ADVANTAGES OF POS SYSTEM IN RESTAURANT

Expanding your restaurant operations without investing more money

Smiling shop associate uses a touchscreen POS system to print receipt

Modern-day restaurateurs have more on their plates than their predecessors in decades past. In addition to traditional costs, they also balance online presence, delivery options, and new payment methods. This presents a unique challenge for business owners, who also face limited staffing and similarly limited budgets.

Luckily for them, POS technology has developed to meet several, if not all, of these needs. This article focuses on just some of the advantages of a POS system in a restaurant, specifically focusing on:

- Restaurant-specific features
- Software Integrations
- Data analytics programs

Restaurant-designed technology does the heavy lifting for you

Although many POS systems offer features on their proprietary software, they tend to be more general in nature. This means a larger focus on unique payment options (for example, the ability to take digital wallets and NFC payments) or card readers to make payments easier. While these are certainly important assets, it’s also important to consider what a POS provider does for your specific industry.

An important rule of thumb when considering modern POS systems is that they no longer just handle transactions. To meet the needs of contemporary business owners, these systems need to perform additional functions designed for specific industries. For example, in the restaurant industry, POS systems have the following features:

Table management options

Modern POS software allows business owners to digitally map the floor plans of their restaurants. This provides a visual aid for employees who are struggling to memorize table layouts. It also offers potential insights into the best ways to structure your floor plans without needing altering. In addition, table mapping also allows you to track table turnover using a color-coded system to represent:

- Tables that have not yet been seated
- Tables that are approaching the total time limit
- Tables that have exceeded the total time limit

For waitstaff and hostesses who need to keep tables moving, this is an ideal tool; the color coding representation of wait times gives them an accurate idea of when tables will become available, allowing them to seat incoming customers more efficiently and direct waitstaff when necessary.

Order management

Any waiter or waitress will tell you with great exhaustion about their largest tables; everyone has different order modifications, and various sub-groups within the table want to split the bill in different ways. In the past, waitstaff lacked an advanced POS system that did the heavy lifting for them. Now, POS systems not only allow waiters and waitresses to send bills to various stations (food to the kitchen, drinks to the bar, etc.), they also allow the waitstaff to split orders using preset or custom parameters. These parameters can be modified by the business owner before a shift begins, or they can be devised by the waitstaff themselves on the fly. This ensures that no matter how large or complicated a table is, your staff has the tools available to help them.

Menu management

Restaurants are a fast-moving business; one second you're prepared for the Friday night special, the next you realize the special is no longer available. When these things happen, the most important thing restaurants can do is to quickly and smoothly change their menu to avoid customer confusion. However, this is often easier said than done, as most restaurants operate with physical menus that take a great deal of time and energy to change. Modern POS systems simplify this problem by allowing for the creation of online menus that customers can access using QR codes that they can scan with their phones. This allows for an easily adaptable formula by which last-minute modifications can be handled quickly and discreetly, maintaining the smoothness of your daily operations.

These features elevate your POS from simply taking payments to being an essential part of your daily operations. Similarly, they centralize these functions in a single user-friendly interface. This allows seasoned veterans and new employees alike to handle them with ease. Combining function and accessibility make your POS the single most important asset in your arsenal.

Integrations

A POS is not just a POS anymore; it has evolved its proprietary software beyond simply accepting various forms of payment to become an all-in-one hub for assorted integrations. This doubles the functionality of your POS while keeping it lightweight enough to be manageable.

By centralizing your POS as the main technological tool of your restaurant, business owners gain helpful features integrations, such as:

Labor Management

With all of the challenges that restaurants face, the last thing you want to deal with is unclear staff scheduling. If Maria is supposed to work during the Friday night rush, then Maria needs to be at the restaurant ready to work that Friday evening. Although many restaurants use scheduling software for organization, the software is often provided by third-party hosts, which can be difficult to keep track of for both managers and employees.

However, by integrating labor management solutions like Homebase with your POS, employees and managers can quickly access work schedules while ensuring that staff and management are viewing the same information. This keeps everyone on the same page and ensures you have proper staffing to meet the needs of your customers.

Accounting

One of the greatest benefits to modern POS systems is that they are integrated with accounting software. This is a boon that goes beyond the capabilities of any third-party software; the sales data from your POS automatically transfers over to integrated accounting software.

This means that your reports are as up-to-date as possible, which simplifies handling major expenses like:

- Employee payroll
- Credit card processing
- Equipment repairs

Most importantly, this software notifies you of the financial health of your restaurant, acting as the first signal to change something should it go off.

KDS Integrations

Many of these features focus on the front of house and management, but what about the kitchens? The kitchen staff has the labor-intensive job of actually preparing your food. Without their hard work, your restaurant has nothing to produce.

Kitchen labor is exceptionally difficult, and accounting for customer order modifications and prompt food preparation is no simple request. This is especially true when working with handwritten notes by waitstaff, which often results in confusion and incorrectly-prepared dishes.

By integrating with kitchen display systems, orders are automatically sent to kitchen staff via a digital screen when the waitstaff takes the orders, reducing wait time and confusion when preparing the food.

Bringing these tools together provides a comprehensive integration stack consisting of features designed for every part of your restaurant. This is one of the central advantages of POS systems in restaurants; they act as a junction center to various other features, offering new and innovative ways to achieve traditional goals.

Data analytics

The restaurant industry can be very competitive, and restaurant owners face many challenges. To succeed, it’s important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your business. The best start to this process is by organizing a comprehensive business plan; however, this requires concrete metrics to let you know whether or not your restaurant is doing well.

Although this used to be a very labor-intensive set of metrics to keep up with, data collected through your POS simplifies this process, offering you a host of data analytic features that update in real-time. These features include:

Real-time sales data

Improving your bottom line is always going to be the primary concern for any business owner. This is true of any industry, but it is especially true in the restaurant industry, where profit margins are often razor-thin.

Having a comprehensive POS data stack allows business owners to examine the top sellers on their menus. It similarly allows them to track cash drawer activity to ensure that every dollar going in and out of the register is accounted for.

This data set also gives business owners insights into customers’ preferred payment methods, indicating what type of promotions might be useful in the future.

Measure employee performance

One of the central concerns for restaurant owners is the efficiency of their staff; although they are an essential resource and the face of your business, employee payroll makes up one of the largest expenses for any small business.

Having a comprehensive POS system is an essential tool for employee evaluation; this allows business owners to track employee performance based on:

- Sales metrics
- Attendance
- Labor cost reports

Having these tools available allows business owners to make difficult decisions to manage an often already limited staff.

Although the more advanced features presented on this page target the restaurant industry more specifically, the reports provided through a comprehensive data analytics program are perhaps the most important. These reports provide valuable direction on menu items to change, employees to reevaluate, or even helpful insights into the preferences of your customers. Using these insights smooths out your daily operations and pads your bottom line.

Advantages of the POS system in restaurant conclusion

By offering restaurant-specific features, valuable industry-related integrations, and a comprehensive data analytics stack, modern POS systems prove their versatility. These features are invaluable, not just for customers who benefit from the POS system features, but also for employees who benefit from the simplification of their daily tasks and responsibilities through internet technological switches. Finally, they benefit the restaurant owner by giving them a bird’s eye view of the health of their business.

However, making sense of the advantages of POS systems in restaurants can be overwhelming. This leads many restaurants to seek the guidance of an experienced provider. POS Solutions like talech specialize in this task, tailoring solutions for businesses of every size and scope. Reach out today about a free demo and to learn more about how we can become your trusted partner.

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