Why 5 real-world merchants use (and love) their Clover Flex

Whether you own a food truck or a brick-and-mortar retailer, the Clover Flex can help you accept payments and access the full-featured power of a POS system from anywhere. These 5 real-world Clover merchants explain how they use their Clover Flex to run their business more effectively.

Rollin’ Smoke BBQ 

Dejuan Smith and Taneesha Thomas own Rollin’ Smoke BBQ, a food truck and mobile catering business in Conyers, Georgia. After being invited to serve as a vendor for an event requiring contactless payments, the pair got in contact with a Clover representative and had their Flex set up within the week. 

When they’re on the job, Taneesha keeps the Clover Flex handy in her fanny pack which is the perfect size to hold the device. They always charge it the night before so that it will hold its charge for the full six to eight hours they’re out selling BBQ. Besides the ease and portability of the Flex, Taneesha uses it to keep track of their inventory.

“It runs everything in real-time. If Dejuan sells out of an item, I’m able to go ahead and take that item out of the inventory right then and there. I’m not scrolling back and forth or making a mistake with the menu by saying, ‘yes, we have it,’ when actually we don’t,” says Taneesha. “At the end of the night, we’re excited to run the batch totals and see what our daily revenue and profit was. It’s perfect for our business model.”

Being able to handle the same level of reporting data as a stationary POS is one of the Flex’s biggest assets. It gives merchants complete visibility on the day’s activity – even when the days are crazy-busy.

Fannie’s West African Cuisine 

Fannie Gibson opened Fannie’s West African Cuisine in 2018, fulfilling her dream to own a restaurant that shared the foods she loved while growing up in Liberia with her new hometown of Kansas City. While Fannie’s is a full-service restaurant with a centralized POS, Fannie finds supplementing with a Clover Flex enhanced the intimate family atmosphere at the restaurant. 

“We use the Flex to take orders and also to ring up the customer right at the table,” says Fannie. “Everyone appreciates the convenience.”

Using the Flex to take orders tableside offers numerous benefits besides warming up a customer interaction. It helps reduce mistakes from staff’s messy handwriting or a misplaced ticket and can speed up orders and payments on a busy night. 

Reyna’s Tacos

After Leslie Reyna and her husband decided that the schedule they needed to work to keep their food truck profitable was unsustainable, they decided to purchase a disused gas station and convert it into a quick-service restaurant. Reyna’s Tacos is now a highlight of downtown San Angelo, Texas, complete with a drive-through and patio where customers can hang out and watch Cowboys games while they eat.

“Our setup is pretty unique, so we’ve been creative. We have three points of sale to make it easy for the customer to pay and order: the Clover Flex, Clover Station, and the Clover Mini,” says Leslie. “The Flex device is used when our drive-through line gets too long. We can have employees go down the line, taking orders and payments.”

While they don’t usually need all three POS devices, the Reyna’s team loves having the option to add the Flex when they need help line-busting on busy nights.

Out the Dough

Angelo Lonardo, the owner of Out the Dough, uses the Clover Flex at markets or festivals where he can help customers sample their edible cookie dough while simultaneously ringing them up. Angelo cultivates an air of nostalgia and family comfort for his customers and likes how the Flex lets him interact closely with the customers while still providing a secure (and sturdy) way to collect payments.

“We appreciate tracking in real-time how well an event or pop-up is going—using the [Flex] just like we do in the store! Plus, since the Clover Flex has its own data connection, we don’t worry about transactions not being processed due to poor internet or hotspot connections,” says Angelo. “It gives us peace of mind using a portable POS rather than carrying cash, handling change, and everything that comes along with that.”  

Clover Flex uses end-to-end encryption, fingerprint logins, and other measures to make sure your customer data and payments always stay protected.  

The Bellflower Chocolate Company 

Callie Neylan and Will Dixon started The Bellflower Chocolate Company to offer artisan, single-origin chocolate milk and other products to foodies and chocolate fanatics like themselves. When their original card reader’s wifi connection at farmers’ markets began to cause frustration and lost sales, they knew it was time to find a better POS.

As Callie puts it: “The Clover Flex has been really, really nice for us because our employees can use it as the point of sale” instead of downloading an app onto their personal phones. “And I also like that customers are really comfortable using it.” 

While the main draw of the Flex was its reliability and ease of use, Callie and Will also opted to use their Clover Flex to set up their robust inventory with multiple categories and modifiers. The process was super-quick and went even faster thanks to the device’s portability. The pair has found that this not only helps them stay organized but keeps the customers happier too.

“When you’ve got people waiting to pay, they’re used to doing it quickly and you want to be able to pull up items quickly and get to them,” says Will. “So personally I really like that.”

For stories about Clover merchants and what inspires them, be sure to peruse our Meet the Merchant series.

Editorial Team

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