When Chipotle first began seeking a solution for minimizing employee theft while simultaneously increasing efficiency and optimizing the customer’s experience, the national restaurant chain’s search brought them to LMI partner Envysion. Chipotle’s legacy system was composed of VCRs and DVRs, none of which were tied into store point of sale (POS) systems. Although store management could see and flag some suspicious activities, they didn’t have visibility into sales behaviors, such as ringing up only a bag of chips, which might signal employee fraud. After speaking with Envysion, the restaurant group decided to roll-out a staged upgrade across its more than 1,750 stores.
The Envysion solution chosen for each store consisted of a networked EnVR®, Envysion’s proprietary network digital video recorder, with strategically placed high-resolution, audio-capable cameras and POS data integration. To ensure the equipment was installed courteously and professionally, Envysion hired LMI to execute a number of key deployments.
LMI integration specialists were involved with the project for 11 months, and at every store they made LMI’s customary effort to be friendly, to resolve store issues and concerns, and to make sure the installation was clean and neat per LMI standards. Technicians were given a comprehensive, 13-point checklist of items to ensure the deployment was executed properly. They also performed a pre-installation walkthrough with store management and were tasked with ensuring that camera views pre-determined by corporate management could be achieved. If they found problems, such as cameras pointing at bright windows or difficult mounting or cabling issues, they worked with a corporate contact to resolve them.
After the installation was complete and the working area tidy, installers connected with an Envysion employee to sign off on the camera views. Post installation tasks, if any remained, were also discussed at that time.
Today, the restaurant group is delighted with project results and is using the equipment for more than employee theft deterrence. Having cameras on the customer wait lines enabled management identify stores that were losing business due to excessive wait times. They increased staff to reduce waits, with a subsequent increase in store sales and profitability. Furthermore, management uses information from the system to respond to customer incidents and to review, explore and report on exceptions from a rotating schedule of reports.
Not only has the solution helped mitigate risk and theft; it has also driven measureable profit gains across the entire operation. We hope you will take a few minutes to read this fascinating case study.
Installation Partner: LMI
LMI, a full-service integrator and installation specialist, was an onsite deployment specialist for the Chipotle project, installing EnVR Digital Video Recorders and IP Cameras at numerous locations nation-wide. Serving enterprises large and small since 1962, LMI has deep expertise in large-scale, regional and national installation and deployments of electrical, electronic, network, audio visual, security and communications equipment. Over the years, the firm has built many fruitful partnerships with companies such as Envysion, recommending and installing their products for its projects. For more information, visit www.lmisystemsinc.com.
