Total e Integrated Welcomes Mark Sharpe To The Team

Toronto, Ontario, September 16th, 2016 - Total e Integrated is excited to welcome Mark Sharpe to the team as our new Sales Director.  Mark brings a depth of progressive club management experience in the golf industry from both the public and private sectors over the past 20 years.  

“We are excited to have Mark join the Total e Integrated team.  He brings a rare combination of strong operational understanding, leadership and a pragmatic approach in leveraging technologies that drive real results”, says Mike Flannagan, President of Total e Integrated. “With Mark on the team our clients will be able to derive significant benefits.”

Long tenured in the industry, Mark became General Manager of a well-run and recognized facility.  Most recently Mark was the Regional Sales Director at GolfNow focusing on the strategic delivery of marketing and technology solutions to single site facilities and multi-course operators in the United States and Canada.  Mark has consistently been recognized as a top performer and contributor in the industry. 

“I am looking forward to working with the team at Total e Integrated” Mark Sharpe says, “They have demonstrated a deep level of expertise at deploying powerful information systems.  These guys have the best product and a great company culture!” 

About Total e Integrated Inc.

Since 2000, Total e Integrated (TEI) has maintained its position as the one and only Boutique Technology Provider for the club and community management world. TEI has purposely kept its client-base restricted to a select group of like-minded, innovative and successful organizations - this gives TEI the competitive advantage to constantly innovate and grow the platform. The real power of the Total e Integrated solution is its ability to replace multiple disconnected systems with a single comprehensive platform utilized by some of the nation’s most innovative operators.

Seven Underutilized Tactics to Drive Restaurant Sales

It’s no secret that the restaurant industry is highly competitive. So competitive, that most restaurants balance on a razor thin edge between profits and losses. As a restaurant owner or operator you are constantly keeping an eye on expenses while looking for ways to increase traffic. This blog will explore some overlooked, underestimated and underutilized tactics and ideas for driving more traffic and increasing revenues for your restaurant. We’ve all heard the adage “you have to spend money to make money”, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend substantially to earn substantially. These tactics are low cost and if you can execute successfully, can create significant growth in your revenues.

But first let’s quickly cover the basics – the 4Ps of marketing.

Before considering any food and beverage strategy you need to consider the 4Ps of marketing. Each of the seven tactics addressed within this blog relate back to the 4Ps; Price, Product, Place and Promotion. We must always consider the price and what our product offering is, where and how we are selling the product (place) and how are we communicating this to our customers (promotion). What this comes down to is ensuring you are offering the right product and price in the right market, while also delivering it in the right market with the right communication method to your demographic. In the future, as you develop your own unique tactics, remember and think through the 4Ps of marketing to help improve your chances of success.

Tactic #1 - Stop Discounting

Discounting your food and beverage products essentially says “we don’t deserve full price”. Consider this, one of the most common places to find food discounts is the supermarket, items close to expiration often come with a 25% – 50% discount. As a result, discounts often result in the perception of reduced quality in the mind of your customers. Furthermore, a discount may help to drive sales for a limited time, but it does not build customer loyalty. It will become more difficult to achieve similar revenues when the item returns to full price. Your customers may shift to another discounted item, or worse, another restaurant altogether.

What should you do? Eliminate percentage-off discounts. Instead offer certificates or a dollar amount off. A minimum spend as an example; “$5 off when you spend $20 or more”, is a great way to help increase the overall spend of each customer. Consider your menu price points when putting this tactic into place. The idea here is for customers to increase their average spend up to the next level of menu price points. Although this will reduce margins temporarily, it creates better perceived value for their visit without a reduction in quality coming to mind. This gives the customer a more positive feeling to their experience and hopefully begins to create the habit of looking at items at this price point first when they come in for future visits.

An added benefit of offering vouchers or certificates is your ability to better estimate the total cost of promotion. For example, 100 vouchers worth $20 each has a value of promotional value of $2000 – the cost of your promotion is concrete. A “percentage-off” discount does not offer the same concrete cost estimation and can lead to a serious amount of lost revenue if a table or two racks up a substantial food bill.

Tactic #2 – Bounce Backs

A “bounce back” is a message displayed at the bottom of your receipts and because every customer receives a receipt, you can use them receipts to help drive further business. You’ve likely noticed that many of your favorite franchises utilize bounce backs, this is obviously for a very good reason – it works! Large franchises continue to spend time and money on market research and focus groups to test various strategies to achieve future business and customer feedback. Leverage their research and use this tactic to your advantage. Your pro shop receipts should be used to encourage golfers to come inside after their round. Restaurant receipts should display an incentive to come back, or advertise for an upcoming event.

In my experience the following bounce backs have shown great results:

1. “Show your golf receipt in the restaurant today and receive a free appetizer with entrée purchase.” – Better to get them inside for some food and beverages then nothing at all.
2. “Bring this receipt back on Tuesday and receive $20 off your order. Minimum spend applies.” – Find the values and day(s) here that work best for you, better to reduce you margins and have traffic then keep them the same and have an empty restaurant.
3. “REGISTER NOW: Mother’s Day is fast approaching, register before the early bird deadline and your mom eats free.” – Earlier reservations offer more flexibility, if you have enough demand add an extra seating. More accurate understanding of staffing and food requirements on this day to minimize excessive use of either and ensure maximization of your margins.
4. “COME JOIN US. The second Friday of every month is our Nine & Dine special featuring live music on the patio. Register before the first Friday of the month and your name will be entered into a draw to win your meal free!” – Early registration allows for better planning on COGs and labour, raffling a meal off can create additional excitement especially if it is a fairly consistent group each time.

Tactic #3 – Sampling

If you have good food you should show it off! Your golf customers may not know how good your food is, eliminate the “I didn’t know they did that” by offering free samples of your fantastic food. Pick a few of your top selling items and offer samples at the turn to encourage golfers to come inside after their round.

Presentation is key when offering samples – don’t just cut your burger into pieces, create a slider version of the burger. Pizza a top seller at your location - Try focaccia pizza sticks with garlic dip. Whatever you signature items are find a way to scale them down to individual serving sizes that showcase your quality and flavours.

Take sampling a step further. More often than not, non-golfers in your area will not know what a great restaurant experience they are missing. If they do know about your restaurant, they may think they’re not welcome unless they’re golfing. Help correct this misunderstanding by offering free samples offsite in a local mall or other high traffic areas. You can even bring your chef, golf pro and most personable server to market the restaurant and facility offerings even further.

Tactic #4 – Host Food Events

Hosting an event at your restaurant is a great way to garner local attention to your club and can help encourage non-golfers to come by for a great meal. One such event I utilized was a “Chopped” style competition - local restaurants were invited to a friendly competition at the restaurant. This tactic has some big advantages. Events of this nature establish your facility as the center of the local food scene and your competitors will inadvertently advertise to their customers, within their restaurant, that they should come to your restaurant. To top it off, on competition day you have home court advantage.

Use the sampling described above to showcase your food to the audience. Setup some cooking stations for each competitor. If possible, get a few “local celebrities” like the mayor or reputable business owners, to act as judges. You could even make this a charitable event to garner even more attention. And of course use social media to promote before, during and after the event. There is so much you can do with food events to promote your restaurant.

Tactic #5 – Business Socials & Committee Meetings

Encourage large groups to visit your restaurant by advertising to local businesses and committees as a low cost meeting place. Everything from fishing clubs to municipal government groups should be encouraged to host at your restaurant. Something as small as a dollar off each food item can be enough encouragement for groups to use your venue. If you have the resources, you can consider catering to these groups at their location – package materials, food, service and cleanup.

Take this tactic to the next level and partner with a not-for-profit, this is a great way to encourage ongoing publicity. You can leverage their resources to help promote your business. Ask them to mention your restaurant to their partners. When hosting not-for-profits, encourage future business by offering a donation rather than a discount on food items; this has the potential benefit of being tax-deductible, still achieves the price point your partner is looking for and increases your community involvement.

Tactic #6 – Encourage Business on Your Slow Day

Restaurants often have a day or two each week which is particularly slow for business. If you must keep the doors open on these days, pick one and with proper advertisement of a promotion it is a great way to collect tremendous attention and traffic. With this in mind consider a promotion something like “Toss Up Tuesday” – have patrons flip a coin for the chance to have the food portion of their bill paid for. This promotion will bring people through your doors that would have never considered you previously – in fact, I would anticipate a line-up out the door on what is historically one of your slowest days of the year. This promotion encourages higher than average checks because customers have a chance to not pay. Two key considerations should you decide to use the “Toss Up Tuesday” promotion – (1) If advertised effectively the turn-out will be massive so make sure you have extra staff (an all hands on deck day), and (2) for efficiency purposes utilize a reduced menu that contains only items with quick order to table turnaround times. This also gives you the opportunity to remove the high cost items from your menu and focus on the higher margin items to minimize losses for when you do have to “eat” some customer checks based on the coin toss results.

Tactic #7 – Birthday Programs

Who loves a free meal on their birthday? EVERYONE. Who eats alone on their birthday? HOPEFULLY NO ONE. A birthday program can help bring in additional customers you likely wouldn’t have had otherwise. Birthday programs have the added benefit of being an excellent opportunity for data capture. In today’s market, companies charge big money for marketing lists that have been over saturated by various industries. This is the beginning of your own, personalized, opt in, marketing database. Don’t allow birthday guests to just show-up and receive a free meal, require that they sign-up for the program. Once guests have signed up, you can send more direct email marketing campaigns, surveys and of course that free birthday meal voucher each year.

These seven tactics, or a combination there of can help you grow your club’s restaurant business. Don’t just jump into all seven tactics though, implement one at a time, monitor the success, and work your way forward from there. The Total e Integrated team is available if you’d like to investigate any of these tactics further or to discuss how to setup these strategies within your Total e Integrated environment.

In addition to the seven tactics outlined above, we can help with topics like: promotions and pricing, F&B event planning, F&B CRM and direct email marketing, menu planning and layout structure, and so much more. Contact us anytime at info@totaleintegrated.com.

About Me

Food and beverage is in my blood – Raised on a golf course literally from the time I could walk, I’ve gathered experience in various roles within each department; Turf Care, Golf, Back of House and each and every Front of House position before settling into a management role. I have a full spectrum of experience, having managed both small operations to multi-million dollar properties. My goal has always been to offer the best possible guest experience while increasing revenues and decreasing operational expenses and I have consistently excelled in these endeavors. My approach focuses on the development of process efficiencies and accountability in labour, inventory management, costing calculators, event profit/loss and much more. All of this culminating to an industry consultant role with Total e Integrated. Feel free to connect with me at joe@totaleintegrated.com for questions and any further information.

Desert Mountain Club Selects the Total e Integrated Business Operating Platform

Desert Mountain, one of the finest private club facilities in the world, has selected Total e Integrated to be its operating platform and technology provider for their information systems.

Mike Flannagan, President of Total e Integrated remarked; "We are really proud to have earned their business. They are very serious operators; a top notch team that deeply understands their area of expertise and deliver a member experience that is second to none. They put us through the ringer when evaluating both our system and the company."

Desert Mountain is one of the biggest and best private clubs on the planet. Their gated community has over 2,000 members, six renowned Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses, six remarkable dining facilities, an extraordinary retail operation and over 42,000 square feet of spa, fitness & recreation.

"After performing an exhaustive vetting process, Total e Integrated had demonstrated a very capable, high performance system. As a technology partner, they take a collaborative approach and have the implementation methodology to create an effective transition," said Desert Mountain’s Director of Information Technology, Andrew Heard.

"The value and return on investment for us came from having Total e Integrated replace so many different software applications/databases with a single, seamlessly integrated platform," stated Kelly Rausch, Chief Financial Officer for Desert Mountain.

Robert Jones, Chief Operating Officer, General Manager at Desert Mountain Club, Inc. had remarked that "Due to our sophisticated needs, I have continuously researched software systems over the past 15 years and nothing compares to Total e Integrated."

"We look forward to supporting the organization, individual departments and team members, helping them all reach their goals throughout the implementation," said Mike Flannagan.

About Total e Integrated (www.totaleintegrated.com)

Total e Integrated (formerly Total e Golf) has been delivering technology based business solutions for more than 15 years. A highly architected end to end software platform implemented by very experienced individuals with deep levels of industry expertise.

About Desert Mountain (www.desertmountain.com)

Desert Mountain is situated on 8,000 acres in the high Sonoran Desert. Tucked into the rolling hills and dramatic scenery of north Scottsdale, Arizona, Desert Mountain is among the finest private golf and recreational communities in the world and is ranked among the top 10 in the nation. It is the only private community worldwide with six Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses, each one designed to offer an individual playing experience at all skill levels. But great golf is just the beginning. A wide variety of lifestyle amenities including outdoor ranch facility, over 15 miles of hiking trails and equestrian facility, for every member of the family makes the Desert Mountain lifestyle like no other.

For more information, please contact:

Ian Robinson
Total e Integrated

888-660-6131 ext.249
ian@totaleintegrated.com

www.totaleintegrated.com

Total e Integrated Offers New Business-in-a-Box Solutions

Total e Integrated, formerly Total e Golf, is now offering its powerful all-in-one software solutions in bundled “business-in-a-box” formats. The “business-in-a-box” bundles are designed to help golf, resort and private club operators increase revenue while providing greater visibility into their business and customers’ activities.

Total e Integrated has been recognized as a leading golf software solution for over 15 years. A superior level of customization, scalability, customer service, and integration has traditionally meant a higher price point, but with “business-in-a-box”, customers can now use the unmatched platform to manage their operation at a much lower cost.

“Our pre-configured edition of our version 10 platform allows businesses to replace many of their existing systems.  It includes hardware, software and implementation services for one low monthly price. Golf clubs, resorts and communities gain tremendous efficiencies and operating capabilities when having their multiple lines of business within a single software platform,” says Mike Flannagan, President of Total e Integrated.

Some of North America’s most renowned operators have realized their full potential by implementing the Total e Integrated system. “After an extensive evaluation of potential systems, Total e Integrated scored the highest in terms of a complete suite of applications that will enable our organization to capture more data, innovate new programs and handle our sophisticated requirements that come with operating one of the country’s largest retail operations,” Says Terry Daubert, President of Morton Golf.

About “Business in a Box” Bundles:
Want to learn more about our new low cost, rapid start, high value, completely modular, business in a box bundles? – visit www.totaleintegrated.com.

About Total e Integrated:
For over 15 years, Total e Integrated (formerly Total e Golf) has developed innovative software solutions to help organizations manage the many facets of their business in an easy, streamlined way.

For information please contact:

Stuart Manley
Business Development
Total e Integrated
1.888.660.6131 ext.248
stuart@totaleintegrated.com

A Closer Look - How One Of North America's Most Recognizable Golf Operators Uses Technology To Improve Their Golf And Retail Operations.

Morton Golf LLC has been involved in golf and retail operations since 1958. Today, their portfolio includes 90 holes, 4 locations, and the highest volume and most profitable on-course golf shop in America - the15,000+ square foot Haggin Oaks Golf Super Shop. In 2013, Morton Golf selected Total e Integrated (formerly Total e Golf) to help streamline the management of their entire operation from golf to retail, restaurant and marketing.

How has Total e Integrated helped Morton Golf fulfill its mission to exceed customer expectations? It begins with a mutual understanding of the importance of customer relationship management. Understanding their customers' buying habits was of high importance to Morton Golf as they began looking for new ways to improve the effectiveness of their marketing strategy. The Total e Integrated solution was the only platform that had the ability to track all of Morton's customer data, regardless of origin, and have it all stored in one central database.

"The Total e Integrated solution replaced many systems into one effective and efficient platform. With significant data collection across all departments we have been able to evaluate, segment and target our marketing initiatives with much greater success. I would highly recommend the Total e Integrated solution to other operators," said Terry Daubert, President of Morton Golf.

In the past, operators had to choose between either collecting customer data into separate, disconnected systems or use an integrated system that lacked functionality across all departments. Total e Integrated's all-in-one system is the best of both worlds - it allows operators to collect customer data from every department and centralizes all business information in one robust tool.

What does Total e Integrated's solution mean for Morton Golf? Haggin Oaks Golf Super Shop can now collect important customer data from every aspect of their operation: the tee sheet, retail point of sale, the membership portal, food & beverage, and events - automatically into one system, and use this information in their retail marketing campaigns. With a corporate culture focused on exceeding customer expectations and a powerful program to support their initiative, Morton Golf is working to achieve a high data capture rate while continuing their resounding success in sales and marketing.

"Operators can significantly improve the success of their marketing initiatives through data collection," says Mike Flannagan, President of Total e Integrated. "For example, you may have customers that historically purchased new clubs every two years. You could send a personalized promotion on new clubs to this customer population every two years to help ensure those dollars are spent at your facility."

About Morton Golf Management:

Morton Golf operates 90 holes of golf spread over 4 locations in the Sacramento area. Morton Golf is no stranger to accolades, having won awards for its golf shop, club fitting services, and golf courses. America's most awarded golf shop, The Haggin Oaks Golf Super Shop - is managed by Morton Golf. The awards given to Haggin Oaks Golf Super Shop include "Public Golf Shop of the Year" (Golfweek Magazine), National PGA Merchandiser of the Year, and four-time winner of the "Sports Illustrated Magazine Merchandiser of the Year" award.

About Total e Integrated:

For over 15 years, Total e Integrated (formerly Total e Golf) has developed innovative software solutions to help organizations manage the many facets of their business in an easy, streamlined way.

Hot Springs Village, a 26,000 Acre Retirement and Recreation Community in Southwest Arkansas is the Latest Organization to Become “Totally Integrated.”

Total e Integrated (formerly Total e Golf) is pleased to announce Hot Springs Village in Arkansas as one of the newest additions to the Total e Integrated community. With 26,000 acres and 35,000 residents, Hot Springs Village is the largest gated community in the United States.

For many years, Hot Springs Village managed their operations through two separate and outdated systems that had reached their capacity. The team started to notice in the late 2000’s that many processes had become manual; completing a simple task, such as assisting a resident with a balance inquiry, may have required assistance from up to four separate staff members. The significance of operating and maintaining a community with 8 golf courses, 13 tennis courts, 2 marinas, and much more, required a new integrated solution.

From managing their tee sheets and recreational activities to overseeing more than 35,000 residents, every department needed to be connected. Hot Springs Village completed a global search and review of software providers, but could only find one that provided a single, integrated platform to run their entire operation. “The competition seemed to do just one thing great, whether it be accounting or point of sale, but only Total e Integrated impressed the team for being a full suite,” said Lesley Nalley, Chief Financial Officer at Hot Springs Village.

“The Total e Integrated solution is one of a kind in the market. We have the ability to help large and small communities centralize operations and data collection. Our solution’s power is most evident when you look at what we can do with large communities like Hot Springs Village. Our solution has helped Hot Springs Village streamline the way they operate across the entire organization,” says Mike Flannagan, President of Total e Integrated. According to Lesley Nalley, “We have seen a shift in how our staff work. You could say we have shifted from a reactive company culture to a proactive one. Rather than just performing typical transactional activities, the staff think further about what they are doing, how they are doing it, and why they are doing it.”

Deploying a system to manage an entire community requires a strong, multi-phased, implementation. With more than 200 unique system users, each with a varied skillset, the roll-out needed to be comprehensive. Total e Integrated and Hot Springs Village worked hand-in-hand every step of the way throughout the launch of each module. Lesley Nalley says, “The Total e Integrated team has been fantastic to work with. With so many challenges, just verbalizing our needs was difficult. The Total e Integrated team’s ability to provide solutions to our problems that go beyond what we originally requested has been phenomenal.”

About Hot Springs Village:
Hot Springs Village is one of the top retirement and recreation communities in the United States. Having been recognized as one of the top three “retirement hot spots” in the country by Realty Trac, and as a “Top 100 Master-Planned Community” by Where to Retire magazine, Hot Springs Village prides itself on being a community unlike any other.

About Total e Integrated:
For over 15 years, Total e Integrated (formerly Total e Golf) has developed innovative software solutions to help organizations manage the many facets of their business in an easy, streamlined way.

For more information please contact:

Stuart Manley
Business Development
Total e Integrated
1.888.660.6131 ext.248
stuart@totaleintegrated.com
totaleintegrated.com