Patrick Abbott, the founder of Monks Coffee Roasters, has always been a great coffee lover. He has been working in the coffee industry for years – from helping people designing their business models to setting up cafes. When Patrick got the opportunity to come to Holland, he wanted to have his own coffee place so he founded Monks, on the Bilderdijkstraat in Amsterdam.
Patrick knew he needed a point-of-sale system, so he started out with a well-known POS cloud software & hardware “ but it turned out to be too complex for a small cafe like Monks (35 seats) and the monthly fee was expensive. Also, the sales person in charge was a bit pushy and was not particularly good at explaining the system. Patrick knew there were other options out there and thus began asking other cafes in the neighbourhood. He was given advice about different systems. Several of the cafes were using a new, very inexpensive solution – about $50 a month. It quickly proved to be inadequate.
Another reason that made Patrick decided to ditch the $50 a month solution is its (lack of) customer support. “It was almost impossible to contact the support desk and tell them our problems,” says Patrick, “not to mention that it took a long time to get a response back.” Moreover, when there was a problem Patrick had to wait until the next app release to have it solved. So much for the cheap solution! Patrick needed a system that was going to work for him and grow with him simultaneously. Having the right point of sale system in place is vital because it counts his money. “If the system doesn’t work, I would not know how much sales I made. It looks like we are selling coffee and doing fine, but we need to know exactly what’s selling and what’s not.” Finally he decided to switch.
All that we need in one system.
Monks has been using the product for months and it has lent a much-needed hand. For example, it significantly reduced the error margins on the cash register. We had problem with our till before. At the end of the day everything was not adding up because we have separate keypad for bank cards. This has never happened with the new system, we found the system is very accurate.”
Having it in place is not only been beneficial when evaluating sales data, but also valuable for making data-driven decision in real-time. The reporting tools provide him with actionable insights that he needs to measure the success of his business. Patrick explained that dedicated customer service was his main reason for choosing a good company for his POS needs. He appreciates there being a team there to assist him whenever he has a question.
“The support team is reachable and always accessible if we need something the answers are always there. Patrick says he often gets questions from his customers about the system he is using. “They see how I handle the order and payment, then they asked what system I use. I show them how the system works. I believe in the system so I want to give support as much as possible. It’s done a lovely job, why not promote it.”
