The Importance of Having Proper Restaurant POS Equipment – Part I
For the longest time, most people thought of their point of sale system as a fancy cash register. With technology becoming more advanced, many innovations being developed today are becoming standard features within the POS industry.
1. Wireless Hand Held POS Devices. The newest generation of wireless restaurant hand held POS devices allow your servers greater freedom to take orders as well as collect payment without leaving the customer. Your waiters are able to present daily specials to your customers on the spot, process credit cards from one table to the next, send a bread request for table 37 to the kitchen, and also the ability to add walk-ins to the waiting list – all from the handheld device. With this, your servers can spend more time interacting and keeping your customers happy.
2. “Sticky” Paper Printers. Another one of the newest and most brilliant invention for POS systems are the printers that uses “sticky” paper. This type of printer uses paper similar to a Post-It that allows you to post the receipt over and over again. Print the paper to whatever length you want, then stuck to any surface where it will stay unless you remove and/or plan to stick it elsewhere. With this type of printer, the paper can stay with the order through the entire order process. The new paper is also liner-free which eliminates the need to manage non-recyclable waste and can be easily removed and restuck to a different surface – again and again, whenever you want. It can be used for all orders, exceptions, specials, as bag tags or any combination.
3. Digital Menu Board/Signage. Want to deliver media rich content, using video, audio and pictures to your customers using your POS system? There are POS bundles have fully integrated and seamless digital menu board software that can be used to create content using the same database. Menu pages, titles, menu items, and prices can all be twined with high-quality multimedia to give your restaurant menu board that can give both a dramatic and interactive display without having to spend extra money for addtional components.
With most digital menu boards, content is sent to the displays from the store database in real-time, so the menu board continually updates throughout the day with menu changes, scheduled price changes, daily specials and so on.
4. Self-Service Kiosk. Have you thought about a customer self service kiosk for your restaurant? Many of our clients have. There are POS packages out there that allow adding a kiosk with no separate software required. With this method, adding a Kiosk to your restaurant has never been so easy. Most kiosk software is designed to cut down on labor costs and speed up the ordering process, enabling a whole new level of profitability. The Kiosk will pull menu items directly from your menu database on the POS terminal, providing a seamless integration into your POS system. Most packages can enhance the customer’s user experience even further, using sound and motion graphics, to engage your customer.
5. Paging Customer Cell Phones. Some restaurants are opting to take a more modern approach by paging customers’ personal cell phones. The restaurant host or hostess simply takes your guest’s cell phone number and enters it into their cell phone paging system device. And when their table is ready, the paging system sends a call to the cell phone with an automated voice message to notify the guest that he or she may now approach the host or hostess to be seated. This can be a convenient way for guests who want to roam around farther than common pagers will allow and you won’t fear of the customer walking away with your pager.
This small list is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to restaurant technology. More to come in the following months…
The author Michael Tash is Vice President of Customer Relations at POS-for-Restaurants.com. With over 20 years of restaurant experience, POS-for-Restaurants.com helps you use your technology to be more efficient and more profitable.