Custom SMART Safe Solution for CKE Restaurants

A Custom SMART Safe Solution for a QSR Leader

A Custom SMART Safe Solution for CKE Restaurants

You could say Anne Sullivan was one tough customer…and one good partner.

A respected leader in the loss prevention and security industry, Sullivan had just started her new role as Director of Loss Prevention for CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc., which owns, operates and franchises some of the most popular brands in the quick-service restaurant industry, including Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, Green Burrito and Red Burrito.

Sullivan was familiar with the benefits of smart safe products, but she also wanted something more. When she first met with AMSEC, which had a long-standing relationship with the QSR leader, but was new to Sullivan, she issued the challenge. “Show me a product which is going to give control and visibility of our cash back to us, the customer.”

“We had AMSEC products in our stores for over 20 years,” Sullivan said. “A review of our experience and our service calls showed me the high level of quality with the AMSEC safes in place, which made me, want to look at their smart safe.”

“When I first got together with AMSEC, they listened to our pain points and took a lot of notes…We worked with AMSEC towards a common goal to build a really great smart safe, for both the manufacturer and user.”

What transpired over the next several months was a painstaking process to build a custom smart safe solution for CKE. One that would allow the operators of CKE’s flagship Carl’s Jr. stores to not only protect their assets but also win back their most precious commodity…time.

“Time is everything when you are an operator,” Sullivan said, “The loss of time can equal the loss of customers and sales. We did a time study within our stores and determined that from start to finish, a bank deposit was taking an average of one-and-a-half to three hours. Time away from the customer was a big consideration”

After a solid nine months of customer-manufacturer development, CKE ran its first in-store tests of the CashWizard in July of 2014. By December, they made the decision to launch the new CashWizard smart safe solution in all Carl’s Jr. outlets, but there was one more hurdle.

“To show just how customer-engineered the process was,” Sullivan said, “After we made the decision to move forward with the CashWizard smart safe, we realized there were three different counter sizes in our current stores and future concepts and the original solution would not fit all of them.

“AMSEC went out and took the measurements and came back with a hybrid solution that would fit all of our concepts, minimizing costs of counter modifications. I do not know of many companies that would do that.”

For Sullivan and the team at Carl’s Jr., the partnership with AMSEC is paying dividends where it matters most, time and security.

“For us there were a couple of key factors, the first was transparency – with the CashWizard remote management capabilities, we can see our cash,” Sullivan said. “At Carl’s Jr, over the past two years, we have not incurred any investigation costs normally associated with a lost deposit thanks to CashWizard.

“The second was service. Time is money and with AMSEC, the average number of e-mails needed to resolve an issue is two – and usually the issue is resolved by the end of the day,” Sullvan continued. “They are available seven days a week, 24 hours a day. If an issue happens over the weekend, we don’t wait for Monday, it’s handled.

“Overall, as a customer, knowing that you have a vendor that partners with you and goes to tremendous lengths to ensure that you’re happy with their products and service, is not only extremely satisfying but also builds a level of trust that you don’t always find.”

Click for more information on the new AMSEC CashWizard Smart Safe solution.