Brinker International Gift Card Project

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Brinker International Gift Card Project
National Restaurant Association Management
Information Systems Executive Study
Group Spring Meeting April 17, 2002 Karen
Bridges Project Manager
2

• Financial benefits
• Fraud tracking reduction
• Escheatment loss recovery
• Declining balances
• Increased sales/redemptions

• Marketing benefits
• Wave of the future
• Special use cards
• Cross concept usage
• Co-branding and cross-consortium possibilities

3

• I.T. benefits
• Fully integrated with POS
• Speed of transactions
• Cards not hot until sold
• Online vs. offline processes
• Real time information tracking
• Access to detailed card history for customer
  relations
• Data available for daily reconciliation and
  detailed reporting

4

• Select program partners
• Determine program features
• Work through system integration or stand-alone
  device limitations
• Establish card design with appropriate legal
  verbiage
• Determine card fulfillment arrangements
• Consider franchise implications
• Create detailed training plans
• Determine reconciliation and reporting processes

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• Establishing a committed cross-functional team is
  key!

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• WAN had already been implemented
• We were already processing credit cards via the
  WAN
• We had established a strong partnership w/AJB
• We had resource flexibility via our relationship
  w/CTS
• We had total control of our POS

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• How to handle off-site sales/bulk activations
• Multiple tenders
• Batch processing offline transactions
• How to address tips
• Cash back processes
• Non-denominated vs. pre-denominated cards

8

• Minimum and maximum values
• Balance transfers
• Reload capability
• Same day usage parameters
• Inventory control issues
• Controlled testing was critical

9

• Integrated or stand-alone functionality?
• Varying platforms required a stand-alone solution
• Had to sacrifice some control with stand-alone
  functionality
• Cumbersome processing
• Additional cost and coordination required
• Technical support and training needed for new
  device
• Cross boundary reporting needs and options
• What will your partner provide?
• What does your accounting team require?

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• Separate merchant IDs (by site) required for
  stand-alone solution and needed for reporting
• How to reconcile?
• Daily processing of restaurant level poll files
  and PTD file from ValueLink provides an
  unmatched report
• Additional costs
• Lease agreements for stand-alone device
• Cost of card/carrier production
• Marketing costs

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• 6 month timeline and drop dead date for release
• Communication throughout the organization
• Extensive training materials not utilized
  effectively
• Influx of technical support calls for training
  issues
• Inventory control at the restaurant level
• How to address cold card incidents

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• Challenges with partner
• Brinkers aggressive timeline may not have been
  realistic even though partner committed to it
• Gaining certification and testing was challenging
• Getting all pertinent information up front was
  not easy
• Technical support for I.T. implementation lacking
• 24x7 helpdesk proved to only be an information
  desk with no call logging
• Should have established an account manager during
  implementation

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• Sale and redemption benefits
• During contest season (11/00 12/00), comp store
  gift card sales up 25 over last year
• During January 2001, comp store redemptions up
  29 over last year
• Cross concept benefits
• Redemptions within concept ranged from 62 - 87
• Redemptions from other concepts and franchise
  partners ranged from 11 - 38
• Largest concept gave away small on their base
  which resulted in pick up of large for
  smaller concept bases

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• Other notable benefits
• Monitoring of non-denominated sales by value
  range to determine which denominations make sense
  for a concept
• Tracking of add-on value by concept, by card
  denomination
• Tracking of card usage for fraud and abuse can
  see by store, by server, etc.
• Using historical gift card data to develop
  escheatment management processes

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• Cross consortium with Lettuce Entertain You
  Enterprises
• Enhanced bulk sale functionality for more
  streamlined off-site sales processes
• Ability for home office accounting team to
  deactivate hot cards via swipe mechanism
• Better segregation of paper vs. plastic activity
  on restaurant level reports

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• Enhanced cash back tracking and reporting at the
  restaurant level
• Modem/dial up processing for franchise partners
  utilizing our POS
• Third party software enhancements for franchise
  partners utilizing the stand-alone solution
• Auto posting of bad debt to appropriate stores
  G/L