December 12, 2024
Written by: The POS Exchange Team
The right POS system for restaurants can make all the difference. For example, it can enhance how you serve customers, streamline your operations, and help you save money. But with so many POS systems for restaurants available today, how do you find the best one for your business? This guide will help you answer that question. The following paragraphs will discuss the different types of restaurant POS systems and help you with restaurant POS integration. This way, you can find the ideal match for your establishment's unique needs and goals.
The POS Exchange can help you with that. We connect restaurant owners with reliable POS system solutions that enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve overall customer service.
A restaurant POS, or Point Of Sale, is a software and hardware system that handles transactions for your restaurant (or other food businesses). It handles procedures like calculating the bill and generating invoices. A modern POS system has many more functions than just handling transactions and invoices.
This is why food businesses like food trucks and fast-food restaurants use a POS system. A modern POS system can significantly help & improve your business.
Here’s how:
POS systems help you manage your food business operations and make your business successful. You can use the software platform to:
You must be thinking, ‘How does a POS system work?’ Here’s how a POS system works and improves your food business:
The POS software can change how your restaurant handles customer orders. For example, here is how POS software (e.g., Waiterio) can help you manage orders:
Restaurant menu: Here’s how a POS system helps you manage your menu:
Handling payments is an essential part of managing a restaurant. Here’s how POS software can help you handle payments:
Systematic table management is crucial for any restaurant. For example, here’s how a restaurant POS system can help you manage your tables:
Sales reports are essential to understand your business and improve profitability. Let’s see how a modern POS can generate sales reports for your business:
Managing your restaurant’s staff efficiently is a challenge for most entrepreneurs in the food industry. Find out how much revenue each waiter has generated for your business. Waiters are automatically assigned to a table when they are taking an order. You can assign roles for each staff member. Depending on their role, each staff member will have limited access to the POS software.
Let’s go into more detail on how a POS system can help your restaurant or food business.
Let’s talk about how POS software can increase sales for your food business:
A POS system can simplify your workflow. With instant tableside ordering and simultaneous synchronization of orders, your restaurant becomes much faster and more efficient. A faster restaurant produces more revenue.
After the pandemic, online ordering has become the norm. So, your restaurant needs a simple website to accept food orders online. Accepting online orders can grow your sales significantly. Some POS systems like Waiterio offer a free built-in website with their POS software. So you can advertise and grow your restaurant brand online and accept online orders.
You can calculate your food costs and any particular menu item’s profitability using a POS system. Then, you can take your most profitable items and try to draw your customer's attention toward them. You can place them inside your restaurant’s Golden Triangle, which is a unique region. To learn more, you can check out our article on improving a restaurant’s profit margins and making an excellent restaurant menu.
Let’s talk about how a POS system helps you serve your customers better:
As we discussed, a POS system makes your entire business faster and more efficient, allowing you to offer faster customer service.
Your waiters can take the orders on a tablet or smartphone instead of writing them down on a pad. This reduces the chance of writing the orders wrong or misinterpreting them in the kitchen. Fewer errors mean happier customers.
The software lets you know how much revenue your front-end staff, such as waiters, generate. You can also monitor how long they spend on a particular table. I can determine who is the fastest and which staff needs more training.
Getting valuable business insights helps you make important restaurant/food business decisions.
Here is how a POS system can help you:
You can get information like:
This will help you fully understand your restaurant business and what you can do to improve.
Tracking your staff’s performance can also provide helpful information. For example, I can find out which waiters at my restaurant are the fastest so I can schedule their shifts during my busiest hours. I can also determine whether I need to hire more staff or reduce the number of staff at my restaurant.
With a POS system, I can easily calculate my food cost percentage and the sales for each menu item. This can help me make important decisions for my restaurant, like how to price each menu item. For example, if ‘Chicken Cutlets’ is selling well but has a low-profit margin, it would be an excellent decision to increase the price of ‘Chicken Cutlets’.
Cloud-based POS systems store data on remote servers and can be accessed online. They are flexible, scalable, and often more affordable, as they don’t require extensive on-site hardware. They are ideal for:
Pros
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Popular Cloud POS Systems
Tablet-based POS systems run on tablet devices like iPads or Android tablets. They offer mobility, allowing servers to take orders and process payments at the table. They are great for:
Pros
Cons
Popular Tablet POS Systems
These are the classic, on-premises POS systems used for many years. They often consist of dedicated hardware and software installed on local servers within the restaurant. Suitable for:
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Popular Traditional POS Systems
Mobile POS systems are designed to work on smartphones or handheld devices. They are portable and suitable for outdoor events, food trucks, and pop-up dining experiences. Small, mobile businesses and independent vendors often use them.
Pros
Cons
Popular Mobile POS Systems
These systems enable customers to place orders and pay without assistance from waitstaff. Commonly used in:
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Popular Kiosk POS Systems
These systems are designed to manage online orders and integrate with third-party delivery services. Perfect for restaurants that offer:
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Popular Online Ordering Systems
Enterprise-level POS systems are designed for large restaurant chains and franchises. They provide centralized control and management of multiple restaurant locations from a single dashboard.
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Popular Enterprise POS Systems
Some POS systems are tailored to niches like bars, coffee shops, pizzerias, bakeries, or ice cream parlors. They offer industry-specific features and customization options.
Pros
Cons
Popular Specialist POS Systems
These specialized systems are designed for temporary food service operations like food trucks, pop-up restaurants, and catering services. They are often compact, mobile, and easy to set up.
Pros
Cons
Popular Food-truck or Pop-up POS Systems
Open-source POS systems are free or low-cost software solutions that can be customized to fit a restaurant's specific needs. They suit tech-savvy restaurant owners who want complete control over their POS software.
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Popular Open Source POS Systems
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Every restaurant has different requirements for its POS system. Assess your restaurant’s unique needs to find the right match for your business. Think about your service model and how that impacts the features and number of terminals required. For example, a full-service restaurant will need different functionalities than a counter-service establishment.
If you're looking for a new POS for your full-service restaurant, you might prioritize features that help improve table turnover, such as course firing and check-splitting capabilities. Alternatively, a coffee shop might focus on integrated loyalty programs to reward regular customers.
The insights generated by your sales transactions are a potential gold mine for your business -- but only if you can easily access and understand them.
Decide the key metrics you want to monitor daily to assess your data and reporting needs and ensure your POS system has robust reporting and analytics capabilities.
Both your staff and your guests interact with your point of sale. Easy-to-use systems make training new hires easier and help you deliver a more pleasant guest experience. Consider the learning curve involved with a new POS system. Is it as intuitive to use as browsing Netflix, or will staff and customers need education and coaching?
While your restaurant might fulfill a lifelong dream, you probably don’t want to be there 24/7. Is having your POS data stored in the cloud and accessed remotely a critical priority?
Are you in the market for a POS to exclusively manage orders, sales, and payments, or are you interested in a system connecting to other parts of your operation? When COVID-19 hit, businesses that had the flexibility to add tools like online ordering, contactless delivery, contactless payments, digital loyalty programs, and e-gift cards were in a better position to serve customers safely and comfortably.
Controlling and maintaining some of these features through your POS system instead of outsourcing to third-party vendors can increase your revenue and give you invaluable data about your customers.
With your needs assessment complete, it’s time to compare POS providers. Today’s options can be broadly organized into cloud vs. legacy systems.
Cloud-based systems are hosted on the web and can be accessed anywhere you have a wifi connection–just like how you access the cloud each time you log into your email or social media accounts.
For restaurateurs, cloud-based systems provide the flexibility to manage your restaurant from anywhere -- whether you need to pop out to Restaurant Depot for a restock or you're on a well-earned vacation. Legacy POS systems rely on data stored on local servers on a closed network.
Another critical consideration is whether the systems you’re evaluating are restaurant-specific. Both cloud-based and legacy systems are designed exclusively for restaurants.
Retail POS systems (those used in salons, pet stores, and other businesses) can typically handle fundamental orders and payments for a food business. Still, restaurant-specific systems are better equipped to accommodate restaurants’ unique needs, like:
The pricing structures for point-of-sale systems can vary widely. When shopping for POS systems, there are two key investments to understand:
Component costs may include:
For each POS, you consider you’ll want to understand which of these costs apply and how you’ll be billed for each. Some companies charge all costs upfront, while others offer a SaaS model (software as a service) where you make payments each month. Financing options are also an option to inquire about. Many POS providers offer financing to help mitigate enormous upfront costs.
When comparing costs, another important consideration is your payback period—the amount of time it takes to recover the cost of your investment. For example, imagine your new POS system is a $9K investment, and in the first month, you drive $12K in incremental revenue. Your payback period in this example would be around three weeks.
After narrowing your search to POS systems that meet your needs and your budget, the next step is to tap your network and consult your peers. Restaurateurs using the POS systems you’re considering are your best source for candid feedback.
In addition to reading reviews, pay a visit to your friends in the industry and ask them the following questions:
You now have a shortlist of POS systems you’d like to see in action. It’s time to get a demo! You should be able to request a demo quickly through each POS provider’s website. You can expect to be contacted by a sales representative to set up a time that works for you for an in-person visit or phone conversation.
This will allow you to learn more about how each system would work in your restaurant and the expected value delivered.
Use the following checklist to prepare for your demo:
Who will decide which POS you choose?
If given the opportunity, share what matters most to you in a POS system ahead of the demo.
This will allow the sales representatives to focus your demo on what’s most important to you.
A demo is a great opportunity to explore specific products and features, so it’s a good idea to come prepared with questions about functionality. It’s also a good time to learn more about the POS provider as a partner.
If the demo goes well and you’re interested in proceeding, confirm your timeline and next steps with the POS provider.
Are you opening a new restaurant and have some time before you need your system in place, or are you interested in coming on board ASAP? Be clear with your needs.
The POS Exchange brings over 20 years of restaurant expertise, serving 200,000+ merchants and processing billions annually. Our tailored POS system solutions help businesses speed up checkouts by 30%, implement dynamic pricing, and manage customer reviews while reducing overhead.
Perfect for:
We offer end-to-end service, from brilliant consultation and interactive demos to local installation and 24/7 support.
Our mobile iPad POS systems streamline operations with features like order management, bill splitting, and inventory control. With integrations for business management tools and advanced security measures, we ensure your POS system grows with your business.
Trust our expertise to help you avoid the common pitfall that affects 38% of new business owners who choose the wrong POS system. Whether managing a busy restaurant, a local café, or operating a multi-location business, The POS Exchange delivers customized POS system solutions that tell your unique business story.
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