End user: La Centrale, Miami, FL
Challenge: Monitor activity at the 40,000-square-foot emporium’s five bars and collect data to stop loss and employee theft.
Solution: Glimpse Performance Insights Solution and surveillance cameras integrated with the point of sale (POS) system
Results: Loss reduced by more than 30 percent, employees consistently follow procedures, increased customer satisfaction
The Challenge
La Centrale in Miami is 40,000 square feet of Italian-inspired restaurants, cafes, markets, and shops. Throughout the emporium, five bars serve imported wines, specialty cocktails, craft and Italian beers. The bars have proven to be popular attractions for customers — but challenges for operations director Ivan Haller.
La Centrale, like most bars, was experiencing loss from unaccounted sales, employees not following standard operating procedures (SOPs), and employee theft. Even in a small bar or nightclub, it’s difficult for managers to keep a close watch on every transaction, but with five venues in the expansive La Centrale, it was virtually impossible.
Haller considered using a secret shopper service to assess staff performance and compliance with SOPs, but he wanted a tech-based system that would make oversight completely objective.
The Solution
After evaluating options, La Centrale chose the Glimpse Performance Insights solution. “Once I saw the numbers and the technology behind it, it was a no brainer,” says Haller.
Glimpse monitors all transactions through video cameras and matches the data to preset SOPs, a process that reveals employee noncompliance and provides data on the speed and quality of service that employees deliver.
The Glimpse system also includes detailed reporting. Haller says he logs into Glimpse twice a week and pull reports that show sales transactions and whether they were accounted for in the point of sale (POS) system on time — or if they were accounted for at all.
Haller says Glimpse also gives him and his staff the ability to review in-depth reports so they can evaluate how employees are following SOPs. “The reporting is straightforward, and you can set it up however you like. The process is easy and user-friendly,” says Haller. “It saves us a lot of time, and gives us the information we need to understand what’s occurred and to resolve issues on the back end.”
Haller says after the initial setup, it took only a day or two to learn the system and to configure reports so they’d be most useful to him and his staff.
The Results
Since implementing Glimpse loss at La Centrale has been reduced by at least 30 percent. With irrefutable data from Glimpse, La Centrale has been able to prove employee theft. And with the staff aware that mangers are watching each transaction, attempts at theft are curbed.
“Before, even with a manager on the floor or with secret shoppers, some employees found a way to cheat the system. Now they know we’re watching and it’s black and white,” says Haller. “That in itself is an incentive. I don’t care if they give a comp to a customer who just spent a thousand dollars, but they have to put it in the system. They know if they don’t, it will show.”
Haller adds that shrinkage isn’t only related to theft. Employees sometimes forget to follow procedures, which can lead to loss or dissatisfied customers. With Glimpse, Haller has the perfect tool for retraining, showing staff the video of transactions and pointing out how to improve service or processes by following the proper procedures. “Everyone knows what to do, and we’re more productive and profitable,” says Haller, “and it sets the beverage manager up for success.”
Haller also comments that the Glimpse team has been easy to work with, responding quickly to questions. He says they’ve also been receptive to their ideas: “We’re very, very pleased. We even asked if they could provide us a system for the kitchen that could help us monitor food inventory similarly to monitoring liquor at the bar. We’d definitely use that as well.” 
