Owning a coffee shop is a dream for many current and aspiring entrepreneurs. The naturally relaxed atmosphere, the soft din of various conversations, and the freedom to express different angles to your brand have long intrigued people to give the coffee shop business a try. Adding a line of pastries, and the opportunity to host community and art building events help to complete the circle of satisfaction many coffee shop owners feel at the end of the day. As dreamy as it may sound, this can all change in a flurry. Coffee shop point of sale software can help.
Inpatient customers standing in line during the morning rush, nervously glancing at the time, only works to place stress on your staff and other customers. Then there is the overly complex customer that reaches the front of the line and causes your backup to grow by an additional five minutes. You know, the one that wants a triple-shot latte with half whole milk, half almond milk, with a pump of one flavor, one pump of another, but wanting the flavor pumps added to the milk and before it is steamed, and then poured. And oh wait, sorry, this is too sweet. Can you remake this again, please?
The unique characteristics of running a successful coffee shop introduce elements that are crying out for an innovative POS platform to help shoulder the load. From internal-facing processes, such as managing inventory and staff to external-facing aspects of the customer experience, like mobile ordering or loyalty programs, can all be made easier and more efficient when the right combination of POS software features are in place.
Understanding What POS Functionalities Will Help You to Succeed
Sitting down and drawing out where exactly your coffee shop would benefit from a POS solution is a required first step. Giving yourself this information gives you the blueprint for building out what your perfect POS solution should look like. You will gain an understanding of what feature sets are overkill for your business, where automation could help, and how improvements in certain areas can help you to expand the reach of your brand.
The functionalities we provide here will give you an introductory look into a few of the most sought out efficiency building functionalities that coffee shop owners have implemented in response to answering these questions. You can use these to form the foundation around which your business processes and branding strategies can be built. These can also be used as a guide of what you should expect at a minimum from any POS platform that you are considering.
Easy to Learn for Quick Staff Training Turnaround
First and foremost, any POS software solution that is introduced into your business must be easy to learn and understand. It should take you no more than 30 minutes to bring staff up to speed, and it must be easy for you to learn all aspects of the solution quickly and effectively. This helps not only reduce the cost of onboarding new staff, but it frees up valuable training time so that the focus can be on better serving the customer.
Increasing Service Speeds Through Sale Forecasting
Getting to know your customers is a wonderful side effect of running a coffee shop. This cannot come at the expense of slow service to other customers, especially during your peak times where the line must keep moving. Today’s POS platforms offer multiple options that can provide you with ways to increase service speeds. This gives you a key toolset that will aid in boosting customer retention and in building the reputation of your business.
A modern POS solution will help increase your service speed and accuracy by providing in-depth reporting functionality that presents you with real-time sales forecasting. Data is king in today’s business world, and having the right data on hand can give you a decisive competitive edge. Using your data, you can plan ahead for peak times by making sure that the inventory you need to get through them is at the fingertips of your staff.
For example, during the morning rush, you may notice that whole milk is used in 95% of the drinks prepared by your baristas. Knowing this, you can stock your barista station refrigerator with the correct proportions of kinds of milk, removing the need for staff to run into the back for an out of stock product. Pre-staging of the most often used items reduces the time staff must scramble to look for the items and keeps the lines moving, much to the pleasure of those trying to stay on schedule.
Taking Your Brand to the Next Level via Line Busting
It is hard to ignore the impact that mobile ordering and line busting are having across the food and beverage industry. Since its first widespread introduction by Starbucks, the rapid adoption of app-based mobile ordering has stimulated the growth of the line-busting strategy. It is quickly becoming an expected service offering in coffee shops and cafes and is being driven by customers who have quickly realized the benefits and time savings this has on their days.
This can easily be tied into a customer loyalty program, which provides the customer with a personalized experience. The data acquired as part of your customer programs can be lent to the data forecasting you will need in order to anticipate your needs over peak visiting times. The information gathered here can also be turned into personalized specials and sales, including rewards such as a free birthday pastry, or a discount on beverages after a certain number of visits. You will also gain accurate insights around when your staff needs to be on hand, promoting a sense of ease when meeting customer expectations regardless of the number of people in line.
Leveraging Coffee Shop Point of Sale Software Data
Staff scheduling can be one of the most grueling, time-intensive activities that you must perform. Juggling the personal schedules of a staff that is most likely part-time while making sure that you are not over-staffed during slow periods or under-staffed during rush times is vital. However, performing this task manually is not only time-intensive but is prone to errors. This is why you need a highly technical POS feature that can automate this process and allow for app-based or online scheduling interactions with your staff.
Letting your POS solution do the heavy lifting of this task for you steps beyond saving you time. Blending reports between transactions, the data of when your frequent customers are most likely to visit, and the times that items are ordered throughout the day will give you a sixth sense when scheduling staff. For example, you may find you need four staff on hand until 10am; two to manage beverage orders, one to man the register, and one to float as needed. You may find that your lunch rush requires you to have three staff members making sandwiches, or that you only need one person on duty after 3pm.
Getting this right shows your staff that you value the time devoted to your business. It also makes a visible demonstration to the customer that you understand and appreciate the demands on their time. And, it reduces the stress on you and your staff by ensuring that the teamwork needed to handle the morning rush is there, helping you to impress the customer with your speed while maintaining a high quality of product throughout the day.
Lean on A POS Expert to When Choosing the Right Coffee Shop POS Software
Making the choices around which POS functionalities can best serve you and your customers requires a high level of POS technical expertise. The decision to use an expert in the POS software solution field is the first step towards achieving successful, streamlined operations that keep your staff and customers in mind. Taking this step forward requires you to select a partner that is nimble enough to change with the times, and fluent enough in your industry to make accurate recommendations.
Leveraging cutting-edge technology in your coffee shop gives you the freedom to leave your desk and deepen your relationships with customers. Marketing becomes simplified through the management of loyalty programs and allows you to target campaigns with laser-like precision. Flexibility and versatility is the name of the game, and talech is ready to help modernize your business operations through the utilization of a modern point of sale system. Contact us today for a free demo and more information on how to bring cutting-edge technology to your customers.
