As the customers line up, hopeful for a fast and tasty lunch experience, the pressure builds on you and your staff to perform at a higher level. Now is not the time for errors, communication mishaps, or to discover that you are out of an important ingredient. You need to be built for success before your customers are lining up, and the lunch rush is not the time to discover or fix production issues. You need the right kind of POS for takeaway restaurants.
Optimizing your operations is especially important for takeaway or QSR restaurant owners. With little time between customers to even catch your breath, you do not have the time to place supply orders, monitor inventory, ensure that staff is performing, while remaining a good host. This requires you to keep the wheels on while juggling multiple processes at once.
Technology Lends Takeaway Restaurants a Helping Hand
As technology permeates most aspects of daily life, it should be a required step in your routine to regularly analyze how and where technology can help you be better. With the emergence of advanced technologies in the area of POS, you could be missing out on key enhancements by not making an effort to see how an upgraded or new POS solution could lend you valuable assistance.
Making a determination to move to a next-gen POS solution is only part of the overall process. You must know and understand which features are requirements for your business, and which functionalities are just overkill. You must also wade through layers of promises, support contracts, and payment processing terms in order to decide on a particular POS platform. The complexities of all of this makes it imperative to enlist the help of a POS software expert.
While going it alone is not recommended, there are a few items that you can use to at least steer you in the right direction. These key aspects apply to almost all takeaway restaurants, and should serve you in choosing an effective POS solution provider. In turn, this provider will give you clear and concise guidance in dotting the remaining “I’s”, leaving you with a POS platform you rarely need to think about.
Free is Almost Always Not Really Free
A tempting direction filled with promises of free POS solutions will steer you into an abyss full of potholes and uncertainties. While free POS solutions may seem promising, they will undoubtedly be short on delivery…unless of course you unlock a needed feature with a small, typically subscription, payment. The hidden fee structure of “free” POS solutions makes these a must avoid in your search for an inclusive POS infrastructure.
Paying for what you get leads to you obtaining a fully supported and well established POS system. What this means for you is that you have the POS platform in place that will accomplish all that you need, plus have the scalability to modify features as your business model evolves. You gain freedom in your operations, and can be more hands-off when it comes to maintaining your POS system.
Mobility is Critical When Choosing a POS Solution
The days of customers waiting in multiple lines to order, and then receive, their food is quickly coming to an end. App-based mobile ordering, as offered by popular QSRs such as Jimmy John’s and Starbucks, allows the user to order while on the move. In turn, the app tracks the orders process and notifies the customer once the order is ready for pickup.
This also allows better flexibility with customer pickups, as food delivery services like Door Dash and Uber Eats can easily pickup orders and deliver them to the customer. Not only does this reduce the stress on your staff, but allows you to utilize downtime to accurately prep and even fill orders ahead of the rush. The ability to stay a step ahead is pure gold when facing a fast-paced rush period.
Kiosk ordering can be utilized to enhance and speed up the customer experience. Also, staff can be equipped with tablets to engage in the practice of line busting. When all of this is working together, the dread of the coming rush will turn to excitement as you and your staff can achieve a productive flow of taking and filling orders.
The Right POS System for Takeaway Restaurants Reduces Waste
You, like any owner in the food and beverage industry, hate waste with a passion. However, discarded food, unused and expired ingredients, and outdated menu items are just the tip of the iceberg. Internal processes, such as payroll, seating, payment processing, and your accounting processes, are all full of places where waste can affect you in a negative way.
Introducing any POS solution into your business must provide with a small, yet critical set of functionalities that will help you to eliminate revenue leakage while optimizing the inner workings of your business.
- Accounting. Accurately balancing your books means that your transaction and order data must be as concise as possible. Your POS solution must be able to easily execute reports, both customized and included, to allow you to handle everything from financing to tax audits.
- Inventory Management. Automated inventory reports allow you to scan products into inventory and to set alerts based on the product type. For example, you want to ensure that any milk delivered today is used within a specified period of time. An advanced POS solution will provide you with the monitoring capabilities to ensure that you no longer fill your dumpster with out of date products.
- Staff Management. Payroll is an area of business that is screaming for an automated solution. An innovative POS system will reconcile scheduled hours to reported hours, reducing the number of payroll errors you see. Additionally, you can integrate employee hours with transactional data to better determine who your top performers are and who may need additional training.
The automation and monitoring capabilities that a modern POS solution can provide are must-haves when looking to gain a competitive edge. But where should you look to design the perfect POS platform for your particular requirements?
Choosing a POS System for Takeaway Restaurants
The range of POS functions and features that could be considered is overwhelming for those without an experienced eye. Determining the best for your business would require hours of research, and maybe a little trial and error before you come close to something that improves how your business operates.
Giving the keys to your technical kingdom, however scary as it may feel, will, in the end, present you with the best solution for your distinct needs. You will want a POS expert that brings in-depth experience working with takeaway and QSR businesses. Also, they must be willing to provide training and product optimizations after the job is done.
An experienced POS solution provider, talech will deliver a variety of POS options to enhance the customer experience in your business. We take a step back with you, and focus on improving the areas of business that need a technical pillar to help your business rise to the daily challenges you face. Contact us today to get started on the road of process optimization and customer enticement.
