Advances in point-of-sale technology have made the systems easier to use and less expensive to implement. Tablets in particular are helping bars and restaurants streamline their business processes and improve their bottom lines.
POS systems have come a long way from the large, bulky fixed terminals with expensive hardware. In addition to the high upfront costs—about $2,000 to $4,000 per terminal—these systems generally required multiyear lease contract commitments for support and maintenance.
Lightspeed Restaurant, a cloud-based product line, offers bars, nightclubs and restaurants mobile point-of-sale, business management and customer analytics technology.
Expensive upgrades and service from the manufacturers would boost costs further, as did customization. Manufacturers often charged additional programming fees for functions such as changing daily menu specials or designing operating reports relevant to the specific restaurant or bar.
Today’s POS systems are smaller and offer more efficient options to help operators improve speed and accuracy, and ultimately enhance the customer experience. Depending on how you incorporate the technology, benefits can include higher check averages, faster table turn, shorter lines, more secure payment processing, savings on menu printing and reduced waste in the kitchen, says Chris Ravelo, vice president of operations at MenuPad, a POS software application for iPads.
Tapping into Tablets
The Ledford House Restaurant in Albion, CA, used to take orders and calculate checks on duplicate carbon tickets using pocket calculators. “Often the addition was wrong because of human errors, and we thought we were losing money,” says co-owner Tony Geer.
Bad handwriting also was a problem when the kitchen was not able to read what the waiters wrote, he notes.
The restaurant implemented TouchBistro Mobile iPad POS system in August 2014. Waitstaff use the wireless system on iPad Minis to take orders from customers; the orders are instantly transmitted to the kitchen or bar for preparation.
The system also automatically calculates and splits bills whatever way customers desire, and integrates with card keypads or mobile wallets for payment, says TouchBistro CEO Alex Barrotti. “This eliminates errors resulting from manual or double entries when placing orders and processing payments,” he says.
What’s more, users can program daily menu specials into the TouchBistro system within minutes, along with seating charts for larger venues.
TouchBistro, founded in 2010, launched its POS software in 2011. The hardware—an iPad—costs from $499 to $799 per terminal, while the software to run on the iPads is licensed on a monthly subscription basis with no contract required, according to the company.
The TouchBistro software costs $69 per month for one license; $129 for two; $249 for up to five licenses; and $399 for unlimited licenses—no matter how many terminals are added in the future. All prices include free product updates and technical support by phone and email.
Red Cedar Spirits, a distillery and cocktail lounge in East Lansing, MI, began using TouchBistro in April 2014. Co-owner Kris Berglund says the tablet technology has made it faster to take and prepare orders. “The server can take and send multiple orders while out on the floor without having to return to the POS station to send orders back.”
Embracing the Cloud
As the technology advances, restaurants see a reduction in reliance on hardware and location-based POS systems, and a shift towards operating in the cloud with less invasive and costly hardware, says Ravelo of MenuPad.
Clover Mini, launched in June, accepts near field communication (NFC)-based payments from mobile wallets.
Bar and restaurant operators can even find new revenue streams from entertainment and vendor marketing with the technology, he says.
Launched in 2010 by Chris Sullivan, a cofounder of Outback Steakhouse, MenuPad currently offers four unique modes in one app—three customer-facing modes, and one used by service staff. This allows the restaurant operator flexibility in working technology into their operations, Ravelo says.
“Table mode puts full control of the dining experience in the hands of the customer, and allows the staff to remain on the floor and focused on customer needs. Guests can browse the menu, place orders and pay from an iPad at the table,” he says.
MenuPad’s Kiosk mode can help quick-serve and fast-food concepts reduce wait times by allowing customers to place orders and pay on their own if they do not require a great deal of staff interaction. The systems’ Pay mode can eliminate the need for a customer to wait for servers to bring a check, pick up payment, and return with change or a credit-card slip.
And its Server mode brings 95% of the POS terminal functionality right to the table with the server. This ensures that orders are placed in a timely and accurate manner, and keeps the servers on the floor with their guests.
“All modes facilitate payment through the POS system, and speed up the payment process for everyone,” Ravelo says. The company is currently developing MenuWeb, a web-based menu display and ordering system to accompany the product.
While online ordering is widely available, he notes, “our system will allow restaurant operators to update menu changes in just one place rather than updating multiple systems. Changes made in our cloud-based MenuApp control panel will push to both the web and the tablets instantly.”
Cloud computing has made a huge impact on both POS and tablet menu ordering within the restaurant industry, says Mark Schulze, head of the Clover App Market at First Data, which acquired Clover in 2013.
“With the cloud, everything is now seamlessly connected, meaning customers can order how they want—from the web, a kiosk, a tablet menu or even in line,” he says. “The point-of-sale centralizes the ordering experience and makes it more integrated into the overall workflow.”
First Data introduced Clover Mobile, a wireless, tablet-based POS system, this past November. In June it unveiled Clover Mini, which accepts near field communication (NFC)-based payments from mobile wallets. The “all-in-one” management tool helps streamline operations, expand business intelligence and improve the customer experience; it also facilitates payments in a safe, secure environment, the company says.
Clover Mini’s cloud-based software makes it easy for owners to manage their businesses on the go, Schulze says. For instance, users can view activity such as inventory or staff hours while running errands away from the restaurant, or even monitor how much waiters are being tipped, he notes.
Pricing varies by a number of factors, but the company says it’s comparable to a single-use terminal, which by most estimates can cost about $300. But Clover Mini adds more functionality as a full business management tool vs. a POS terminal, according to First Data.
Borgata Pizza Café in Columbus, OH, deployed the Clover system this past March and added the Clover mobile handheld devices in April. “We used to get really backed up on the weekends with customers trying to check out and pay, but now we don’t have that problem,” says owner Ed Bisconti.
Other Clover clients include Restaurant Vivolo in New York and Serendipity in Concord, CA, a vocational restaurant run by the students of Mt. Diablo High School.
Another client is Kristina Rae’s, An All-American Grill in Dimondale, MI. Owner Roxanna Mann lost her eyesight completely in 2008 after a long degenerative illness; Schulze notes that she uses the voice activation software on the Clover Station to manage the register independently.
At their Fingertips
Clover Mobile, a wireless, tablet-based POS system from First Data, makes it easy for guests to split the bill while paying at the table.
Lightspeed Restaurant is a cloud-based product line offering bars, nightclubs and restaurants mobile point-of-sale, business management and customer analytics technology.
It also improves in-house communication, according to Lightspeed CEO Dax Dasilva. “Lightspeed, for example, can send an order to the kitchen in a different language if the chef and line cooks and servers happen to speak different languages,” he says.
For the back of the house, Lightspeed offers a single view of data, giving owners one anytime/anywhere look into sales and inventory across locations and on any device. It also provides instant menu updates, making it easy to change listings, images and prices across restaurants and websites, as well as communicate inventory.
Lightspeed offers the front-of-house mobile tableside ordering, table-to-kitchen integrated workflow using an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. It also enables quick opening and closing of bar tabs, activated by a credit-card swipe, and live visual floor management tools to help manage seating and table status. What’s more, restaurants can use the system to store guest information and reward them for loyalty, transforming customers into brand ambassadors.
Founded in 2005, Lightspeed has a tiered offering that scales up based on the size of the restaurant. Small, with one register and two printers, costs $59 a month on a 14-month agreement, or $69 a month on a month-to-month basis. Medium, with three registers, four printers and API access, is priced at $102 a month on a 14-month agreement, or $119 a month on a month-to-month basis. Large (seven registers, unlimited printers, API access) costs $205 a month on a 14-month agreement, or $239 a month on a month-to-month basis.
“Tableside tablets will continue to grow more interactive, as some now feature games and advertisements for restaurant specials,” says Dasilva. “Technology for high-end restaurants, however, is just beginning to gain more popularity.”
A fine-dining restaurant may not warm to the idea of iPad replacing waitstaff, he says, “but the technology can be used on the back end to completely streamline the diner’s experience.”
Man vs. Machine
Casual dining chain Olive Garden said this past April that it will roll out Ziosk tablets at its more than 800 restaurants by the end of 2015. Ruby Tuesday began testing tabletop tablets from Dallas-based Ziosk in September. The tablet and encrypted credit-card reader sits on each table and enables guests to see menu items, play games, view news and entertainment, order food and beverages and pay on demand.
As more restaurants incorporate some form of tablet technology, Ravelo says, “many will allow the guest to control their entire ordering and payment experience; many will chose to empower the server with efficiency tools; and some will completely automate the process,”
Berglund of Red Cedar Spirits thinks most restaurants will end up transitioning to tablet menu ordering. “It is much easier to customize and use, and much more portable than traditional POS computer stations and software,” he says.
Implementation is fairly smooth as well, although Greer at The Ledford House admites that “my older waitresses didn’t want any sort of computer anywhere near them, and thought the new POS tablet ordering system was an instrument of the devil when we first got it.” But now even the older staffers have embraced it, because the technology is simple to use and it makes their jobs easier, he says.
Not that he, or most operators, expect to replace staff with tablet altogether. “I will still want my servers to provide personal and exceptional service to my customers,” Geer says. “I won’t want customers to enter their orders directly into tablets themselves, but I believe tablets in the hands of our staff will continue to make restaurant operations smoother, more efficient and more enjoyable for customers.”
Maura Keller is a freelance writer based in the Minneapolis area.
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Custom Fit
Since bar and restaurant workflows vary based on concept, size location and so on, operators have to find a point-of-sale system that meets their unique needs. Many systems offer customization options to suit an establishment’s requirements.
For example, users of the First Data’s Clover POS system can customize their experience with the Clover App Market, which has more than 100 apps. These include Homebase, which manages employee scheduling and customer age verification, which makes it easy for employees to check age requirements before selling alcohol or cigarettes.
Some apps enhance the checkout experience for customers, says Mark Schulze, head of the Clover App Market. For instance, the Fortune Cookie app adds a fortune quote to guest receipts. For bartenders, there’s Bar Tab Auths, which lets a bartender know if a credit card has enough funds without charging a specific amount.
TouchBistro, a wireless, iPad-based POS system, also offers customization for floor layouts, allowing changes to seating plans on the fly based on the configuration of the day. Its customization program also includes menu items, daily specials, tax setting, serving staff data and security setting relevant to different roles.
And with the MenuPad POS system, nearly every feature of the software can be turned on or off, or configured in multiple ways, says Chris Ravelo, vice president of operations at MenuPad. “The app configuration is controlled on our cloud-based MenuApp control panel, which is accessible from any Internet connected device.”—MK