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Featured Customer: Coach House

Coach House Concert & Dinner VenueAround since the 80’s, Coach House has been able to see multiple generations of acts come through Southern Orange County. Ask any visitor and they will tell you there isn’t a bad seat in the house. Its small size offers an intimacy that is not available in most other venues.

Event venues require systems in place for super high volume since business comes all at once in short waves. FOCUS easily handles this by building out navigation and menus in a simple streamlined fashion. The goal is to be able to make every bartender and server as efficient as possible. Tab lists allow for quick access to open transactions that can be filtered by tab name or bartender for easy retrieval.

When the owners of Coach House approached us to build a solution, their biggest concern was credit card security. Each POS station is equipped with an EMV reader to utilize chip card technology. This ensures each transaction is unique and secure to protect their guest’s cardholder data.

Don’t miss your chance to catch some great musicians this summer at Coach House! Their event schedule can be found on their website at https://thecoachhouse.com/.

Photo by Nicole Priest Photography.

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Why It’s Smart to Accept Chip Cards in Your Bar or Nightclub

It’s more than a good idea: It’s become pretty risky to not accept chip cards in your bar or nightclub. Before the liability shift in 2015, you could rely on the issuing bank to eat fraudulent payment card charges made in your establishment, but that is no longer the case. Now, you are directly responsible to pay back the money, PLUS fines and fees. Ouch.

If you haven’t done it yet, don’t worry. Most bars and restaurants in the U.S. have been sluggishly adopting the new technology. However, it’s now time to act and figure out what you need to do to accept chip cards from patrons. We suggest starting by talking to your point of sale provider.

You can read more about why you should accept EMV/chip cards in our recent blog, Why You Need to CYA by Accepting EMV Payments.

Say Goodbye to the Swipe

Chip cards, also known as EMV cards, eliminate swiping all together. The new cards, which probably have replaced all your old magnet strip cards in your own wallet right now, are inserted into a chip card reader instead of being swiped.

EMV technology is much more secure since it generates a new processing number each time the card is read, and that number cannot be duplicated. In fact, these chip cards have dramatically reduced credit card fraud. When the European Union implemented the chip cards they saw an 80% reduction in fraudulent charges, according to Kiosk Marketplace.  

By the way, if you have FOCUS software, not to worry, your point of sale is fully capable of handling alternative payment methods.

Chip Cards Won’t Slow You Down

What does accepting chip cards mean for your nightclub or bar? For one, it does not mean a slowdown in service. Great strides have been made to speed up processing times on chip card readers and with a little bit of training and tweaking of work flows you have set up for your bartenders and cocktail servers, they shouldn’t miss a beat when switching from swiping to chip card terminals. Focus is currently beta testing a new feature that allows bartenders and cocktail servers to start a tab with a chip card, the same way they are used to running a bar tab with a swipe.

There are three ways you can speed up processing time in your bar or nightclub:

  1. Upgrade your internet connection – don’t let your network slow down your bar business
  2. Have the right point of sale – don’t let your POS hold you back from accepting EMV and other alternative payments
  3. Keep up with the latest payment terminals – the latest payments technology is imperative for getting the fastest processing speeds

Not to mention, few bar owners want to take on the costs associated with credit card fraud. It’s simply not worth the risk.

Going to the Nightclub & Bar Show in Las Vegas? So are we! Come see us at booth 421 and we can discuss how Focus POS California can help you achieve your business goals.

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Why You Need to CYA by Accepting EMV Payments

Restaurateurs, the time has arrived: the time to face the reality of EMV and all that comes with it. Many have been avoiding the inevitable, but as Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) becomes more ubiquitous, you can no longer ignore the writing on the wall — it’s time to get chip reader capabilities into your restaurant. Here are three really good reasons why you need to be chip card capable.

One: EMV Limits Your Liability

There are a slew of rules, regulations and compliance standards that come with EMV certification to protect both the merchant and the consumer. According to regulations in effect since 2015, you, instead of the issuing bank, are liable for chargebacks and fraudulent charges if your business doesn’t have EMV-compliant technology. The chip-based technology makes it harder for fraudulent charges to be made at the point of sale, protecting your customer’s accounts –and your business.

Two: EMV is More Secure

Accepting chip cards will let your customers know you are serious about their card data’s safety. EMV is quickly becoming the new “normal” for card payments among U.S. consumers, so they may be concerned about the safety of their accounts if you can’t process chip card payments.

EMV payments are more secure because the chip provides a unique encryption for the card each time it’s processed. The old magnet strips store the account data, allowing thieves to skim the card information and use it to replicate a card with the same numbers.

Three: EMV is the Future

Soon, customers will start expecting the level of security as credit card issuers have pretty much replaced all magnetic strip cards with chip enabled cards to their holders. If you are still swiping cards, that is going to be a sure sign your technology is out of date.

Taking table side payments and having mobile payment options with EMV is now a thing. Focus POS California offers EMV chip card readers that will give you these capabilities without breaking the bank that you can easily integrate into your current system.

Don’t Delay in Becoming EMV Capable

It seems like a huge undertaking but the liability you assume and customer loyalty you could lose by not accepting EMV payments in your restaurant, whether you are a fast casual or table service establishment, could be costly. Upgrade to EMV-capable technology to accept chip card payments so that you can avoid liability for fraudulent charges, provide more secure payments for your customers and make sure your payments technology is up to date.