How Twelve helps Café Rocks in Enschede handle even the busiest nights with ease
Local pub for thirty years, now with a POS register that keeps up the pace
Café Rocks has been an institution in Enschede since 1994. A local pub in the truest sense of the word: great music, regulars aged 18 to well into their 70s, and a bar that keeps running, even on the busiest nights.
Owner Kees Riemersma runs the café together with his partner Luc, with whom he once started out as a bartender on the Leidseplein in Amsterdam.
We spoke to Kees about switching to Twelve, and how a modern POS and payment system makes all the difference in a café where speed and personal connection go hand in hand.
A rock café that has never been empty
Kees and Luc met each other in Amsterdam’s bar scene. Both worked on Leidseplein, in the rock cafés that defined this Amsterdam area. Luc was the first to spot an opportunity: “This doesn’t exist in Enschede.” In 1994, they opened Café Rocks. “The bar was packed from day one,” Kees recalls, almost wistfully. “It’s never once been empty.”
These days, Café Rocks is a true local pub with a loyal following. But behind that warmth lies a serious business operation. With one bar, live music and parties that fill the venue to the rafters, everything behind the scenes has to run at lightning speed.
An outdated POS system and the search for something better
For years, Café Rocks worked with a more traditional POS system. When the supplier announced they would discontinue their service, Kees had to look elsewhere. “We considered whether to continue with Vectron, or move to a cloud-based system.”
They ended up picking Twelve, which started with a chance encounter. “We first came across Twelve at the Horecava hospitality trade fair. By chance I ended up talking to the Twelve team, and they were able to answer so many of my questions right away.”
What followed was a careful process: a second conversation at another trade fair, bringing the whole team along, and getting to ask all their remaining questions. “Can the system do this? Can it do that? Everything turned out to be possible.”
For Kees, it ultimately came down to trust. “Over a period of 31 years, you gain considerable experience with POS systems, both good and bad. What you’re really looking for is trust in a company. Once you find that, you start working together and then you move forward.”
Five card terminals in one small café
The real test for any POS system at Café Rocks are the peak moments. Live music, parties, a packed summer terrace: everything simply has to keep running. “In the beginning it was really nerve-wracking,” Kees says. “Is this new POS register going to be able to handle it?”
The answer turned out to be a resounding yes. Behind the bar are two screens, each connected to a card terminal. But it doesn’t stop there. “The moment it gets really busy, a third person can step in with their own handheld. Everyone can just keep working.”
On summer days, staff also walk around outside with their handhelds to serve guests anywhere. In total, the small café has five card terminals, soon to be six.
“This leads to really high order and transaction speeds,” says Kees. “You can process a huge number of orders per hour.” The result: short waiting times for guests, but also a team that never has to wait on each other.
Café Rocks has also been running its own customer card system for over twenty years. When switching to Twelve, it was essential for this system to be transferred along. With over a thousand registered cardholders, the system now runs entirely in the cloud, including an app that lets guests manage their balances themselves.
“The POS register is the heart of your business. Without that heart, you don’t have a business.”
Kees Riemersma
Owner, Café Rocks
Always in control, even during five weeks of holiday
What Kees particularly values about Twelve is the management and insight module. “I always take a five week holiday in the summer. Every morning I work for half an hour, maybe forty-five minutes. I open my laptop, I open the management dashboard, and I can see everything that’s going on.”
That digital accessibility fits into a broader plan. Kees is thinking about the next ten years and a potential handover of his businesses. “Then you want consistent operations. My entire POS register is integrated with SnelStart, my accounting system. Everything is filled in automatically. No more hassle.”
It’s a deliberate choice for professionalization. “The manual work is over. Digitalization in your business has increased enormously. You have to believe in the system.”
So convinced that his second venue is switching too
The strongest proof that Twelve delivers on its promises? Kees is now also replacing the POS system in his second venue, even though those POS registers are only two years old. “They haven’t even been depreciated yet. They’re still completely new. And yet I’m replacing them, because the Twelve system simply works better.”
For business owners who feel the same hesitation he once had, Kees has clear advice: “You have to be open to innovation. In the beginning you might think: I don’t understand any of this. But you get past that very quickly. And once it works, you’re glad you took the leap.”
Café Rocks has been a much-loved local pub for thirty years now. With Twelve on board, the business also runs faster and with more clarity. Kees and Luc are fully prepared for the next thirty years, including when it comes to their second venue.
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