A Point of Sale (POS) system is one of the handiest, most valuable tools you can have for your food business. This piece of tech can be used in various parts of your restaurant that will help you streamline different processes in the front and back of house, thereby enabling you to run a more efficient, profitable dining establishment.
Since a POS system offers plenty of benefits to restaurant owners and it is a highly advanced piece of technology, it usually requires a large outlay. However, the advantages you would gain from using it will be commensurate to your investment.
Moreover, you will get more from your restaurant POS system and outlay if you follow these tips for maximizing its use in your establishment:
1. Implement the use of end-to-end technology.
If you have a large restaurant, maximize the use of the best iPad restaurant POS system by investing in more terminals, display screens, and other hardware that your employees and guests can use.
Having more than one terminal for each section of your establishment, for instance, will allow your waitstaff to enter orders faster and more efficiently.
Additionally, if you have the budget, giving your waitstaff a handheld device each will enable them to send orders directly to the kitchen, thereby facilitating faster and better service.
In case your kitchen has multiple prep and cooking stations, placing a display screen in each area will help the back of house to stay organized. This will go a long way in maintaining the excellent quality of service in your restaurant even during its busiest times.
2. Ensure all employees are fully trained to use the program.
No matter how advanced and complete your POS software is, if your employees do not know how to use it, this piece of technology and your investment in it will be useless.
As such, once your POS system is installed, have a trainer from the software provider conduct one-day or half-day training. Make sure all employees know how to use the program, particularly the hardware they will use regularly.
Ensure your team has a bird’s-eye view of the different processes covered by the POS system and how they work together. More importantly, explain to your employees the importance of using this platform and how it will help them become more productive and make their job easier to do at the same time.
Also, make sure newly hired employees undergo the same comprehensive training. In case you have new functions or features added to your software, train your team to use them as well.
3. Use your POS to analyze your business.
The sales and staff performance features are two of the best POS tools that many restaurant owners fail to maximize. Do not make this mistake if you want to get the most from your software.
Use your POS program to monitor and understand customer buying behaviors, add-on sales, and traffic patterns. Compare the data with past trends to find out how which areas you can improve on.
If you have a loyalty program, you can get valuable data from your software regarding its success, failure, and needed improvements as well.
Additionally, make the most of your POS system to stay on track of your employees’ performance. Find out which members of your team are always coming in late, incurring lots of absences, and not performing to your standards.
When you have all these pieces of information at hand, you will be able to make smarter decisions and strategic moves that will be beneficial for your business.
4. Optimize your menu using data from your POS software.
Your menu is an important element of your food business. Because of this, you have to make sure you have one that works with your brand and sales goals.
A topnotch POS system can help you determine which of your menu items are popular and profitable and which ones your customers don’t order and are costing you a fortune for purchasing ingredients.
With this information in mind, you can choose which items to take off your menu and which ones to spend more on in terms of online and traditional promotions.
Additionally, the data from your POS system can help you make the right decision regarding increasing your popular items’ prices or maintaining their current ones. You can also use it if you are thinking about tweaking its sides or accompaniments.
5. Use it to prevent theft.
Lastly, theft is one of the leading causes of loss of money and revenue in restaurants. If you want your business to stay profitable, you need to be on guard against this financially draining issue. A POS system can help you with this.
A POS program will allow you to monitor all financial activities in your restaurant. These include sales and the money you spend on purchasing your supplies. When you have access to relevant, up-to-date data every day, you will find it easier to notice any theft.
This system will also help you identify the possible culprits if your suspects are your employees.
The inventory management feature of your POS software can also help you stay on top of your stock or supplies. This will enable you to monitor unreasonable losses of ingredients and even possible misuses.
When you use all the functions and features of your POS system, your investment in this food tech will be worth all the money you spent. You will have a more successful restaurant — one that won’t fail to satisfy your customers in all aspects of your operations.
AUTHOR BIO
Ahmad Alzaini is the co-founder and CEO of Foodics, a fast-growing foodtech startup. A businessman by nature, Alzaini is an app aficionado, developing businesses in Saudi Arabia within several industries. Today, Foodics has extended to new markets across the MENA region, processing over 1 billion transactions, and offering the latest technology in POS and restaurant management.