The challenge with adding delivery to your restaurant business plan is in the expenses. Taking on delivery as a service means taking on several related expenses, including:

Worst of all, companies have few reliable methods to track the expenses and profits involved in these expenses. This means going back and forth between multiple homemade spreadsheets prone to human error. Another option might be 3rd party apps, but these may not offer the features restaurants need to manage delivery services. Either de-centralizes your daily operations, forcing managers to go back and forth between various resources.

POS systems have stepped up to fill this gap by offering features designed to make delivery easier in recent years. This page details how restaurants can use robust POS delivery options for their customers, including:

• • Online ordering
  • Contactless pickup
  • Data and analytics

 

Online ordering

Delivery doesn’t start on your front porch. It starts when a customer places an order. Online ordering has become a mainstay of the current restaurant market, especially over the last two years. As picking up food and take-out and delivery have become more appealing (or sometimes the only) options, restaurants need to focus on offering these services.

The problem with this model used to be the implementation; online ordering requires building a website with integrated payment features that allow customers to make payments from remote devices. Furthermore, they need to do so seamlessly – customers won’t use these features if they are bulky or unwieldy. In other words, setting up online ordering means hiring a savvy website designer and integrating the new site with your credit card processor.

This model costs time and energy, placing a strain on an industry where profit margins are already very thin. Luckily, POS technology offers some streamlined solutions to this problem, including:

These tools are vital for restaurants wishing to implement a restaurant delivery system due to their effect on cost reduction. POS features for delivery reduce a significant cost to building an asset that will generate a large profit. In this context, it contributes to your ROI while smoothing out daily operations.

 

Contactless delivery, contactless pickup

After the order has been placed, the restaurant now has to take over the actual work of the delivery. This means:

• • Preparing food in a timely manner.
  • Packaging it so that it’s ready for transportation
  • Sending it out with a driver.

The actual pickup process on the front porch can be complicated as well, however. This is especially true if your website has the option for customers to pay upon delivery; in these cases, your driver will need to take payments at the doorstep. This was difficult enough before the pandemic; however, the fear of transmission adds another layer of concern to this transaction.

Contactless features provide POS systems with a perhaps unexpected area to shine. Modern POS systems include contactless features such as:

Contactless features benefit just about everyone; for small business owners, the ability to accept new methods of payments like digital wallets adds additional revenue streams to pad your bottom line. For employees interacting with different customers regularly, contactless features keep them safe from the threat of viruses. Finally, for customers, contactless features maximize the customer experience, allowing for the easiest payment method for them.

 

Data analytics

One of the central concerns for any restaurant considering delivery options is the overall expense the business will incur to make it possible. Business owners have to consider their bottom line first and foremost; without a healthy bottom line, businesses can’t offer anything else.

However, measuring that bottom line can be exceptionally difficult if you don’t have the right tools to do so. Traditionally, this meant spending countless hours on spreadsheets trying to find that sweet spot between your profits and expenses. Instead, modern POS systems give small business owners access to valuable data analytics that measures restaurant health in real time.

These features include:

It might seem like data analytics solely benefit businesses; this is not necessarily true. For example, knowing your customers’ preferences indicates what dishes they like best or what kind of promotions to use. On the customer end, this means potential savings from those promotions and a better customer experience in-store. Having these benefits makes them more likely to return to your restaurant, in addition to recommending it to friends.

 

Restaurant delivery pos system

The central takeaway is that POS systems are a fast evolving technology; once only card processing now exists a centralized production center for several, if not all, your business needs. For example, online ordering, contactless payment, and data analytics allow restaurant owners to offer their customers delivery options without breaking the bank.

Implementing these options can be a challenge if you’re unfamiliar with the technology. That’s where POS providers like talech come in; we’ve worked with restaurants of every type, developing restaurant delivery POS systems tailored for every need. We want to talk with you about making your restaurant function even better than it does now. Best of all, we offer a free demo where you can try the system for yourself.

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