Few other industries are as competitive as hospitality is – the market changes fast and due to the numerous choices available, customers’ expectations are higher than ever. Diners demand fast service, convenience and impeccable experiences that feel personal. This may prove harder than it sounds (and it already does) due to several things. Keep on reading to find out what issues may arise from not having a fully functional POS system.
As we already mentioned, customers expect service that is above and beyond – and that often includes meal customization. A recent study by Deloitte[1] showed that 85 percent of people think that being able to customize their order is the most important part of the restaurant’s menu. Therefore, it’s important to consider a POS system that allows you to add and exclude ingredients from any dish, as well as one that sends information straight to the kitchen to avoid miscommunication. Furthermore, your POS system should give your staff the opportunity to view and activate meal deals and offers which the customer might be interested in based on their preferences and past purchases.
Each Point of Sale has many users – from waitstaff and kitchen staff to cashiers and managers. And even those may be further segmented. For example, the waitstaff may be separated into different groups for each area of the restaurant. At the same time, managers should be able to access all the sales and operations data, so they can plan the staff roster or make general business decisions. When none of this is an option, each group’s performance decreases. Managers don’t have the available data to make informed decisions and waitstaff must go through irrelevant steps to do their job properly; all this in an industry that requires quick judgment and fast reactions.
In the hectic atmosphere of a restaurant, it’s easy to forget or pass the wrong information to your co-worker. The kitchen staff could misread what the waitstaff jotted down on a piece of paper. The waitstaff may delay the order because of other clients they attended to. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way for the kitchen to receive the correct information right away? Well, this isn’t outlandish at all: the right POS system would seamlessly connect the front of the restaurant with the kitchen, reducing such mistakes to a minimum and allowing your staff to deliver impeccable service from the meal to the attitude.
Most restaurants already possess some kind of business management software, but it often isn’t tailored to their needs. If it’s hard to find the pizza toppings and you’re running a pizzeria, something isn’t right! This could slow down your staff and unnecessarily complicate the restaurant’s processes, thus leading to lower customer satisfaction and disgruntled employees. The right POS system would support, rather than complicate your processes through an intuitive, customized interface that is just right for your restaurant. It would let your employees take full advantage of your system’s capabilities.
Many restaurants work with frustrating Point of Sale systems that can’t handle all the ways a customer may want to pay. A good POS system will be both secure and flexible when it comes to payment. It will make splitting the bill easy, rather than customers having to figure out who has to pay what. Restaurants should be able to accommodate for multiple payment options – credit and debit cards, gift cards and promotional codes, cash and checks – and the right POS system allows them to do that. On top of that, if you’re a restaurant that attracts many foreign visitors, your software should support multi-currency transactions.
Selecting the right software solution may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Explore your options at Intelligent Systems.
This article has been republished from the Intelligent Systems blog with their permission. Want to know more about the solutions? Visit their website to learn more!
[1]Deloitte, The restaurant of the future: Creating the next-generation customer experience.