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Hospitality Consultancy Recommends Kickfin to Improve Clients’ Profitability

Restaurant Consultant

RK iNnovation logo

About the firm

RK iNNOVATION is a 360-degree collaborative restaurant and food consultancy that helps brands better engage their staff and guests, grow their business, and adapt to evolving environments.

Focus area

Individual restaurants, large international chains, startups and emerging growth brands

Year founded

2003

About the founder

Roger Kaplan has more than 40 years of hospitality experience, including roles as an executive chef, restaurant owner, concept developer and Fortune 500 VP of Operations.

“It’s a tight labor market. What are you doing to compete with other employers? Giving people instant access to their money — not making them come back in and pick up cash the next day, or make bank deposits, or wait for payroll…that’s important.”

Roger Kaplan, RK iNNovation

Roger Kaplan

Founder, RK iNNOVATON

Meet Roger, founder of RK iNNOVATION.

Before establishing RK iNNOVATION in 2003, Roger was involved in every aspect of the restaurant industry. His diverse background includes working as a nationally acclaimed chef, launching his own restaurant brands, leading concept development for Boston Market and serving as VP of Operations for Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.

Now, Roger uses his experience to help other restaurant teams improve their operations, ergonomics, and ultimately, their profitability and margins. His past and current client roster includes restaurant brands like Wendy’s, Friday’s, and Einstein Bagels, as well as large-scale food manufacturers like Heinz and Campbell’s.

A key focus of Roger’s consultancy work is bringing innovation to restaurant teams. That is, helping them to identify the right technology (and weed out the tools they don’t need), so they can build out a modern tech stack that delivers meaningful ROI.

Why RK Innovation recommends Kickfin

Roger says cash has become a major liability for restaurants.

“Cash is an incredible waste of resources,” Roger says. “It’s hugely time consuming. At this point, for many restaurants, cash represents somewhere around 5% of their total transactions. But managers end up spending 20% of their time dealing with cash.”

Kickfin solves for the cash challenges that Roger’s clients face on a daily basis — the same challenges that he himself struggled with for years as a restaurant owner and operator.

  • Safety: “After one of my GMs got mugged, I immediately put armored cars into my restaurants. But most teams aren’t doing that. It’s expensive. They’ll send someone to a bank, and that’s a risk. Kickfin eliminates that risk: your employees are safer, and you’ve also got less cash on the premises.”
  • Productivity: “When your managers are running to the bank, that means they’re not managing their team, they’re not taking care of guests. Kickfin keeps them where they should be — on the floor.”
  • Employee retention: “It’s a tight labor market. What are you doing to compete with other employers? It’s not just about the money; it’s the perks and benefits, too. Giving people instant access to their money — not making them come back in and pick up cash the next day, or make bank deposits, or wait for payroll…that’s important. If you’re doing it, and your competitors aren’t, why would your employees leave you? ”

“As a consultant, my priority is improving profitability for my clients. Using Kickfin to digitize tip payouts can have a huge impact on operations, productivity and employee satisfaction.”

Roger Kaplan, RK iNNovation

Roger Kaplan

Founder, RK iNNOVATON

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