New Bombay-style café, Dishoom Shoreditch, invests in technology to deliver exceptional service

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: New Bombay-style café, Dishoom Shoreditch, invests in technology to deliver exceptional service.

Two years after opening in Covent Garden, Dishoom opened another 'vintage Bombay' café in Shoreditch in October 2012. Founder-Wallah, Kavi Thakrar, wanted the best available EPoS so his team could deliver the personal service that drives the Dishoom philosophy.  A TISSL solution was his choice.  "To keep up our levels of service, we need great technology to underpin it."

Within weeks of opening, Dishoom Shoreditch was a resounding success as both a neighbourhood and a destination restaurant.  Its vintage Bombay decor and friendly team make for a comfortable environment in which to enjoy a menu of Irani café specialities, such as home-baked pastries, classic cocktails, house chai and delicious sharing dishes.

Kavi Thakrar was comfortable investing significantly in technology despite being a start-up.   "We expect our team to deliver fantastic customer service, so we have to give them the tools to do so.  We wanted the EPoS system best able to drive service, and we've found that in TISSL.  We run it on both fixed-point terminals and mobile POS devices, all linked in to kitchen and restaurant automation."  Now in use are 12 handheld POS devices, seven kitchen screens and six PC-based touchscreen EPoS terminals. The terminals are J2 680s, arguably the most powerful on the market.

In making his choice of EPoS, Kavi Thakrar gained confidence from TISSL's reputation in the restaurant sector and its presence in the neighbourhoods where Dishoom restaurants are located.  "TISSL was recommended by others in the industry as specialist restaurant EPoS from a company that's very relationship focused.  Reputation, rapport, service and pricing made TISSL the right choice for Dishoom."  He was impressed too by the ability of TISSL's sales team to bring together the elements he needed into a single solution.

The flexibility of the TISSL system comes in for praise.  "We customise the tills so each member of staff sees a different display when they log on.  They do this via fingerprint recognition, which we really like. The screen layouts are bright and clear and, as we've have laid out the on-screen menu on one page just as it's printed, it's easy and fast for staff to find everything."

All orders are taken using handhelds.  "Speed of service is very important and using handhelds means our staff have more time to engage with customers.  We find handhelds also reduce errors as orders are entered then read back to the customer."

Dishoom make good use of QSR Kitchen and QSR Hostess for kitchen and dining room automation.  "Each order is broken into items and split across multiple screens to reflect the multiple kitchen stations.  The possibility of error, and therefore of wastage, is virtually eliminated."  QSR Hostess maps the dining room so managers and servers can immediately see the status of each diner and table.

TISSL has built an interface between its EPoS and the QSR systems.  Says Kavi: "All our technology talks to each other – front-of-house and kitchens.  The systems flag up any issues or delays and put managers on top of service."

Reports and business intelligence are generated from within EPoS and the 'When to Manage' inventory programme, which TISSL supplies as part of its integrated solution.  "The system fires off six reports at midnight so everyone starts the day knowing the exact status of the business."

Dishoom use reports for menu and recipe management, stock management and to assess gross profitability.  They work out every item sold via the EPoS system and what was bought in as stock.  "Our managers analyse everything. We calculate what we spent on food and what should have been spent. We can analyse differences due to wastage, spillage or portioning errors."

Dishoom Shoreditch went straight into a "crazy" first Christmas.  "The systems held up," says Kavi.  "If any issues cropped up, TISSL solved them quickly.  It's clear they're keen to provide support and to build a long-term relationship. We're very small so who we work with is important. TISSL is constantly adapting its solution, which is good for us.  We can build our future on their technology."