Most restaurants today appreciate that technology can streamline their business, control operations better, maximise labour and boost profitability. But which POS system should you choose?
Much of this depends on your needs, which will be highly individual. No restaurant or group is the same, and location, type and economic or labour conditions in an area can have a serious impact on your particular requirements.
Seeking professional help is always a good idea to help you through the maze of restaurant management software out there – NFS Hospitality’s professionals, for example, work in a consultative way to understand what you wish to achieve your investment.
Deploying a pos system for restaurants provides a number of benefits – it helps you:
- • Reduce food delivery time by enabling ordering at tableside
- • Improves accuracy by sending orders direct to the kitchen
- • Integrates with other restaurant tech including kitchen management
- • Improves control of labour and stock
- • Reduces waste
- • Provides comprehensive reports on all aspects of your business, from sales to accounts and inventory.
Epos software is the perfect way to get an end to end view of your business, even if you run an entire restaurant chain, providing great insight and control without duplicating head office activities.
While it’s sensible to seek advice from expert providers like NFS who come highly recommended, you can do a lot of research yourself to get a good idea of what you might want – this handy guide outlines some of the different types of restaurant pos system software and the situations in which it provides the best return on investment.
What 5 factors should you think about when choosing your POS system?
- Scalability: What are your plans and ambitions? Make sure your chosen POS system can accommodate the current needs of your pizza restaurant while also supporting future growth and expansion.
- Integration: Seek POS solutions that integrate seamlessly with other software applications used in your business, such as accounting software, online ordering platforms, and loyalty programmes.
- Customisability: Evaluate the flexibility of the POS system in terms of menu customisation, pricing configurations, and reporting capabilities to align with your unique business requirements – your expert POS supplier will help with this tricky task.
- Support and training: Choose a POS provider like NFS Hospitality that offers excellent customer support, training resources, and ongoing software updates to ensure the smooth deployment and operation of your system. After all, it’s going to be the beating heart of your business.
- Cost: Every restaurateur wants a good ROI on investment, which your EPOS system will deliver via efficiencies, cost reductions, lower waster and better customer satisfaction.
There are different types of POS systems to consider when you are determining the right fit for your business. The best approach is to seek advice from experts such as the NFS Hospitality team, who take a consultative approach to your requirements and make sure you get the software that achieves the outcomes you really want.
However, here’s a simple guide to the different kinds of software and how they boost your business.
POS on your premises
These systems are a tried-and-tested method for managing transactions in brick-and-mortar establishments.
They typically integrate with hardware such as cash registers, receipt printers and card terminals along with software for order management and inventory tracking, providing useful reports to support your operational strategy.
These POS systems offer robust features such as table mapping for dine-in customers, order customisation for pizzas with numerous toppings and integration with kitchen display systems for so orders are processed efficiently, quickly and without human error.
POS systems like this are often chosen by restaurants with high foot traffic where there is a focus on in-house dining experiences, which is enhanced because the software streamlines service and ensures customer satisfaction.
Cloud-based POS systems
Cloud-based POS systems are a popular choice for many restaurants because of their for their flexibility, scalability and accessibility.
They are hosted and operate via remote servers that your restaurant managers access via the internet, allowing owners and managers to monitor operations from anywhere, anytime.
Features of cloud-based systems often include real-time reporting, inventory management and mobile ordering capabilities, enabling your pizza restaurants to adapt to evolving customer preferences and market trends.
These systems are often chosen by pizza establishments looking to streamline operations, manage multiple locations efficiently and use data analytics for informed decision-making.
Mobile POS systems
Mobile POS systems use smartphones or tablets as the main interface for processing transactions and managing orders in your restaurant.
With easy-to-use touchscreen interfaces, these systems offer flexibility and mobility, enabling your staff to take orders and accept payments directly at the table or during events.
Mobile POS solutions often integrate seamlessly with online ordering platforms and loyalty programmes. Like all POS systems, they enhance engagement with your customers – many integrate with customer relationship management (CRM) systems and driving repeat business by enabling customised marketing campaigns.
Restaurants that use delivery or catering services can also benefit from mobile POS systems by equipping delivery drivers with handheld devices for on-the-go transactions and order management if required.
Self-service kiosks
These are revolutionizing the way customers interact with restaurants, offering convenience and efficiency, and they have become a familiar site in fast-food outlets in particular.
These interactive terminals allow hungry customers to place and customise their orders – automatically offering upsell options such as sides – select payment options, and even track the status of their food in real-time.
Because they reduce wait times and minimise any order errors, self-service kiosks build customer satisfaction and streamline operations for busy establishments where time – including clients’ time – is at a premium.
As described before, integration with loyalty programmes and CRM systems enables the POS software to offer personalised recommendations and promotions, encouraging upsells and driving up customer loyalty so they come back again and again.
Integrated POS systems
Integration capability is important in your POS system, making it possible consolidate various aspects of your restaurant operations, including point of sale, online ordering, kitchen management and customer relationship management.
By centralizing data and workflows, integrated systems eliminate the need for manual data entry and facilitate seamless communication between different departments.
These systems often offer advanced features such as forecasting analytics, predicting the busiest times, as well as automated inventory replenishment. In these ways, they help empowering restaurant owners to optimise available resources and maximise profitability.
Integrated POS solutions are well-suited for large-scale chains or franchise operations seeking comprehensive tools to streamline operations and maintain consistency across multiple locations. By offering online visibility at all times, they make it possible to avoid the costly duplication of head-office activities.
Conclusion
Whatever the specific requirements of your hospitality business, there is a restaurant management system that’s right for you, and which will enhance your operations, encourage customer engagement and control labour stock and wastes better.
If this guide has given you some insight, take the opportunity to talk it over with an expert to determine the best system at the right price to achieve optimum outcomes for your hospitality business – it will be time well spent.
Discover more about EPOS for your restaurant:
