Can a CCTV security system increase your profits? CCTV systems, closed circuit television cameras with monitors, can allow you to monitor your property and help head off problems, but it can also help stop entitled employees from siphoning off your profits into their friends’ drinks.
If you own a bar or tavern, you don’t need an industry survey to tell you that you lose as much as 35% of your possible profit due to “shrinkage” –the euphemism for what you lose in productivity thanks to employee theft, poor work habits and pure incompetence. Bar owners, for example, are often at the mercy of bartenders who pour free drinks for friends, over pour drinks for favorite customers or make a drink for the hot blond with Grey Goose instead of Smirnoff. It may not seem like much to the bartender, but when it happens shift after shift, it can take a healthy bite out of your weekly profits.
You may, however, be surprised to find out that poor work habits can account for a bite nearly as big as theft does. Most employees guilty of “wastage” don’t really mean to cost you money, and they’d be surprised to realize how costly their little mistakes can be over time. Many bar owners are startled to learn, after purchasing a CCTV surveillance system, just how much of their potential profits end up poured down the drain as “mistakes” or when a pitcher placed under a tap for filling overflows because the bartender is distracted.
Cameras mounted where they can record the goings on behind the bar can help you pinpoint incidents of waste and outright theft so that you can deal with them through better training or through disciplinary actions. That alone can increase your profits by a surprising margin. Even more importantly, a video surveillance system at the door can help establish facts when you’re facing legal questions, such as proving that IDs are being checked at the door appropriately, or that a patron was drunk before entering your business. For even more security in cases that might endanger your license, you can combine a CCTV camera with a DVR to record the ID itself.
Why let nearly a quarter of your profits slip away in “complimentary” drinks, pocketed tickets and spilled beers? Check out the range of CCTV systems available for your bar, tavern or nightclub to see how cameras and monitors can help you keep more of the profits to which your business is entitled.