Selflane Customizes to Fit Your Restaurant’s Needs
Stripes Co.
- Started with Stripes Biscuit Co. in 2018 and gradually opened 3 more locations
- New Mexican food
- 15% of their proceeds gets donated to the veteran hospital
- A local restaurant based in Albuquerque
Background
Stripes is a fast-growing New Mexican style restaurant located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They started with Stripes Biscuit Co., where the biscuits are handmade and either come in the form of a sandwich or as a side to an entrée. Shortly after the opening of their biscuit restaurant, the Stripes guys opened Stripes Burrito Co., where the concept is drive thru, making it convenient for customers to quickly pick up a delicious burrito.
Their most recent location, Stripes Biscuit & Burrito Co., combines both biscuit and burritos for those who truly love Stripes and want it all at once. The success of this business is astonishing, and what makes it unique is that 15% of their net proceeds gets donated to the New Mexico Veteran Affairs Health Care System.
The Challenge
The POS that Stripes utilized before switching over to Selflane caused frustration as the tech support didn’t seem to take action when needed. Victor Sanchez, the managing partner of Stripes, said: “when something went down, they basically pushed it off”. The previous POS also hindered the business due to technical problems – “we work hard for our money, so when we spend it, we want to make sure that we’re getting our bang for the buck and we just weren’t with the previous POS. The back of the house weren’t getting orders, the system kept crashing, it was a cluster of mess” commented Sanchez.
What pulled the last straw for Sanchez was when he realized that there were hidden fees. “There was a fee here and there and when I confronted them about it, their response was: “oh no, that’s normal in the business”. No, it’s not. We should’ve discussed those fees from the very beginning”. Sanchez has experience with other POS systems from throughout his career in the restaurant industry and claims that they all had their pros and cons. “Most of the time when you buy a system, it isn’t necessarily keen to your business. Some things work, and some things don’t work for you” commented Sanchez.
The Solution
Sanchez’s belief of how there’s no perfect system was proven wrong when Kevin walked into one of the restaurants and introduced himself. Sanchez liked that Selflane was a local business, as Stripes is a supporter of other local businesses. “I try to buy local. If I can’t get local, then I’ll go outside. Kevin’s local, Selflane is local. So I’m like hey, let’s give them a try” he said.
However, it didn’t take long for Sanchez to realize that Selflane was precisely what Stripes needed. “The system is super simple. My employees caught on very quickly. The first time I used Selflane was at Stripes Burrito Co. and at the time, we were getting used to our new concept, which is the drive-thru. We were making up stuff as we went and the fact that the POS system was not something that we to worry about was extremely nice” commented Sanchez. A feature that Sanchez likes most about Selflane is customization. “Any time I think of something that would make the system even better, I would call Kevin and ask if we can do it. He would just be like alright, give me a week or two. Most of the time, Selflane will even modify my request instantly. If I could give Selflane a slogan, I would say: Selflane, the POS that modifies itself for your business”.
Stripes started utilizing Selflane in December, 2018 for all of their stores.
The Result
Customization
All restaurants have a concept. Whether your restaurant is a drive-thru, a sit down, or even a self-service type, Selflane is able to customize to your liking. Since using Selflane, Sanchez admits that he has less to worry about now as a manager because the POS is modified to do things automatically.
At the moment, the Selflane guys are working on modifying things with payroll for Sanchez. He mentions, “you don’t want to spend your time on payroll, you don’t want to spend your time doing any of that. As a manager, you want things done fast and efficiently – so Selflane is trying to modify it to where the information that’s sent to QuickBooks auto-populates it right away. Like, yes please. I love these guys for making my life easier”. The sky is the limit when it comes to customization with Selflane.
Single Point of Contact
Before using Selflane, Sanchez had to contact third party companies for his POS whenever things would go south, like the credit cards not processing, for instance. Now, whenever there is a problem, he is able to call Kevin and the issue is taken care of. The single point of contact saves you from having to scramble through your contacts; it also proves that Selflane is reliable during times of crisis.
Simple to Use
With its simple design and layout, anyone can learn how to use Selflane by dabbling with it for a few minutes. There wasn’t a learning curve for Sanchez’s employees, which means that business wasn’t hindered. Everything flowed smoothly during the transition from one POS to another. Sanchez was able to build a business from ground up and not have to worry about the POS during the period of trial and error.
Great Service
When Sanchez was asked what the single biggest reason he would recommend Selflane was, he responds, “you get to work with Kevin”. Selflane prioritizes communication and great service, and Sanchez can attest to that. He recommends for anyone who’s new to Selflane to speak up and actually talk to Kevin. “Kevin and his partner have really nice ideas. The more they grow in their business, the more they find ways to improve your business. Instead of wasting more time, money, and labor, they find ways to simplify Selflane so that you have less to worry about” commented Sanchez.
