Clements Coffee
EPOS, Payments, Loyalty & Stock Functionalities.
One of Northern Ireland's leading coffee chains, Clements Coffee chose to use the feature-rich Symphony suite. In a bid to streamline their marketing and sales strategy, MCR Systems' software suite brings together Clement's reporting and forecasting capabilities.
Requirement
​'We have been with MCR Systems for many years and have found their reporting functionality to be fantastic. As a small chain, we were looking for software which would cut back on manual entries and let us think bigger and smarter. MCR Systems provides a complete system which we use to manage multiple elements of our stores, not just sales.' Marketing Director, Clement's
Established in 1999, Clements Coffee took its name from the eccentric Pope Clements. His infatuation with the coffee bean led to the widespread opening of coffee shops across Rome.
Clements have a clear ethos and mission statement, which is to provide high-quality products and service. This translates into fair-trade coffee beans, traceable dairy products and high-quality foods. All their food is created from their in-house kitchen using traceable ingredients, delivered to each store daily.
The company's motto and ethos appealed to MCR Systems, as the values and qualities are representative of what MCR Systems aim to provide. A truly unique business software solution provider, MCR Systems ensures that each element of our software is developed with the customer in mind. This shared ethos of high-quality products and service is key to both MCR Systems and Clement's Coffee's success.
Focusing on providing friendly, comforting coffee stores where customers can gather together, the size of each store scales from having two EPOS terminals to five terminals. Managing each site during peak times is a key element of the MCR Systems capability using Symphony.
When looking for an EPOS system, Clements were looking for a provider with enhanced reporting functionality. Boasting 11 stores across Northern Ireland, using a connected system was key for their success.
Looking to propel their growing coffee chain to the next level of commerce, Clements Coffee were looking for a sustainable EPOS solution with multiple benefits. Recommended by an independent consultant, Clements were first introduced to MCR Systems some years ago.
To ensure the solution was ideal for their type of business, the team from Clements Coffee flew over to England to have a bespoke product demonstration. The team were also able to visit a live coffee store operating the Symphony software. This process of welcoming customers to MCR Systems ensures open discussion, encouraging any questions and understanding key points of interest. With such a wide-spanning product range within the Symphony Suite, Clements Coffee chose to utilise the EPOS, payments, loyalty and stock functionalities.
Solution
For Finance Director Alanna Callaghan, the reporting which supported these functionalities was of uppermost importance. Processing manual entries was becoming increasingly difficult as the chain continued to open additional locations. Alanna's 20 years' experience with Clements Coffee has seen the chain grow from single site to 11 stores located across Belfast.
A common theme found within finance departments of growing organisations, arranging accounts and reconciliation can be a laborious, time-consuming task. In a bid to streamline the reporting capabilities of the team, Symphony's reporting functionality was key for Alanna.
Alanna commented 'Reconciliation has become much neater. It is important to free up my team's time especially as the number of transactions and sales continue to grow. The more reports that we extract automatically makes it easier for the team to focus upon analysis.'
'The reports allow us to manage key marketing, operational and sales targets. We can tailor our menus to see what products are performing well and offer special promotions. Using the hourly MCR report we can adjust staffing levels and create cost efficiencies.'
Within the finance team, there are a total of 4 account colleagues who use the software daily. Alanna commented 'we find the software very accurate and easy to use. Each operations manager for each site uses the software and find it equally user-friendly.' The Symphony solution has been created with the end user in mind, and each change in the software or dashboards is done so after rigorous user testing. Used by various styles and depths of business, the software prides itself on being simple, straightforward and time-saving. Another benefit to having an easy to use
software is the reduced training time required.
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Training and Set Up
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Account management is an important aspect of MCR Systems' approach. Each customer is encouraged to maintain contact with their account manager, further strengthening relationships and keeping the EPOS system continually running to its optimum capability. Alanna commented, 'Both the helpdesk and the account management support is great.'
Alanna commented,
'The training and set up of the tills was great. The helpdesk was very helpful and assisted us to get started in no time at all. They really took the time to explain our particular areas of interest. The training is quite straightforward especially for new till users. We process over 20,000 transactions per week, so it was important the EPOS till was easy to use and encouraged speed of service with little mistakes. The EPOS can definitely keep up with our peak periods, and we have not experienced any crashing, lag or delays so far.'
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Next Steps
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Clements Coffee have completed their first phase of introducing MCR Systems into their stores. Remaining at the forefront of coffee shops in Northern Ireland, Clements are keen to support the modern consumer. All 11 stores have already integrated multiple payments methods through their EPOS systems, including contactless technology.
Alanna expanded:
'People are moving away from cash and using their phones to make digital payments. By using customised programming in our EPOS systems, we were able to take integrated payments quickly and smoothly.'
The next stage will include moving from a paper-based to digital loyalty platform. Moving with the digital consumer, Clements are preparing to develop their mobile loyalty product in line with MCR Systems.
For any coffee store, stock management functionality was key. Understanding bestselling products and managing excess stock levels is one of the core goals for the Clements team. Clements recognise the full power of the Symphony suite and would like to administer all stock management entirely through the Symphony solution.
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