Modern POS systems can make more of a difference to your business than you might think. If you still think of point of sale purely in terms of processing payments and logging what your customers have ordered, you’re missing out on a whole world of possibilities that the latest solutions offer.
Get the right POS and you basically have a complete digital management system for running your restaurant. From table service to takeout, making advance bookings to passing orders to the kitchen, a digital POS system can serve as a central hub for all of your operations, making everything more streamlined and efficient and boosting performance across the board.
This all sounds like music to every restaurateur’s ears. But it depends on getting the right POS solution in place. Here are three tips for choosing the solution that will make a genuine difference to your restaurant.
Touchscreens make everything easier
We’d go as far as say that if you’re looking at a POS system that doesn’t have a touchscreen user interface these days, just walk straight on by. Touchscreens have become the expected standard in quality POS solutions for a reason. They are intuitive to use, they are familiar, they allow actions to be performed that much faster and more efficiently.
In a restaurant especially where you have to key in numerous individual menu items individually to make up an order, having everything laid out graphically on a screen where you simply touch the icons to select is so much simpler than using a keyboard.
Connect your kitchen
One of the big evolutions in POS is that it is now no longer just a front-of-house tool. In retail, it is common to connect POS directly to inventory management systems, so people working in the storeroom can pick and replenish stock the moment a sale is made. Similarly, in the restaurant industry, POS can be connected straight to a kitchen display system so orders are visible and queued the moment they are input.
No more stray pieces of paper, no more delays as busy waiting staff take time to pass an order on – kitchen display systems can make a huge difference to how quickly meals are served, boosting customer satisfaction.
Choose endpoints to suit your business
The classic POS endpoint is the cashier’s terminal that sits in a fixed place ready to input orders and process payments. POS terminals remain a mainstay of restaurant POS, but it’s important to pick the right option to suit your business. If you run a small restaurant where space is at a premium, you’d be better off with compact unit that offers different mounting options than a large terminal with a huge screen. In a larger restaurant, it might make sense to have two or more terminals so staff are not waiting around to use the same one.
There are also options like mobile POS tablets and self-service kiosks to consider. Mobile POS tablets make a lot of sense in dine-in establishments, allowing waiting staff to input orders and process payments directly at the table, again boosting efficiency and quality of service. Self-service kiosks have been a smash hit in the quick-service restaurant sector, letting customers input orders directly and slashing waiting times.