In its most basic form, Point of Sale software is your restaurant billing software that accepts orders and generates a receipt for them. However, Restaurant POS softwares have advanced to provide several sophisticated features that speed up the simple billing process and improve customer experience. Customers can now order and pay at their table itself. The Restaurant POS can generate Split Bills that eliminates the need to calculate the different bills manually or use a separate bill splitting app. Find out how to choose the perfect POS for your restaurant here.
Apart from just billing, restaurant POS technology has advanced to offer much more. Now you can manage your customers, manage your inventory, check statistics even optimise the order taking process using just your POS software. In a way, restaurant POS technology has exceeded itself beyond basic billing and is no less than a restaurant management solution. If your POS software is cloud-based, you can manage the entire restaurant online. In this article, we will tell you all that you can do with your restaurant POS software.
How To Turn Your Restaurant POS Software Into An Online Restaurant Management Software
Everyone is aware of the basic function of the Restaurant POS, namely billing. However, there are several other ways you can use your POS software to improve restaurant operations. These functions will turn your basic POS software into an online restaurant management software. Here they are:-
1. Accepting Online Orders
The Food Tech revolution brought about many innovations in the restaurant industry, the most prominent of it being online ordering and payments. Nowadays, most restaurants owe their profit to online ordering and food deliveries. The food delivery sector is one of the largest growing sectors in the country. The revenue in online food delivery segment in 2018 amounts to 51.2 Thousand Crore (US$7,120m) approximately. Thus, it is essential that your restaurant POS has the Online Ordering and Payment feature.
Most restaurants these days accept orders from various online food ordering services such as Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda. However, all these orders are received separately, and at the end of the day, you have to enter the orders received from these services manually.
Therefore, make it a point to choose a POS software that accepts orders from various online food ordering services automatically.
Your POS software can even help you in tracking your delivery staff which lets you keep a check on the delivery time, which is an essential factor in customer experience. A POS software which will allow you to receive orders from different delivery platforms automatically and clearly show the status of each will free up your staff, reduce chances of miscommunication and reflect in your customer service. The ease and functionality which this feature creates turn your basic POS software to a restaurant management software.
2. Managing Your Inventory
Inventory management is one of the major aspects of restaurant operations. Restaurant thefts, pilferage, and wastage can lead to substantial restaurant losses. Keeping track of your restaurant’s stock can be extremely difficult, and also lead to errors. An online restaurant management software that can handle your inventory can efficiently streamline your operations. Thus, make sure that your restaurant POS has a robust integrated inventory management solution. The inventory management feature automatically calculates the amount of stock that has been consumed in a day by the number of total orders.
The POS notifies you of the current stock, what is about to get over/expire and you can store the new stock that comes in. This not only lets you keep track of your stock, accurate documentation of each and everything can help curb inventory theft as well. Find out how to manage your restaurant inventory here.
3. Using CRM And Marketing For Customer Engagement
Integrated CRM is a boon to restaurants seeking customer engagement and retention. Saving the complete data of your customer will let you know who is a regular and who is a new customer. It also ensures that you know how many times a customer has returned to your restaurant, what is their average bill amount and what do they occasionally order. Using this data, you can send promotional SMS and emails to your customers. You can also create customized loyalty programs and discounts based on the spending habits of the customers. Learn how to make the best use of Integrated CRM here.
4. Taking Customer Feedback
A lot of restaurants ask customers for their feedback on the food, service, and ambience. Many restaurants have started asking feedback for each item the customer orders to get in-depth reviews. While asking the customer how their experience was being one form of feedback management, and another one is providing them with a handheld device to review their experience which is connected to your POS and helps you to get the feedback as soon as the customer submits it. Using this feature, you can react to negative reviews swiftly and interact with the customers about their experience. You can also let them give customized reviews based on their order. Your POS turned restaurant management software will allow you to gather more targeted and relevant data.
5. Keeping A Track Of Your Restaurant Business
Your restaurant’s reports and analytics help you to understand how your restaurant is doing and what areas bring you most profit while which ones are letting you down. Examining sales reports is a good way to thoroughly know your restaurant’s well-being. Which product sells the most, which one is least liked by the customer, how much sales are being done per day and how much capital you generate per product, sales reports provide the answer. POS software makes sale reports just a click away and helps you decode your restaurant’s success or failure.
As far as online restaurant management software is concerned, Posist’s Cockpit App allows you to view your restaurant’s real-time reports right on your mobile. You will be able to manage your restaurant and oversee operations in real time from anywhere in the world through cloud-based technology.
There are a number of Food Tech and Restaurant Tech Services products available in the market that provide a host of solutions for your restaurant. However, it is always advisable to use an integrated solution that includes all the features, instead of using different tools for different tasks,
Why spend a bomb on various seemingly-fancy-software that can be easily done with your POS software? However, make no mistakes; not all Point of Sale software comes equipped with easy API integrations.
Great article. I enjoyed reading it. Keep up doing a great job.