According to a survey in the USA, it is found that over 75% of restaurants are moving or planning to move towards technology like inventory management, ordering apps, and payment systems. This is the result of the new trend which is constantly changing the market dynamics with the use of software and hardware. So, why are these people intended towards digitizing the offline retail industry? If you are asking yourself the same question, then this is the right platform for you. Here we are going to discuss the topic of what is a POS system, and why you need a POS system in your restaurant.
What is a POS?
If you have a restaurant of your own, you might have already heard about the term ‘POS’. A Point of Sale System is a collection of some hardware and software, which is used to provide different features to your customers such a payment acceptance, inventory management, etc. You can see this system as a virtual assistant which can help you grow your business by keeping a tab on your sales & purchases and help you earn more.
According to another survey, more than 65 percent of offline retail consumers agree that the use of technology improves serving and payment experience in any restaurant. They even prefer joints that provide these types of services. So, keeping in my the demand and features, POS systems quickly escalated to the level where now it’s almost compulsory for any offline retailer to have one.
Why Restaurant POS system?
As we already discussed, there are various factors that led to the need for Point of Sale system in the restaurant industry such as the demand, features, human errors, etc.
So, let’s take a deep dive into finding out what those reasons were in details:
Tools
There have been multiple trends in the past, in every industry, and all of them are completely different and sometimes even replacing one another. But one common thing in each one of them is that they came into the market only because they were able to solve some problem or another. The same goes for our topic of the day as well. This system solves some of the most important problems of the retail industry by providing adequate tools to tackle multiple issues. Some of those tools are inventory management systems, billing, reporting and analytics tools, etc.
Human Error
Human errors are also one of the most important factors because which POS system becomes a necessity in the modern retail sector. According to a study, accounting errors count for a minimum of 1% and up to 10% of all financial errors in retail stores. That figure may seem to be negligible at first but larger your profits go higher this amount goes as well. So, to tackle this situation, Restaurant POS system provides accurate billings and reporting tools. These tools help you efficiently manage your accounts without any discrepancies, hence canceling out any loss due to calculative mistakes.
Competition
We all know that competition is increasing at a rapid pace in every industry and the same goes for restaurants as well. With new restaurants opening each day in different parts of the world, it is important to stay ahead of your competition at all times. The use of this system gives you a competitive edge over the restaurants that still rely on manual processes. As we already stated above that customers prefer restaurants with more technological advancements over not-using ones. You can use this to your advantage by setting up the necessary hardware as soon as possible.
Better Control
Point Of Sale software provides you a whole lot better control over your business. You can control your business from inside your office, or on-the-go as well. The system provides you features such as inventory management, staff management, billing, report generation, cloud analytics and much more. Each of these things helps you in better management of your resources and provides you a stable platform to control your business.
Time Management
We all have heard the saying that time is money, and it’s true to every last word. The most important aspect of doing a successful business in the management of its resources and time is the biggest of them all. The Restaurant POS System provides you the different toolset to successfully save your time by automating your manual processes much more accurately and faster than human hands. It also gives businesses the option to upload or retrieve data from cloud servers, accessible from any part of the world. All these features make this a very handy solution to time management problems of an organization.
Ease of Access for Both Business and Customers
For the restaurant industry, providing good services to your consumers is equally important to providing the best food. So, with the use of features like pay-at-table and omni-payment acceptance, you can provide your customers with the best in class services. But not only that, but the features also benefit you as well. These kinds of features help you keep better control and check on your earnings, sales, purchases, staff, and customers. So, POS is something that can benefit you and your customers at the same time.
What are some Features of a Point Of Sale System?
These are some of the major features that a POS must possess:
Accept different kinds of payments such as credit cards, debit cards, mobile wallets, cash, and other such options as well. You can manage your payments and accounts more efficiently with that.
Manage all the sales and purchases of your items and inventory. Never let your business suffer due to lack or over the storage of any product. This feature also helps in forecasting your sales for the future as well.
This feature is a must-have in any restaurant management system. It gives your customers to skip the queues and pay the bill amount from their table itself. This feature provides essential services to your customers as well as increasing your profits at the same time.
Staff (Workforce) management is an important part of the restaurant pos system as well. It helps you check and controls your employees a whole lot better by providing you details such as in and out timings, work hours, and automated salary calculators.
Cloud Reporting and Analytics is a part of the overall package in any management system. This feature provides any business owner the full access to all records and data saved by the system. The data is saved on the cloud servers of the merchant partners and can be retrieved on-the-go.
What should you do to get a POS System in your Restaurant?
There are more than thousands of Point of Sale systems in the market right now but you should get the one with a stable network. Before choosing a platform on which you are going to manage your business, you should first analyze if its features. Although many providers offer a different set of tools, you should only choose the ones that matter for your business. Choosing only the necessary tools can also help you get cost-effective packages as well. Cost is an important aspect as well. You should really look forward to your restaurant pos system price chart carefully so you can understand which package you want (and what are you getting it that package).
We hope that after reading this article you will definitely like to upgrade your restaurant from manual to automated. There are a lot of other things that you should consider while choosing a merchant partner for your business, but that is a topic for another day. Getting a POS system in your restaurant is definitely a step forward in the direction of growing your business. So, what are you waiting for, go and find the Best Restaurant POS system for your food paradise?
