Whether your enterprise is a restaurant, a delivery kitchen establishment or fast food franchise; POS (Point of Sale) software is a fundamental tool for your business to operate competently. This system aids to record cash flow, sales transactions, manage food costs along with inventory tracking, CRM and other business-related interactions for your F&B setup.
There are distinct POS systems out there and probably the question you’re asking yourself is “how to choose the right one?”. It is an accurate question and the one that you should acknowledge cautiously before making the decision. Here are few must-have restaurant POS features every restaurateur owner needs to look for while choosing the right POS system.
Inventory control
Inventory management/tracking is one terrifying & integral part of the restaurant business the owner has to go through. However, for those who effectively use proper inventory control and reporting, they will mention that it is how they make profits. Certainly, inventory is not the fascinating side of the business but an absolute necessity if restaurateurs are to go neck-to-neck in this intensely competitive space. Inventory that is easy to control and input through a system is priceless for keeping a check on what are consistently thin margins.
Look for a POS system with the feature of inventory management that helps you to keep track of the items and every ingredient sold. This leads a long way to insure long-term success and profitability.
Ease of Use or Usability
The restaurant business is one that needs speed. This usually includes decision making, fire time operations etc. A sluggish system can be infuriating to managers, waiters, or cooks. The assumption of speed in a restaurant POS broadens to an intuitive layout, ease-of-use, along with a fast hardware.
A few seconds here or there makes an immense impact either good or bad on the food, service, customers and eventually the profitability of any establishment.
Marketing Module
Nowadays, marketing solutions for restaurants is considerately based on your online presence (social media). It’s all about a well-maintained website that presents relevant information to your customers which usually include menus, working hours, contact info, offers and links associated with social media sites.
Today’s restaurant POS should possess features that accord restaurateurs the competence to market to the entire database of customers in real time. This helps to make a huge and immediate impact on your establishment.
Business Intelligence Reporting
Each and every business should get litigable intelligence from their sales reports and restaurants are assuredly no exception. Implementing a system where a owner/manager has numeric insight into their business is important. Few of the Key performance indicators (KPIs) that a restaurant POS should be able to contribute are sales by items/category/department, day, hour, item, type etc., labor costs, food costs and the number of customers who have come through the door. Additionally, web-based systems have an advantage in reporting KPIs, as they offer real-time reporting and analytics features from across the world through internet.
Technical Support & Training
The importance of good technical support from your POS provider can’t be emphasized. Web based systems have an extremely large advantage as the support team can look into the system instantly and begin the triage. Reliable and responsive support from your POS provider is a key to a restaurant’s success and its sanity.
The success of your business depends on how well you handle the goods & services that amass to your business profits & losses. Having knowledge that is available at your fingertips will benefit you to stay ahead of the competition. Purchasing and implementing the right POS software and making use of it to the fullest in your business will ensure success.
