The Scaffidi Restaurant Group (SRG) has been making award-winning homemade Italian cuisine for the Ohio Valley community since 2009.
Family-owned by Dawn and Nino Scaffidi, they first opened Scaffidi’s Pasta restaurant with an authentic menu of blended recipes and techniques from their grandmothers. They quickly expanded in 2011 to Scaffidi’s Restaurant and Tavern with a 250-seat restaurant, bar, private event spaces, and catering services.
Today, Scaffidi Restaurant Group (SRG) employs 30+ staff across 2 locations. Their two latest two ventures were born in Spring 2021 with overwhelming success – Scaffidi’s Wings on Wheels and Scaffidi’s Gnocchi Nook, which offers make-your-own-pasta bowls. Everything is made fresh daily, and Dawn and Nino’s goal of bringing the taste of “grandma’s house on Sunday” to Ohio continues to keep their customers happy.
As part of an executive team of three, Director Frankie DiCarlantonio has been with SRG since its beginnings when he was just a teenager. He now oversees all business aspects of the food service corporation, including being their go-to for technology as they’ve grown.
The challenge
As a food service business, much of the Scaffidi Restaurant Group is centered around their point-of-sale (POS) systems. However, their previous POS system was outdated, unreliable, and had to be wired. All of this caused great frustration and costly losses in revenue.
Throughout 2020, the pandemic accelerated Frankie’s need for technology to support a shift to online ordering and delivery as well as pivoting to a reliable budget-friendly WiFi-based POS system.
However, in order to implement a new wireless POS system, Frankie also needed a reliable always-on WiFi solution. After an online search for secure WiFi for small businesses, Frankie opted for the entire Meraki Go portfolio on Amazon. He felt that Meraki Go was the “best of both worlds.” First, it was backed by Cisco, which is trusted for IT. It was also an easy low investment purchase.
The results
Being brand new to IT, Frankie pleasantly surprised himself and his co-workers when he set up and wired all their Meraki Go devices on his own. The best part? “Everything just worked,” he said.
Empowered by Meraki Go, Frankie switched Scaffidi’s POS system to Square. It allowed them to conveniently centralize their orders in one hub and automate order processing. They immediately found that the WiFi indoor access points connected many more people and devices, such as the restaurant’s new Kitchen Display Systems (KDS).
In addition, everyone has raved about the introduction of table-side payments, which the Scaffidi Restaurant Group enabled for the first time through Meraki Go’s indoor and outdoor access points. Table-side payments have brought more convenience for customers while reducing staff credit card transaction errors by 98%. Their new WiFi-powered POS terminals are also able to capture customer information, which has resulted in new loyalty programs that have increased repeat business by 8%.
Meraki Go network switches are a way Frankie brought more connectivity for the business’ wired devices. The switches have also allowed the restaurant to change their phones to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which means the administrative team can now conveniently answer the restaurant’s calls on their mobile phones.
“Prior to using Meraki Go, we would try to use other business equipment that was either too difficult to set up or could not handle our volume of WiFi traffic. Meraki Go has remedied all of those problems.”
Frankie DiCarlantonio
Director, Scaffidi Restaurant Group
And finally with Meraki Go’s router/firewall, Frankie can securely segment their online networks. The SRG team is particularly excited about the guest WiFi they created that keeps their customers separate from the networks used by employees, their business equipment (like printers), and the restaurant’s music systems.
The ease of the Meraki Go app has been a beautiful thing for Frankie, as he can now monitor and control guest bandwidth from anywhere. The app allows him to troubleshoot network issues remotely, so he has now reclaimed the 2 hours he used to commute between all the business’ locations to take care of the tech troubles. Everything can be done from the palm of his hand.
Since setting up Meraki Go in November 2020, the Scaffidi Restaurant Group has experienced zero WiFi outages and now have peace-of-mind with cybersecurity. Frankie loves the many tools available – remote troubleshooting to see if devices are online or offline, Guest Insights to see visitor volume over time, and even how many people use guest WiFi to improve decisions on their marketing spend.
Not only is Frankie happier, but his staff and customers are happier, too.
Small business tips
Frankie shares his top three tips for other small businesses:
- Embrace technology
To prepare for the future and stay competitive, embrace technology if you can fit it into your budget. The Ohio Valley tends to be behind in the times, but pivoting to DoorDash when they launched here opened up new revenue streams for us. - Invest in versatile technology
Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into equipment that isn’t flexible or scalable. Invest in WiFi-enabled POS systems that let you do more than just transactions. For us, it was online delivery, table-side payments, and loyalty programs. - When it doubt, DIY
Don’t be afraid to do things on your own! Especially when it comes to your WiFi and POS systems. It may seem daunting to set up devices by yourself, but the long term convenience and headaches saved more than make up for it.
Visit the Meraki Go site to learn more about our intuitive and innovative solutions that support small business.
