Executive Summary
For Kung Food Chu’s AmerAsia, being a locally-owned, independent restaurant has always been a struggle in a highly competitive market with big chains on every block. To compete and differentiate themselves, AmerAsia made a shift to a fast-casual concept focusing on technology to power every aspect of their business. The goals were seamless connectivity, a higher level of customer engagement, and a new restaurant experience all while boosting the bottom line. A tall “order” for most however one key technology decision; the BEC 6300VNL Enterprise LTE Router would prove to be the catalyst for bridging all other solutions together.
The Customer
Kung Food Chu’s AmerAsia, a Chinese cuisine restaurant is a cornerstone in the Covington, TX community offers delicious dining, takeout, and delivery. In 2015, Yahoo! listed the best Chinese restaurant in every state, and Kung Food Chu’s AmerAsia on was listed as Kentucky’s finest choice for Chinese cuisine. To read more, click here. Chef and Owner, Rich Chu prides himself on serving authentic Chinese food with high-quality fresh ingredients, excellent service, and friendly staff. Unique to AmerAsia is a broad, “eclectic” mix of craft beers and rotating taps that separate it from other Chinese restaurants in the area. Ancient Chinese martial arts, Kung Fu posters, and the monster movie running on select TVs add to the fun and funky atmosphere.
Challenges
Overcoming poor internet connectivity at the restaurant has been a challenge for AmerAsia. There were no viable options for uninterrupted internet connectivity through their existing service provider. Another challenge was “speed to sale” a critical aspect of the fast-casual concept. Antiquated PoS systems were not reliable thus resulting in orders taken by hand and credit card transactions were extremely slow utilizing the existing landline. Additionally, the inability to process EMV “chip” cards increased the risk/liability of fraud on each transaction. The walls of the restaurant are lined with several static backlit displays, some with old menu items and others with the content that remained stagnant all-day long. AmerAsia had multiple costly landlines primarily for takeout orders without any PBX type functionality or options for caller Information such as the latest specials, business hours, or directions. AmerAsia made attempts at offering complimentary Wi-Fi access, however, the service was the plague with intermittent connection issues which could never be resolved.
How BEC Product Helped
AmerAsia acquired a new POS system that integrated tabletop kiosks for ordering and payment, multiple full-motion digital signage displays to replace older backlit menu boards, a hosted VoIP solution, and the 6300VNL 4G/LTE Enterprise Multi-Service Router. The 6300VNL is a single integrated network device offering Dual-WAN interfaces (4G/LTE) and Gigabit Ethernet WAN (EWAN), 4-port Gigabit Ethernet Switch, Carrier-class Wi-Fi, Integrated VoIP (Voice over IP), Enterprise routing and Stateful inspection firewall. Internet connectivity is more reliable with the 6300VNL actively monitoring the primary connection. In the event of a service disruption, it automatically fails over to LTE. The switch is seamless, all network devices continue to operate at broadband speeds and the 6300VNL automatically switches back to the primary connection when it returns. The POS terminals and tabletop kiosks connect wirelessly handling transactions securely over a separate SSID. Complimentary guest Wi-Fi is now more robust and reliable on another separate SSID. Two additional SSIDs serve access for employees and another SSDI for digital signage. Other devices such as VoIP phones, and office PCs are connected to the Gigabit switch of the 6300VNL.
Results
AmerAsia met each of its desired goals. PoS Transactions are no longer impacted by connectivity issues, in fact, it’s so seamless any service interruption goes unnoticed. Tabletop ordering and payments have substantially improved the “Speed to Sale”. Digital signage displays along with complimentary Wi-Fi have improved customer engagement and loyalty. The central part of all the new restaurant technology acquired by AmerAsia was the 6300VNL, interconnecting all solutions, and providing high-performance, secure and reliable network connectivity.
Conclusion
As technology and the latest trends continue to evolve at a rapid pace, restaurant owners must consider a multi-WAN capable LTE platform such as the 6300VNL to support their business operations as the reliance on internet connectivity has become essential to business operations.
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