Welford’s Bistro and Bakes was established as a family-based catering business from a beautiful house in Higgovale, Cape Town on 1 January 2015. By April the same year, the demand for their fresh food catering services had expanded and the company purchased a restaurant in Observatory with a much larger kitchen.
Today, the company has three divisions – a catering service, a bakery, and restaurant, the latter providing a venue for special events over weekends.
Challenges
According to Nelson Ferreira, Welford’s bistro director, with the company’s rapid expansion programme and plans to acquire another venue in the near future, they had outgrown their historical card payment system. The transaction speeds were slow, and due to the layout of the premises, there was not enough network coverage to support these machines.
“We were incredibly frustrated, as our card machines kept bombing out and our customers would have to walk to the nearby ATM and withdraw money, which was not good for business and customer relations,” he adds.
Solution
Nelson says they looked for a solution they could rely on for maximum transaction speeds and quick turnaround times.
“We were already using Sureswipe’s mobile card machines, which worked brilliantly for transactions on the move. At the beginning of June this year, we installed Sureswipe’s new Integrated Payment System, deploying their machines inside and outside of premise, which has not only solved all our network and connectivity issues, but also integrates with our Pilot POS system,” he says.
“The efficiency of Sureswipe’s integrated system and its ability to cope with our growth is important to us as we enter the next expansion phase of our business.”
Benefits
Nelson explains that payments are now processed within 2 seconds on average per transaction, which has not only been a game changer for the business, but for also for their customers.
“Sureswipe’s Integrated Payment Solution in-premise uses the restaurant’s full dial-up system, but also has a back-up modem, which results in peace-of-mind as it guarantees total uptime of the network.”
The new integrated payment solution is geared for medium to larger retail operations, as it accommodates expansion and large volumes of transactions. Previously, a retailer required a number of partners to run an integrated Point-of-Sale system – a connectivity partner, a card acceptance partner and a processor – with separate contract costs. With Sureswipe’s new solution, there is one point of contact contract providing all these services.
“Because Sureswipe is an independent payment provider, their support is extremely efficient and prompt, which is important to us as a fast turnaround customer-centric operation,” Nelson adds.