An Ely restaurant goes hi-tech

ELY - A new restaurant in Ely has the distinction of being the only establishment in the Northland to use a handheld device to take customer orders. When Jim Richards and his family opened Rockwood Restaurant last month, they were looking for ways to run an efficient business.

“Any tool to try to help streamline our business and make for better customer service is basically priceless to us,” says Richards. Richards and his family decided to have their food servers use cutting edge handheld point of sale devices. Servers can take a customer's order from the palm of their hand.

“All you have to do is plug it in and the kitchen gets the order, or the bar gets the drink order,” says food server Jordan Richards.

Out with the old, pen and paper, and in with the new, handheld point of sale device, these little machines not only benefit the restaurant but also the customer. “I thought it was very efficient,” says lunch patron, Richard Stevens.

These little devices increase efficiency, ultimately providing customers a better experience. “Any little thing to try to do a better job for the customers,” says Richards, “the servers aren't coming inside and outside, they can stay out there, stay with the customers and then we just have the food and the beverages ran out while the server is always at the tables.”

When the meal is done, servers can use the handheld device to swipe the customer's credit card right at the table, eliminating the potential of identity theft “When you swipe it through here, they see all the transactions happening right in front of them, just like they would see at a retail shop,” says Max Boller with Integrated Restaurant Systems, the company that sells the devices.

The device is just an example of a high tech tool helping small town America be ahead of the curve.