Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 31, 1993                   TAG: 9310290102
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Knight-Ridder Newspapers
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RESTAURANTS BUILD PROFILES, TRACK VISITS WITH SOFTWARE

You arrive at the restaurant and, seconds after you say your name, the server knows exactly where you want to sit, what you want to drink and how long it's been since you last ate there. She knows your spouse's name and your favorite sports team. And she had a pretty good idea you'd be there that night because it's your birthday, and the restaurant had mailed you a two-for-one meal coupon just for the occasion.

It doesn't end there. Because your tab came to $27, you earned 27 frequent-diner points that someday will earn you another free meal.

Such is what a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company, Pinnacle Hospitality Systems, has in store for the restaurant scene. Pinnacle's product, a $1,495 software package, works with the Pinnacle point-of-sale system.

The frequent-diner program was introduced ago at the Florida Restaurant Association Expo in Orlando. Five restaurants have bought it, including the R.J. Gator's chain, based in Jupiter, Fla.

"Some people cannot believe it's possible that the bartender remembers your drink or that the server knows that you like chicken wings," said R.J. Gator's marketing director, Jim Samuel. "It promotes a friendly kind of atmosphere."

Pinnacle was founded in 1989 by two former managers of Siemens-Nixdorf Information Systems' Miami office, Donald Potter and Stevan Barber. Potter, the president, said he began developing the frequent-diner program last December.

"We designed it so you can have any program you want," said Potter.

Restaurants build their databases by having customers fill out personal information cards. The information - names, birthdays, anniversary dates, favorite drink and anything else a restaurant would care to ask - is entered into the computer. When a customer returns, the server pops the customer's diner card into the computer, and the biography appears on the screen.