Phishing, identity theft, duplicate charges. The list of warning signs consumers must watch for to protect their credit ratings and bank accounts grows each year. But a not-so-new handheld technology designed to save entrepreneurs money and consumers headaches has moved into La Plata County businesses.

“Normally, when you go to a restaurant, at the end of the meal, you put your card into a leather folder and then someone you don’t know takes it away,” said Kevin Bruce, owner of Professional Computer Solutions in Durango.

But banks and credit companies have long warned consumers against letting their cards leave their sight.

Once a credit card has disappeared into an establishment’s back room with a server, there’s no guarantee it will return. And there’s no guarantee that if it does, the card’s information hasn’t been improperly used or recorded in some way.

Theft prevention

At least half a dozen local restaurants have taken steps in recent years to eliminate those worries for their customers with wireless handheld devices that allow credit card transactions right at the table.

And some said they are finding the decision also has improved their operations and bottom lines.

“It eases tension with customers because their card never leaves their sight,” said Emily Meisner, owner of The Patio restaurant in Ignacio.

Meisner implemented the technology more than four years ago and hasn’t regretted the decision a day since, she said.

Not only has it improved customer relations, but it also “has cut down on mistakes” in customers’ orders and has improved operational efficiencies so much she was able to forgo an employee.

“It smoothed out the flow in the kitchen,” Meisner said. “When the server leaves the table, the customer’s order is already in the kitchen and the food is being prepared.”

Meisner’s employees couldn’t steal her customers’ credit card information if they tried now that they’re using the handheld point-of-sale systems, she said.

“That could never happen with this system,” she said. “We can never access the credit card number.”

The card is swiped at the table and immediately returned to the consumer. And the receipt shows none of the figures embossed on the plastic card.

Businesses catching up

It’s not a new technology, said Bruce, who sells to local businesses some of the many systems of this kind that are available. The concept has been used for years in Europe, but it has been slow to catch on here, especially in small-town America, he said.

Worried tourists and concerned locals have brought more local establishments on board with the technology in recent months, however.

Bruce said nearly half a dozen local restaurants, including Steamworks Brewing Co., The Ore House, East by Southwest and the Golden Triangle now have the technology in place. The latest restaurant to add the technology was Cuckoo’s Chicken House and Waterin’ Hole, he said.

“It has taken a little while for the technology to catch on,” Bruce said.

He has been selling and installing the encrypted wireless systems and software for more than five years, with the first sale going to a company in Pagosa Springs.

“But in the last 18 months, there has been more interest in it because it adds a lot of efficiency to the order process,” Bruce said.

Steamworks co-founder Kris Oyler said they installed the first handhelds a few months ago and hope to make the transition restaurantwide soon.

Each handheld device costs businesses just less than $2,000. A few local companies have invested tens of thousands of dollars to introduce the technology, Bruce said.

Surprise savings

For business owners like Meisner, the return on the investments have come quickly and from unexpected sources.

Meisner said she saw the biggest return on her investment in labor hours. Servers are literally traveling back and forth across the restaurant so much less that they’re now able to turn more tables during breakfast and lunch rushes, she said. Oyler already is seeing the same benefit, he said.

“It cuts out a whole lot of foot traffic in a restaurant,” Bruce said.

It also ensures order add-ons like sour cream or salsa are properly charged to the customer and make it onto the order tray when the food is served, local restaurateurs said.

One of Bruce’s Cortez-based customers reported a noticeable increase in the average dinner check at his establishment attributed to charges the customers should have been paying for in the past but weren’t.

“It’s pretty startling,” Bruce said. “They discovered they were missing a lot of items on customers’ receipts before.”

Meisner has seen similar benefits to having the system and says she’s surprised at how many local establishments still have their servers walking away with customers’ credit cards at the end of the meal.

“It really surprises me that more businesses haven’t jumped on board,” Meisner said.

Douglas Bergeron, chief executive officer of VeriFone, one of many brands of the handheld payment processing and ordering devices available in the market today, told The New York Times in 2007 that the restaurant business is “the only remaining place in the retail economy where the card disappears, where you actually hand it over and the transaction is not processed right in front of you.”

Bruce and Meisner predict that’s all finally about to change in the Four Corners.

“The technology will mean better, quicker service all the way around for customers,” Oyler said.

hscofield@durangoherald.com