Diner Demands Are Driving New POS Requirements for Speed, Security
What should restaurants look for in payment providers as the POS becomes a more fluid concept?
Mansfield: With smartphone and mobile devices, diners now expect the ability to select, order and pay on-the-go. These demands are driving new POS requirements and restaurant owners need a multi-channel payments solution that integrates easily into various points of sale in addition to booking engines that allow customers to reserve a table and update their reservations online. When looking for a payment solution, restaurateurs need the reassurance of payment acceptance, in a fully secure environment that meets the highest data security standards and complies with the latest payment legislation. This means there are no limits for transactional speed and efficiency as customers want fast ways to pay.
How can stored value solutions offer ways to enhance digital customer engagement?
Mansfield: Stored value solutions can help any restaurant build customer loyalty and lower card transaction fees. The restaurant sector has been aggressively pursuing stored value strategies with success metrics aligning with innovation, exceeding customer expectations and adapting the latest ways to pay. Successful stored value solutions will not only enhance your customer experience but will also improve payment efficiency, reduce costs, and crucially increase sales.
Improving payment security continues to be a top strategic goal for restaurants. Where do you feel restaurants have been missing the mark with security? What steps do you feel still need to be taken?
Mansfield: Payment safeguards should include advanced security capabilities which provide the assurance that all transactions are secured at the outset, allowing restaurants to take advantage of fully integrated payments without the usual burden and cost of regulatory compliance.
Tokenization ensures that diners’ data is safe from compromise and that the business is as well protected as possible. By replacing card data sent by online table booking services or collected at the point of purchase with tokens, the threat of a data breach is drastically minimized. As well as current customer data, historical payment records should also be tokenized, removing the risks associated with legacy data being comprised.
Being data rich and insight poor is a common complaint of restaurants. How should restaurants leverage transaction data to make smarter decisions?
Mansfield: Restaurants need to ensure they have business intelligence capabilities to not only gather data but to analyze it, to understand it, and to deliver insights into how their business is performing. By using real time data which show consumer trends and behaviors, restaurants will have access to ‘live’ information which will provide new insights into product selection and associated purchases, customer segmentation and which location(s) or menu is performing well, for example. Data can also be leveraged to enhance the customer’s experience. By understanding purchase history and trends through data, restaurateurs can provide a seamless, personalized experience to their customers through loyalty incentives and discounts at the points of purchase. By converging data accessibility and proactive intelligence, restaurants will be equipped with the information to drive smarter, more effective decisions. Restaurants will be able to assess consumer trends and forecasts that will empower more strategic business decisions.