Why an Advanced POS Solution Is Necessary to Understand the Modern Consumer
It’s no secret that the restaurant and food services industries are constantly evolving, and businesses need the latest technologies to provide as much business value as possible while also meeting today’s changing consumer expectations. As businesses continue to grow and expand, it’s important to have technologies that provide scalability and ultimately future profitability and competitiveness. Restaurants must have point of sale (POS) software that evolves with business needs and promotes positive guest experiences. Modern POS software must support a range of ordering scenarios and preferences, provide an intuitive user experience (UX) for guests and staff to easily use, and cater to a broad range of payment options to elevate guest experiences in the industry’s new era.
Emerging Technology Trends Transform Consumer Expectations Across Industries
Undoubtedly, consumers’ values shift as mainstream culture does, so it is imperative to have a POS solution that provides a range of options for guests. Emerging consumer technology trends influence how guests engage with restaurants and access goods and services. With this critical insight in mind, restaurant and food service organizations must understand evolving technology trends to fuel growth and effectively scale in the future.
To address consumer needs, an advanced POS solution should provide a variety of ways for guests to place orders and should account for how an order processes from the time of placement to time of order fulfillment. This POS solution should cater to a variety of order processes, including drive-through, tableside, guest-led orders via in-location kiosks or mobile device, remote order via third-party food delivery applications or QR code scans. With these offerings, guests can choose an experience based on their preference at any given time or day.
Embarking on Modern POS Applications
Onboarding new technologies to elevate the restaurant and food services industries customer experience begins and ends with an easy and intuitive interface. Advanced restaurant POS solutions should enable users, whether that be guests or staff, to have a frictionless experience with an interface at first use. Modern POS software emphasizes how first-time users experience a natural progression, and a feeling of pay-off by using the solution correctly the first time.
This feeling of success generates benefits for both guests and staff. On the guest side, there is a greater sense of welcome and orientation, easier item customizations to order, more empowerment to add more items, more confidence in order accuracy, faster service and greater sense of control. From a staff perspective, restaurant and food services employees benefit from shortened training times, reduced errors, less waste, faster order throughout and decreased stress. In turn, this increases overall employee empowerment and may lead to less staff turnover.
Today’s payment solutions have become more sophisticated, especially as digital payment options continue to grow in popularity. However, best practices for older payment options, such as cash, are still applicable and are still the preferred form of payment for some guests. Modern POS solutions must make it easy to settle bills. A robust restaurant POS should support a variety of situations to cater to these varying payment preferences. The restaurant POS platform should serve a range of preferences, including mobile payments, EMV credit, debit and cash. This POS solution should also account for a wide spectrum of payment options to promote seamless experiences, such as pay-in app, pay at pick up and hotel/guest information integration. The POS should have the capability to ease the process of setting up a tab and settling a bill via flexible, automated functionality. Lastly, having strong partnerships with financial industry providers and robust protocols to reduce POS vulnerabilities is an investment in brand reputation as much as in technology, which will only improve customer experiences.
Looking Ahead
To stay ahead of the competition and quickly adapt to changing industry standards and consumer preferences, a modern POS is critical for restaurant and food services businesses. As the business landscape increases in competition, an advanced POS that elevates guest experiences and provides flexibility will enable businesses to be successful in the long-term.