a company credit card and need a receipt for the expense report!

3. You will greatly reduce your risk of employee theft. You may be losing 20 percent of your revenues to theft right now. With a POS, the bartenders will have to ring up each item and present a receipt. More of the hotel’s money will make it into the register instead of ‘accidentally’ going into the tip jar.

If you have installed a Point of Sales System in the last few years or are planning to install one in the future, be sure to consider incorporating a banquet bar terminal. It will pay for itself in no time!

Servers and Bartenders Split Checks (and steal) in a Blink of the Eye

It never amazes us to hear about all of the ways our Mystery Shoppers see servers and bartenders stealing from their hotels. With the advancement in technology, especially point of sale systems, you would think that it would be harder for servers to steal. However, in many ways, it actually makes it easier.

With the advancement in technology, a server can make a guest check-in seconds. That means they can easily manipulate a guest check-in seconds. Here is one example our Mystery Shoppers see. A server serves 2 breakfast buffets and presents check number 101 to a customer. The customer pays $40 cash. Instead of closing the check to cash, the server pockets the cash and goes back and splits that check, and creates check number 102 for 1 buffet and check number 103 for 1 buffet. Now the server has two open checks for very popular items that he/she can do many things with. He/she can present a check to their next customer who orders a buffet or they can add additional items to the buffet or transfer it to another guest check. The opportunities are endless.

This not only works with buffets but with any items that are not prepared by the kitchen such as beverages, desserts, and especially alcoholic drinks.

How can you protect your restaurant?

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