Although similar in many ways, including the mission of providing guests with an experience they won’t forget, the restaurant business focuses on events built around meals while hospitality covers a range of experiences. This difference is reflected in the software needs of the teams that cater to these different customers.
Those in the restaurant industry need software that can wring every dollar from the dishes and drinks and turn it into profit. Hospitality POS software must integrate, automate, and simplify a range of service and management functions into a single hub to ensure consistent customer service. Consider these differences when deciding which POS solution will work best for your business.
Restaurant POS Software Requirements
As revenue streams are finite and emerge almost exclusively from the kitchen, maximizing the potential profit of a restaurant requires a precise set of POS functions. Restaurants tend to thrive with a system that:
- Offers responsive and comprehensive table management
- Has online ordering and booking capacity
- Provides clear digital communication between staff terminals
- Allows menu and bar modifications to accommodate taste, diet, and health
- Enables staff responsibility for roster and training
- Permits live inventory counts
- Performs rapid and in-depth sales analysis
Data analysis is becoming more and more important for businesses of all shapes and sizes. The ability to effectively see how a business makes money, what its most profitable sales items are, and how current trends and marketing efforts impact the bottom line is crucial to maximizing the growth potential of any restaurant.
Hospitality POS Software Requirements
Hospitality encompasses four parts—dining, accommodation, travel, and tourism. The sheer breadth of experiences this includes demonstrates the need for a modern and well-equipped POS system. Only a cloud-based network can combine all the moving pieces into a single platform that can be as efficient as it is sweeping.
This POS system needs to include:
- Comprehensive and integrated digital inventory across sites and teams
- Flexible, safe, and discrete payment options
- Electronic marketing and customer loyalty programs
- Multimedia customer-facing sales and POS hardware
- Third-party integrations for accounting, taxation, and regulation compliance
- An extensive network of staff and team communications
Like an internet all of its own, hospitality POS software must link all the varied functions of the business into a single point so that every action can be focused on the bottom line. The cost of the food and beverage team has to be balanced against the profit of the accommodation wing, and the discounts of the customer loyalty effort have to be held against the rewards of the transport sector.
Custom POS for Every Business
All of the specific POS functions required by either restaurant management or hospitality systems can be met within the same powerful framework. This also applies to any industry and any individual business within an industry. You don’t need to find a POS provider that is clearly labeled “restaurant management” or “salon solutions” or “mobile business systems;” you need a comprehensive solution that can be customized to promote world-class features that will help your business grow.
All businesses need the following core POS functions:
- Flexible, safe, and mobile payment options
- Integrated online and in-store sales platforms
- Digital, automated inventory
- Discreet, mobile hardware
- Product management features
- Staff and human resources functionality
- Loyalty programs
- Data and sales analytics
These core functions can then be shaped to fit a specific business model. This comprehensive approach grows alongside a business, adding functionality where needed and gathering and utilizing data at every stage of development.
The leading POS solutions are broad, powerful tools that grant every business affordable access to the best in business software and hardware and give them the flexibility to create a system unique to their needs.
The comprehensive business solutions offered by talech can be completely customized to suit the way you do business. Like our cloud-based hospitality POS software, which comes with precision programs to handle everything from inventory to online revenue.
