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Great Food Group, Inc.

“I can keep my office with me, in my pocket, at all times.”

Patrick Albrecht
Owner

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Streamlining service with iPhone

With two popular Atlanta restaurants, a catering business, and
plans for expansion, Great Food Group Inc’s Owner Patrick Albrecht has a lot
more than food on his plate. And to keep his operation running smoothly and
cost-effectively, he depends on iPhone.

“There used to be a lot of headaches,” Albrecht says. “Trying to track down
information. Who booked the banquet? Where did they leave that piece of paper?
But with the iPhone, we know exactly where everything is. And we can access it
anywhere, anytime—instantly.”

Albrecht has outfitted his 15 managers with iPhone, which they use to access
the company’s Bento database, iCal calendars, and enterprise software. They can
instantly look up, enter, and revise information about menus, banquets, employee
schedules, point-of-sale transactions, and daily reports—from anywhere.

“You hear from every restaurateur that they have to run through the
restaurant, the kitchen, maybe up a flight of stairs to their back-office
computer, just to enter information or look up a report. We can do that
wirelessly, from the bar,” he says.

With Bento, Albrecht can replace an entire filing cabinet, making all of his
company’s data accessible with just a few taps. And with iCal, Albrecht and his
team are always synchronized and up-to-the-minute on banquet bookings. They know
exactly when large parties are dining and what they’ll be served.

In other words, they no longer have to worry about who has the paperwork.

“Our employees are no longer bogged down in the back office.
Now they can focus on the customer.”

Personalized service, right at the table

Trained in Europe in hospitality and culinary arts, Albrecht joined forces
with his father Paul, an award-winning Atlanta chef, in a family tradition. In
their business, customer experience is paramount. And iPhone has been
instrumental in making that experience seamless.

“We use the WineSnob application a lot,” Albrecht says. “When a diner wants
to pair their meal with the perfect wine, we do a quick lookup on the app.” And
at the bar, Drinks has replaced the need for a giant bar book filled with
recipes. “It’s a database with over 4,500 mixed drinks,” Albrecht explains. “And
it’s searchable. So it’s much faster than a printed book—and it works great in
the low light at the bar.”

With iPhone, service at Albrecht’s restaurants gets even more personal than
that. “We had a wedding reception at one of our restaurants. Right after the
ceremony, the photographer emailed me a photo of the bride and groom. Using my
iPhone, I posted it to our MobileMe account and had it on our digital display as
the couple walked in the door.”

Albrecht also can offer customers unique services at the table. When he walks
through the dining room, a customer might approach him with a question about
cakes. He whips out his iPhone and flips through photos of his pastry chef’s
portfolio. If the customer places an order, Albrecht can process it right
there.

Banquets can be planned table-side, too. “I can sit right there,” Albrecht
says. “No paperwork, no laptop necessary. I just book the banquet using the
calendar on my iPhone, and it syncs back to my iCal server. And all of the
managers can see that we have a new booking.”

Albrecht can even make a transaction when he meets a customer on the street.
“Let’s say I’m out at the grocery store, and I see a customer who wants to come
in for dinner that night. I can use MochaSoft's Remote Desktop app on my iPhone
to check Open Table, our daily reservation system. Or I can just log on to Open
Table’s iPhone-friendly website. If there’s a spot available, I book the
reservation right there.”

More efficient, more mobile

Restaurants are busy, noisy environments. But with iPhone, Albrecht keeps his
staff focused on the customers. “My managers have what they need right in their
hands. So they don’t get bogged down in the back office, and they can text each
other during service rather than running around or shouting.”

And Albrecht can stay in touch with his restaurants all day long, no matter
where he is. Rather than record the day’s events in a printed logbook, as they
used to, Albrecht’s employees now use Mac OS X Wiki server. So Albrecht gets
email updates as they appear, from each restaurant, sent right to his iPhone.
This new means of communication has taken care of one of his biggest concerns
about expansion: the inability to be in more than one restaurant at a time.

iPhone is also a handy little marketing tool. When Albrecht gets excited
about a new dish from the kitchen, he photographs it and instantly uploads it to
the restaurant’s website and the digital display at the bar. And, using his
iPhone, he posts on Facebook and Twitter to keep his customers updated about
upcoming events and daily specials.

In fact, Albrecht and his team have integrated iPhone so completely into
their operation that they have a hard time remembering how to do business
without it.

“When we open a restaurant,” Albrecht says, “there are four things we
concentrate on: the food, the wine, the ambiance, and the service. Now there’s a
fifth. iPhone.”

Company Snapshot

110 Employees

Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia

2 locations (3rd opening soon)

http://www.greatfoodinc.com/

Click images to enlarge

Impressing recruits, one iPhone
at a time

Albrecht gets a kick out of impressing new hires with the technology in place
at Great Food. “We have a lot of managers that come from bigger restaurant
groups or hotels. We sit down in the interview process, and they can't believe
what we can do.” But during the first week, new hires witness just what Albrecht
can accomplish using his iPhone. “They’re amazed—and they see that I do it for a
fraction of the cost that bigger companies spend to get the same job
done.”

Favorite Apps

iCal

WineSnob

Drinks

Facebook

Tweetie

Bento

MochaSoft
Remote Desktop

Pandora

Surfline

D.W.
Morgan

Vija
Williams

Aedas

Great
Food

ArtusLabs

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