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“PAR Pay has been huge in allowing guests to pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and even from their smartwatches. One of our big technology initiatives has and will continue to be trying to ease the guest checkout process.”
Nick D’Antonio, VP of IT at Salad Collective and MAD Greens
Previous Tech Challenges :
- Unencrypted payments with below-par system security
- Needed a more user-friendly payment experience with a customer-facing device
- Guests were limited in payment options
PAR Solution:
- PAR Payment Gateway
- PAR® Brink POS®
- PAR Punchh®
Tech Results:
- 34% improvement in employee retention rates
- $4 per hour average increase in employee wages
- Frictionless checkout process
Part of Salad Collective, MAD Greens is a fresh fast-casual restaurant brand with 26 locations in the Arizona, Colorado, and Texas markets. To MAD Greens, healthy, fast, and fresh food should be mainstream, not the alternative. Since its doors opened in 2004, MAD Greens has been committed to providing guests with fresh, high-quality ingredients, exceptional culinary experiences, and excellent customer service.
Delivering on these commitments requires the brand to utilize the right technology throughout daily operations. In 2021, MAD Greens made the strategic decision to upgrade its previous payment system to a more modern and robust solution. The decision stemmed from concerns about the system’s security and the lack of user-friendly customer-facing devices. According to Nick D’Antonio, Vice President of IT at Salad Collective and MAD Greens, “At the time, we were just doing unencrypted payments through the terminal, we did not have any customer-facing devices, and security was really one of our biggest concerns.”
An Open and Secure One-Box Solution
With COVID restrictions still in effect, MAD Greens replaced its previous payment system with the PAR Payment Gateway to reduce guest friction at checkout as well as create convenient and secure payment experiences. The PAR Payment Gateway is an omnichannel payment gateway for EMV credit, EMV debit, gift cards, and more, enabling the brand to accept more payments on more channels with less complexity. “We initiated a trial with PAR Pay and that is when things really started moving forward,” said D’Antonio. “Operators were really happy with how well the quick chip processing worked, allowing contactless payments for guests, adding store and forward capabilities from the POS, and having the flexibility to do tips is what made the solution stand out for us.”
By leveraging the PAR Payment Gateway, MAD Greens now has a seamless connection between its payment solution, point-of-sale system (PAR Brink POS), and loyalty platform (PAR Punchh). The native integration between the PAR Payment Gateway and PAR Brink POS enabled MAD Greens to implement the solution quickly and seamlessly across all locations. “The PAR Pay onboarding process was super easy,” said D’Antonio. “The task of rolling out customer-facing terminals at all of our MAD Greens and Snappy Salads locations was a daunting task at the time. But it was really simple due to the seamless integration with Brink.”
PAR Pay Enables MAD Greens to Improve Employee Retention Rates by 34%
Enhanced Payment Experiences for Guests
Since implementation, MAD Greens has been able to provide guests with an easier and more secure checkout process as well as more payment options. By leveraging PAR’s better-together solutions, the brand has functionality consistency across its tech stack to provide frictionless payment experiences both in-store and online. Furthermore, PAR Pay continuously innovates and adapts with market-leading features and functionality, like preferred payment methods, that align with merchant and customer expectations.
A key PAR Pay feature MAD Greens has quickly fallen in love with is its NFC certification, which allows guests to make payments with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. “PAR Pay has been huge in allowing guests to pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and even from their smartwatches,” said D’Antonio. “One of our big technology initiatives has and will continue to be trying to ease the guest checkout process.”
Moreover, the PAR Payment Gateway provides the brand with the security needed to remove all risk and compliance from day-to-day operations. With P2PE (point-to-point encryption) at the point of swipe or tap, PCI compliance, and certifications such as PCI-DSS and SSF, MAD Greens can ensure the highest level of security to fully protect crucial customer and business data.
Fostering Employee Satisfaction and Retention
Additionally, during a period that plagued restaurant brands with a variety of challenges, like labor shortages and high employee turnover, the quick rollout of PAR Pay helped MAD Greens improve employee retention rates and even increase hourly wages. D’Antonio notes that prior to the PAR Payment Gateway, the brand had the traffic and sales needed to be successful, yet it still faced a shortage of staff to adequately meet demand.
However, with PAR Pay, MAD Greens has been able to focus on the superstar staff they already employ – rather than hiring new employees due to turnover – and properly compensate them through PAR Pay’s tipping feature customized to their preferences. The addition of PAR Pay’s customizable tipping feature has been immensely successful in the brand’s employee turnover efforts, empowering them to improve retention rates by 34%. “Late in 2021, we saw employee turnover go from 162% year ending to 133% in 2022,” explained D’Antonio. “Our employee turnover then continued to decrease down to 128% in 2023.” With PAR Pay’s customizable tipping feature, MAD Greens has been enabled to implement a company-wide tipping strategy, which has led to an average $4 per hour increase in hourly wages.
PAR Pay’s native integration with Brink POS has been pivotal for MAD Greens. The brand has not only been empowered to quickly roll out its tipping program in 30 days across all locations, but also collect, analyze, and customize payment data to their preferences. The ability to access this data not only helps MAD Greens report to employees on how much they are earning but also with back-end administrative tasks like calculating tip pools and distributing tips to staff members efficiently.
The PAR Payment Gateway natively integrated with PAR Brink POS and the PAR Punchh Loyalty solution has been advantageous on all fronts for MAD Greens. Overall, upgrading to the PAR Payment Gateway and leveraging PAR’s best-in-class better-together solutions has proven to be a strategic investment, enabling the brand to drive operational efficiencies, create secure and convenient payment experiences for guests, and drastically improve employee retention rates.
