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Restaurant Revolution: Take Orders and Payment Right at the Table
By: Chris Allen
A mobile point of sale network, or mobile POS system, can revolutionize and benefit small business operations in significant ways. Mobile POS functions with hand-held units that communicate back to a network server, performing all the same tasks as a cash register, just electronically. Restaurants stand to reap big benefits from such systems because waiters can take care of both ordering as well as payment all in one process.
Increased Mobility of Workers
Waiters can send in orders to the cook line faster without mistakes or transcribing quick-scribbled notes on orders. Further, instead of having a customer go to a physical cash register to close out a meal, a waiter can process the entire transaction right at the customer’s table. This reduces errors, closes out customers faster, and improves the accuracy of orders.
Customer Orders are Processed Faster
Because a cook sees the orders as they are inputted into a POS system, he can start the orders faster. This in return reduces the wait time for customers and speeds up how fast tables become available again. Since a restaurant is limited to how many customers it can sit in a day, the faster tables free up, the more money that can be earned that day.
Increased Restaurant Space
With a mobile POS system, the clunky cash register and desk system can be removed from the floor, freeing up more space for tables and earning area.
Accurate Information for Consumers
Instead of having waiters guess or delay an order, they can tap into accurate food information for all of a restaurant’s products via the POS mobile unit. This ensures customers order what they want, and it also speeds up the ordering process. Using the right mobile devices, POS hand units can be quickly switched from an ordering input screen to restaurant information, with every detail at the fingertips, including digital images to show a customer what can be ordered.
Convenient Payment Processing
With a simple card swipe tool, mobile POS units can be equipment to allow waiters a payment processing capability right at the table with the customer. This will reduce wait time during payment processing, and again frees up tables faster for new customers.
If the infrastructure can be afforded, many small business owners of restaurants are finding the above benefits are real and advantageous to the bottom line. Not only does a mobile POS system speed up order processing for food, it benefits multiple aspects of the restaurant business, increasing productivity in general. Many restaurant managers and owners have seen, within a short time or a few months, overall improvements in operations, lower costs and improved sales figures per day.
If your restaurant business needs a boost and a number of operational changes are being considered, put a mobile POS system on the consideration list. There are options out there for new businesses to use a pay as you go POS software that is great when little funding is available. This approach to order and payment processing can transform a restaurant with very little infrastructure cost involved. Further, the benefits possible have the potential of paying for the cost and returning far more for the business taking the electronic leap.
Have you incorporated mobile payments into your business?
Published: August 22, 2013
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