Like quick-serve restaurants, banks are transitioning to more online services that cater to customer convenience. In addition to reconfiguring interiors and designing smaller buildings, some financial institutions are closing banking centers in markets that have density and entering new markets. One effect of this trend has been an increase in fees for restaurant customers who come inside the branch for deposits and change orders.
This isn’t a nefarious move on the part of banks—it’s simply where the industry is headed. Technology is making tedious, time-consuming restaurant duties—from changing fryer oil to making bank runs—an easier, safer experience. Working with cash management providers like Loomis, restaurants can streamline time-consuming cash management tasks and bank runs, which returns a significant amount of time to managers, increases safety, and boosts efficiency.
“The last thing a restaurant operator wants—especially in the current environment of labor shortages—is to be away from the store for longer than they have to be,” says Lenny Evansek, senior vice president of national retail business development at Loomis. “When you take a person out of the restaurant, it adds more stress to the employees who are left.”
Loomis works collaboratively with banks to manage the cash-handling so managers never have to leave the store for a bank run. Their SafePoint system uses smart safes and armored trucks to streamline the cash management process.
When cash is deposited and validated into a SafePoint Titan smart safe, restaurants are provided with provisional credit with their banking partner until a secure armored transport vehicle collects the funds. On the day of collection, Loomis will deliver a change order which was placed previously with the bank. Meanwhile, Loomis Direct, the company’s online account management solution, empowers operators to remotely track and manage every step of the process from anywhere in the world.
“The Loomis Direct portal shows any operator an enterprise-wide view of their cash deposit activity,” Evansek says. “They can see metrics minute by minute, hour by hour, or location by location throughout the day.”
Another common banking problem for restaurant operators is managing multiple banking relationships. Not all banks operate in all locations, which often forces operators to open (and manage) accounts at several banks.
“Virtual banking allows operators to consolidate all those disparate relationships,” Evansek says. “They can have as few as one bank portal, one reporting system, one analysis statement, and one relationship manager.”
Virtual banking also increases efficiency at corporate headquarters—CFOs can reduce their time spent opening and managing separate accounts with different processes when they’re dealing with one bank as opposed to five or 10. Additionally, Loomis has long-term provisional credit bank relationships with more than 200 financial institutions—meaning funds are guaranteed from the moment they are deposited into the Titan smart safe until the physical currency reaches the bank. Instead of fees for making physical deposits, operators pay for virtual banking services—the difference is they also increase efficiency and save on labor, too.
“When we work together with banks to move a client from a physical banking center to SafePoint, it’s a win-win for our client, for their banks, and for Loomis,” Evansek says.
For more information on SafePoint, visit loomis.us/restaurants.
– By Davina van Buren
