Projects: Going From Chalkboards To Digital Saves Bar 180-Plus Labor Hours A Year

April 7, 2017 by Dave Haynes

A little bar and restaurant down the highway from me in Stratford, Ontario has worked out that putting in digital signage displays has saved them 182 hours in labor costs annually.

Until a big reno in 2013, Bentley’s Bar, Inn & Restaurant did their daily menu specials, beer boards and martini boards all by hand – chalking it all in on blackboards.

As part of the renovation they put in 20 screens, and working of NDS’s PADS4 digital signage CMS, everything is updated digitally and the establishment has added features to screens like guest welcomes, Bentley’s Tube (video content) and local community events.

“Updating our menus is now an easy process and less costly in the long run,” says Melissa Schenk, Marketing/Media Consultant at Bentley’s, in an NDS case study“For example, we used to have wait staff come in 30 minutes ahead of time to write in chalk the daily specials on all of the black boards. This is no longer needed, eliminating 30 min. per day of labour  … we are open 364 days of the year.”

Managers have also found that using digital screens means daily specials in real-time, meaning wait staff are not returning to tables to tell customers what they ordered wasn’t actually available. ”We experience less customer complaints, and payouts or refunds,” says Schenk. “We are the Bar To Be At! and PADS4 has allowed us to adapt its system to meet our needs and stand out!”

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