Restaurant Point of Sale Systems: Innovation Can Help Enhance Profit – The Time is NOW!
When it comes to sourcing out POS software, you’ll be surprised that restaurant and hospitality operators have become much more tech proficient in recent years. Not only are they more comfortable choosing new POS systems, but they’re also demanding a bigger bang for their buck when it comes to their restaurant POS software choices. Thinking of upgrading your POS system? Here’s what you should be looking for in 2009.
It’s been a while when hospitality operators used to be so excited to use their first ever restaurant POS system. Still remember your first restaurant POS system? You had a sleek looking keypad, a little black plastic “key” and a manual of PLU codes to memorize. You punched in your food and beverage orders, and just like magic, your beverage orders printed out at the bar while your food orders are printed at the same instance in the kitchen. Everyone wanted to try it out!
Since then, the world of restaurant POS systems have evolved to meet the needs of people. Today’s hospitality operators are becoming much more tech savvy than used to be, and the POS industry is slowly responding. The big players in POS software systems are still out there, but a rapidly growing number of smaller companies have emerged through the years, and the big guys could see their portion of the POS pie gorged up quickly if they don’t give the current demands of today’s hospitality operators. So if you’re looking to invest on a new POS system this year, here’s what you should be looking for.
Data Reports -
The top two issues every hospitality-based business wants to get a handle on are food cost, and labor costs. Always keep those things in check, and your chances of succeeding in such a competitive market are impressively increased. A modern POS system will help you handle on these profit killers by simply allowing managers access to important, easy to understand data on demand, and in real time. A POS system with a high standard data reporting capabilities will allow you to forecast business volumes, which gives managers the info they need to handle scheduling and avoid unnecessary labor costs. Time and attendance can be precisely monitored. Real time and instant access to data also allows managers to quickly pinpoint problems and make snap decisions to address discrepancies in cash flow and adjust inventory levels. The POS system will pay for itself many times over if it can help you get a handle on these two issues alone.
Back Office Management & Integration -
With all your POS terminals linked together, combined with the ability to run reports, make menu and pricing changes on the fly, check inventory levels and consolidate payroll at one central location is crucial to running an efficient and profitable business. A modern POS system will allow you to do this quickly and easily, all from the back office. Integration and back office management capability should be the first thing on your list.
Proper Customer Relationship Management -
Successful promotions can can boost up your profit for as long as it can satisfy your customers. Making sure your coupon or gift card programs are working perfectly is a difficult task. If your POS system can quickly help you evaluate which promotions are performing well and which are not, you’ll be able to save time and money. Having a POS system that can keep track of customer histories, their likes and dislikes, comments, etc. can give you valuable insight into what future promotions you can put into plan, and which ones are most likely to work. Effective customer loyalty and points programs keep your customers coming back. So, when it comes to Customer Relationship Management, let your POS system do most of the work for you.
Wireless Technology: Mobile Computing & Hand Held Devices -
Wireless point of sale systems plays a very important role for businesses that operate outside of traditional, brick and mortar locations. Venues such as ski resorts, theme parks or even stadiums can greatly benefit from a wireless POS system (a portable concession stand or use in a private suite). In a more traditional environment, such as a restaurant, there are many benefits that wireless can provide, especially those handy wireless hand held devices.
With wireless hand held units, your server save time by not having to line up to get access to the POS terminal, and therefore are much more productive. Because the order is sent instantly, at tables, servers are able to roam around taking orders. Managers can minimize staffing levels by simply scheduling a few of his skilled employees, provide them with larger sections, and position their main focus at greeting customers, take orders and up-selling. Non-serving staff can then be hired (at significant payroll savings) for dispatching food and cleaning tables. When serving staff are able to remain on the floor, the result is a superb customer service experience for your regular customers and greatly increase sales by up-selling and faster table turns. Also, it can decrease waste of food since taking orders from tables help reduce errors.
Another great feature with wireless hand held devices is that it can send evenly spaced orders to the kitchen, so your kitchen isn’t overwhelmed by too many orders at once. This greatly increases the efficiency of your kitchen and further decreases waste. Wireless hand held technology has been greatly enhanced in recent years, with its increased battery life and ease of usage it improves staff performance. The time indeed has come for retail businesses to embrace wireless POS technology.
Payment Security -
Payment security is crucial in today’s marketplace. With the incidence of fraud and identity theft reaching epidemic proportions, safeguarding the safety of your client’s credit card data is vital. The PCI Security Standards Council is an open global forum for the ongoing development, enhancement, storage, dissemination and implementation of security standards for account data protection. Are you sure your POS system is secured and can comply with PCI standards? If it’s not, then you better find away to do so.
Self Service -
The self-service technology have been the talk of the town in recent years. Having moved beyond kiosks, the self-service option provided restaurant owners the ability to let customers process their own orders, reducing waste. Touch screen POS terminals are now intuitive and easy to use, and offer add on/up sell items instantaneously, which effectively boost the average check totals. The traditional “server staff” can be replaced by food runners, or counter staff, who’s also able to quality checks. Payments can even be done by customers, fastening table turns and increased cover counts.
Self-service POS terminals may not be attractive for patrons who wants fine dining experience, but it certainly is attractive for quick service dining establishments and fast food chains. I don’t recall Remanco offering all these features!
For Enterprise & Multi Unit -
For those who operate large and multi-venue operations, searching for the right POS systems can still be easy. Because to logistics and a host of other obstructions, businesses with multiple locations were forced to be creative in how they organize the collection of cash and data. With this kind of business, you may need enterprise wide systems that has features such as client recognition capabilities, hospitality and retail sales, as well as quick and easy debit and credit options and many more. It may also require a system that has the ability to get around cabling and network issues, as well as precious data in case of a system or network failure. And if your company matches into this category, a reliable and flexible enterprise POS solution would be perfect.
With all the things said above, many might think that it would be challenging to find the complete POS system that offers all of the above and more. Even so, there’s still one POS system that consistently stands out and it isn’t grouped with the POS industry. Toronto based Volante POS Systems, is a state of the art, modern and flexible POS system. The Volante seemingly posses all these features and more. It’s fully PCI compliant too! Volante first boasted its superiority in 1993, and is cross platform compatible, meaning it will run on Windows, Linux or Unix. But Linux POS solutions are quite attractive to use, because they are easy to use and helps restaurant owners cut costs by saving on Windows licensing fees.
With the above guide as your shopping list, so as a hospitality operator you should feel prepared when looking to upgrade your current POS system. If the POS software you’re looking at doesn’t offer the features your business really needs, move on. In today’s economic times, you really can’t afford not to.
If you seek more information or for an online resource?
Go to POS-For-Restaurants.com
The of this article author is the Vice-President of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants with over 20 years of experience helping restaurants of all types become more efficient and profitable throughout the U.S.