17 Features Your Restaurant POS System Needs
Operating a restaurant demands more than the ability to make delicious food. Experienced restaurant owners know it takes a myriad of administrative, management, and marketing skills to run a successful restaurant business.
17 Features Every Efficient Restaurant POS System Needs (and 5 Reasons It Matters)
Mastering these skills is quite a task for someone whose talent is in grilling the perfect steak or arranging a stunning table setting.
So, where can a restaurant owner look for help?
The answer is deceivingly simple: find an efficient restaurant point of sale system!
Having an efficient point of sale system (POS) goes a long way toward ensuring that your entire operation runs smoothly.
The POS serves as the central component of your business. It’s the hub where everything merges - sales, inventory, customer management, and more.
Every POS system has software and hardware components that make running daily operations of any restaurant easier and faster. However, not all restaurant POS systems are created equally! Many POS systems are designed for retailers, not restaurants. Even some systems that claim to serve restaurants exclusively are missing key features.
With so many options, how can you choose the efficient restaurant POS system that is right for you?
If this is a big question for you, you’re in the right place. The contents of this page can help you find the right solution for your restaurant business - whether you’ve been running it for years or are just getting started.
Keep reading to explore 17 key features every efficient restaurant POS system needs, and five reasons why it matters.
When we’re finished, you’ll have the tools you need to choose the right POS system and keep your restaurant running smoothly.
Let’s get started!
17 Features Every Efficient Restaurant POS System Needs
Simple User Interface
The importance of a simple user interface can’t be emphasized enough. A complicated interface causes nothing but frustration and can bring your restaurant business to a screeching halt.
The last thing you need is a massive headache caused by the installation and implementation of your POS system. That’s the opposite of efficiency!
Beyond that, a simple user interface allows new employees to learn quickly and master the basics of running a POS system. This will save you precious time and money.
A simple user interface also aids in excellent customer service. To avoid fumbling through several steps to accept payment or losing precious time when a small mistake is made, you must find a POS system that is simple, easy, and fast.
Flexible Payment Processing
Many restaurant POS systems are only compatible with a single payment processor. Be wary of these systems! Putting yourself in a “payment processor box” is a big mistake.
You should always look for a POS system, like Total Touch, that gives you multiple options for credit card processing providers. However, it is worth exploring the POS systems’ preferred payments provider if they have one.
Most likely, using the system with its preferred provider will lead to a smooth install process. Plus, if you choose to process with a merchant services company that understands your new system, you’ll experience less third-party failure points and faster response times when you need support.
Open Table Management
Regularly sending “scouts” out to check for free tables in your restaurant should be a thing of the past. There are plenty of great options that allow you to do this digitally! However, one of the best ways to manage tables in your restaurant is to have a POS system that is equipped to help with table flow.
A good restaurant POS system allows you to manage reservations and waitlists easily. It also allows you to see which tables are full, and which are empty.
Another great feature it should include is a focus on prompt customer service by automatically assigning servers to tables.
Gift and Loyalty Cards
Gift and loyalty cards are a great way to increase revenue and sales, gather valuable data, and make consumers feel appreciated. Make sure your POS system is equipped to sell and accept them!
Online Ordering
To grow a restaurant business In today’s world, you need an online ordering solution.
A POS system that accepts online orders will allow you to broaden margins and boost efficiency while reducing phone errors and wasted time.
The Total Touch POS system, specifically designed for restaurants, makes this online ordering process super simple. Here’s how it works:
- A customer places an order online from their computer or mobile device.
- The order is automatically sent to your Total Touch POS software and directly into your system.
- Your profits increase when you reduce manual order entry time and costly order entry errors.
Pre-Authorized Bar Tabs
What is bar tab pre-authorization?
Pre-authorized bar tabs allow bartenders to:
- Swipe a customer's credit card.
- Securely save that information as their bar tab.
- Verify that the card is real.
- Make sure it has a pre-configured amount of funds on it.
Why is this important?
The most common question bartenders ask – aside from "What are you having?" – is “Do you want to start a tab?”
The ability to set up a tab is convenient for your staff and the customer. It also incentivizes guests to stay longer and spend more during their visits.
Additionally, without pre-authorization, there is a risk that the customer’s card could be invalid or unable to cover their bill.
Multiple Payment Options
Your guests will be surprised, delighted, and more likely to visit again when the answer to, “Can you split the check?" is yes!
A good restaurant POS system should be able to assign menu items to specific seats, split items between an entire table, and split checks
EMV and Contactless Payment Options
The tiny chip that most credit and debit cards have today is called an EMV. EMV cards are the global standard used to authenticate card transactions.
EMV cards are more secure than traditional magnetic strip credit cards. While the data in a card's magnetic strip stays the same over time, the chip in an EMV card generates a unique code for each transaction that can only be used once.
Why should your POS system accept EMV cards?
First, almost everyone has an EMV card. And second, it keeps your customer’s information more secure.
Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification or near field communication for making secure payments.
Like EMV cards, contactless payment options are continually rising in popularity, so having the ability to accept them at your POS terminal is critical.
Kitchen Displays
A kitchen display system replaces paper tickets and kitchen printers. It is designed to increase efficiency and accuracy.
In fact, an integrated kitchen display system creates opportunities that would otherwise not be available.
A kitchen display system increases accuracy and efficiency by showcasing everything the food preparation staff needs to know about each customer’s order, including the ingredients needed to fill it. This information is displayed on a brightly-lit, easy-to-read screen, and it serves as a central repository for all orders.
Plus, with a kitchen display system in place, information about additions and changes to orders reaches the kitchen as soon as customers ask for them.
This feature enables accurate orders to be delivered the first time around, minimizes waste, and prevents frustration among kitchen staff, waitstaff, and customers.
Integrated NTEP Scale Support
If you price any food based on weight, an NTEP certification for processing weighted items via integrated scale support is essential.
Some restaurant POS systems like Total Touch are already NTEP certified and can be integrated with any NTEP approved scales. This makes pricing food by weight a breeze!
Inventory Management
Inventory management seems so basic and simple. However, when you have so many other things on your plate, it can become difficult to keep up.
Any restaurant POS system needs to include tools for careful inventory management, so you avoid too much overhead, or running out of supplies.
Employee Management
Managing employees is tough, especially when lots of details like overtime pay, differing shifts, and job types apply.
Make sure your restaurant POS system includes features that allow you to create new employees, set wages, and give special permissions so they can complete the tasks they’ve been given.
Employee Scheduling
Employee Scheduling allows you to be in control of who is working when. Luckily, with a restaurant POS system like Total Touch, the process is a breeze! All you have to do is:
- Select the job type you need to be filled.
- Choose specific employees and click on the hours you would like them to work.
- They will appear on the employee schedule sheet for that day.
- See your entire employee schedule at a glance!
Staff Timekeeping
An easy solution for clocking in and out of shifts makes for happy managers and employees.
Effective timekeeping is obviously essential for employee wages, and can help make your payroll process easy and seamless. The right solution will save everyone unnecessary stress and headache!
Pour Control
Humans are phenomenal creatures. We are creative, intelligent, emotive, and sensitive. Truthfully, we are far greater than anything we will ever make with our own hands.
However, we must admit that sometimes a computer or machine can complete a particular job better than we can. And when it comes to making the perfect drink every time, machines are essential.
Some restaurant POS systems include a pour control feature which eliminates human error in making drinks.
It’s quite simple:
- Upload a recipe.
- Allow the software to regulate alcohol and ingredients.
- Produce the same drink every time regardless of the bartender!
This allows your employees to focus on offering quality customer service while the machine does most of the work to make a consistent drink. Plus, it’s simple consistency keeps bar profits healthy.
Easy Business Analytics
Your restaurant needs to be making money if you want to stay in business - that much is obvious. What’s less obvious is if your restaurant is actually making money and where your profit is coming from.
A restaurant POS system that includes restaurant business analytics is enormously helpful in determining profitability.
A good restaurant POS system should offer these kinds of business analytics:
- A dashboard that shows sales, inventory, labor, and profitability
- Sales comparisons between locations or across time periods
- Peak performance by day of the week, holidays, and promotions
- Trends of sales vs. guests by day and top-selling item reports
Reliable Support and Customer Service
Even quality items break or wear out over time. That’s why the very best businesses to work with are ones that offer amazing support and customer service.
Your POS system could have all the best features in the world. But, if the company that provides the system does not offer good support and customer service, it will fall flat.
At Total Touch POS, we have a dedicated support team for U.S. customers that is always ready to offer a helping hand.
That wraps up the section on features every restaurant POS system should include!
If you found it helpful, let us know. Or, if you have additions that you think should be made, just point it out to us in the comments.
But at least one question is still one the table:
Will these features of valuable POS systems help you run a better restaurant business?
Absolutely!
Choosing a POS system integrated with these 17 features is important, and here’s why.
5 Reasons Choosing the Right POS System Matters
More people, particularly millennials, want to spend money on memorable experiences. Restaurants are prime spots for these unique experiences.
What’s your goal when you go out to eat a restaurant? To grab a quick sandwich and get out the door? Probably not.
Let gas stations take care of pre-packaged food. You’re in business to deliver fantastically fresh food, provide a great atmosphere, and create unforgettable moments.
Consumer surveys show that more and more people, particularly millennials, prefer to spend their money on memorable and shareable experiences than on material goods. Needless to say, restaurants are a prime example of places where memories are made and moments are shared.
If your restaurant isn’t running smoothly, it will distract customers from these special moments. Millennials, in particular, will expect technology to be implemented that allows them to have an amazing experience that they can record and remember.
Increase Restaurant Efficiency
Every restaurant owner should be looking for technology that gives them new and innovative ways to meet two goals: improve guest satisfaction and increase operational efficiency.
Of course, these two goals tend to go hand-in-hand. Combined, they translate into decidedly positive financial outcomes.
According to research conducted by Starfleet Research for The Smart Decision Guide to Restaurant Management and POS Systems; 84 percent of full-service restaurants, and 72 percent of quick-service and fast-casual restaurants, report that they achieved “significant” or “dramatic” improvement in revenue performance after deploying next-generation restaurant management and POS systems.
Such results obviously make for a very compelling business case.
It’s not just clients who get the good end of the deal, though. Restaurant owners and employees also free up time and creative space to go beyond survival when efficiency increases.
The growth a restaurant can experience when the people responsible for making it happen have time to be creative and innovative is phenomenal.
Improve Guest Satisfaction
Guest satisfaction may be the single most important goal every restaurant owner is working toward. Each 5-star review is unique, and every bad review leaves a scar that hurts.
Ultimately, the goal is always customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Customers are going to be happier when your seamless POS system amplifies their experience. Here are some examples:
- A customer with lots of children knows bringing them all to your physical location is impossible. Instead, they order easily and efficiently online.
- A customer wants to split a check with a friend. You are able to fulfill this request easily.
- A customer loves your restaurant and wants to give their loved ones a chance to try it out. They are able to purchase a gift card quickly and easily.
- Your POS inventory manager tells you there is no guacamole left. You are able to let a customer know this in advance instead of after they order it and wait for their food.
- A customer is able to set up a pre-authorized tab in minutes so they can enjoy drinks anytime.
- Thanks to your POS employee management tool, you were able to get a replacement for an employee that is on vacation. Your customers are pleased with the prompt service you provide.
- A customer calls in wanting to make a reservation for a special date night. With the click of a button, you’re able to guarantee them a seat.
Of course, the list could go on. These are only a few examples of the ways you can grant satisfaction to your customers. Most importantly, you can do it quickly and hassle-free.
It’s a win for you and the customer!
Easy Online Ordering Increases Sales
Consumers spent $601.75 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2019, up 14.9% from $523.64 billion the prior year, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
That was a higher growth rate than 2018 when online sales reported by the Commerce Department rose 13.6% year over year.
Clearly, online buying is not going away. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly popular!
A good POS system boosts your sales through its ability to make online purchasing smooth and seamless. This isn’t just important - it may be essential for your very survival as a business!
A perfect example is the recent COVID-19 pandemic. There hasn’t been a time more difficult for small businesses to survive in recent history, especially if those businesses had no way to sell online.
However, many that had methods of selling online saw their eCommerce numbers soar! Ecommerce was literally the lifeline keeping them afloat. Without it, their businesses would have failed.
Although we don’t expect to live in a perpetual pandemic, it’s safe to say this teaches us a lesson about running a business - online ordering increases sales! There is not a time too soon to implement it for your business.
Restaurant Analytics Help You See What is Working and What Isn’t
Analytics aren’t just for numbers gurus. They are for every single restaurant owner out there. If you don’t have a good way to get analytics about your restaurant, you need to find a solution.
What makes analytics so critical?
Analytics are a tool to help you make profitable decisions. Without it, you’d be taking an educated guess (at best) on the best path forward.
For example, a good POS system can give you analytics on group sales. Pull this report to analyze sales based on group name (i.e., beer, liquor, wine, etc.) and you have a bird’s eye view of your most and least profitable groups.
Based on this information, you can make a confident decision about what steps you need to take next. Without this information, you’d have to follow your observation and intuition only to make important business decisions.
Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” We agree!
However, it can be difficult at times to see through the fog and realize you are making the same mistakes repeatedly, all while expecting to be successful.
Analytics help you to see what is working and what isn’t, so you can make changes as necessary.
Conclusion
Clearly, successful restaurant owners have to be more than amazing cooks. They also need to have administrative and management skills.
These tasks may seem daunting, but people willing to invest in a restaurant POS system with the correct features find running a profitable restaurant manageable and enjoyable.
If you are considering a restaurant POS system, contact Total Touch today. At Total Touch, we provide a complete restaurant POS system that is powerful, simple, and backed with great features. We also offer full support in the United States.
We received an award from the CIO Review for being one for the 20 most promising POS solutions in 2019, and we are ready to help you start getting results.
Contact our team today; we look forward to working with you!
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