Does your POS only take payments, or does it help you operate?
Recording sales isn't the same as getting through a full shift.
Almost every point of sale does the same thing well: it records a sale, prints a receipt and closes a shift. That's been solved for years. The useful question is a different one: what happens during the other eleven hours of the day?
Taking payment is the last step, not the only one
Between a guest walking in and paying there's a lot of operation: browsing the menu, deciding, ordering, getting a complete ticket to the kitchen, adding a drink, splitting the check, turning the table.
A system that only takes payments helps you with the last step. Everything else still lands on your team.
A traditional POS sees sales. Your restaurant needs to see guests.
Five questions before signing with anyone
- If the internet drops at 9 p.m., can I still take payments?
- If a screen breaks, can I operate from another device today?
- If I need to change a price mid-service, do I do it or does someone do it for me?
- If I have a problem Sunday at 2 a.m., who answers?
- At the end of the month, do I know who bought or only how much I sold?
If three or more answers make you uncomfortable, the problem isn't the software. It's that you're buying a modern cash register.
Support is part of the product, even if it isn't on the feature list
In a demo everything works. Systems go down, fail or freeze at the worst possible moment, and that's where you see the difference between a vendor and a partner.
Always ask about the channel, the hours and who answers. Not about the number of features.
What a system should do today
Beyond recording the sale, a restaurant system should take weight off your team during the rush and give you information you can actually use on Monday morning.
- Let the table move forward without waiting for a server.
- Allow several checks to be paid at the same time.
- Send clear kitchen tickets, the same way every time.
- Tell you who came back and who stopped coming.
- Have someone on the other side when something fails.
That isn't having more features. It's having fewer problems.
