What's the best POS system for my restaurants?

Restaurants are known for being places where people get together and enjoy each other's company, often bringing together large numbers of people. To ensure maximum customer satisfaction, it's important to have impeccable internal management so that your business is at its best, and a large part of this involves your POS (point of sale) system. 

What are the most important features your POS system should have? What solutions are available to you? Let’s find out. 

What should your POS system bring to your restaurant?

Having restaurants to manage is a complex task and good organisation is needed to ensure that every service runs smoothly. Nowadays, having a POS system will help you with these everyday tasks. 

Here are the elements that your POS should tackle:

Speed and efficiency

In addition to all its practical benefits, the POS system installed in your restaurants will become your fully-fledged companion for the internal management of your establishments.

With a POS system at each of your tills, ordering will be easy not only for customers but also for your staff, who won't have to worry about taking orders one by one and wasting precious time writing on a piece of paper. With a point of sale system, you have the possibility of adding extensions that make internal management even easier—with the possibility of keeping track of each customer visit with their order history. 

With SumUp's Point of Sale Pro, your point of sale software and hardware can be made available to support multi-channel businesses, stadiums, venues, festivals and with dedicated functions that streamline your services.

  • Fast, high-performance checkout

  • Flexible ordering system

  • Elegant hardware and easy-to-use software

  • Real-time data and reports

  • Multi-user access

By equipping your restaurants with a tool like this, you'll relieve your restaurant, staff and customers of high pressure or long waiting times.

A variety of payment options

Cash payments are a waste of time for your employees. By counting change, knowing how much to give and struggling with small change. By accepting other payment systems such as credit cards, mobile payments, contactless payments and more, you'll be more efficient and faster at the same time.

Setting up mobile orders and payments

With an order and payment made directly via the customer’s phone, you have nothing else to manage apart from getting the order to its destination. With portable POS terminals, your employees can walk between tables without complication. If you can't offer this system, you have the option of installing different pop-ups (ordering kiosks) positioned near strategic locations.

Installing order terminals

This is the system that will probably have the biggest impact on your efficiency. Installing several order terminals will allow customers to be autonomous from the moment they order to the moment they pay. You'll also be able to keep a more precise track of which items have been ordered and boost your sales by suggesting additional purchases or highlighting current offers. 

All your staff have to do is receive the orders and distribute the products to customers. In addition to their efficiency, order kiosks allow you to save up to 30% on staff costs. With order kiosks, you'll have more complete tracking, fewer errors made by your staff and higher turnover.

Full technical support

A broken piece of hardware or a software bug can happen very quickly—a difficult situation if it happens in the middle of service in your restaurants. In the event of a breakdown or malfunction, reactive technical support can minimise disruption and ensure a smooth experience for spectators.

Collecting data

Collecting data and information from your customers is a huge advantage when it comes to managing your POS. Good data management can radically transform your operations, improve the user experience, optimise your sales and strengthen your marketing strategy.

This will have an impact on your business operations such as:

  • Understanding your customers 

A good POS system can collect detailed data about your customers' buying habits. This includes what they buy, when they buy it and how much they spend. This information can help you understand what your customers want and tailor your offer accordingly.

  • Optimise sales 

You can identify buying trends and adjust your inventory accordingly. For example, if you notice that certain drinks or snacks sell particularly well at certain events, you can increase their stock in the future to maximise sales.

  • Improving the customer experience

Your POS can also improve the customer experience. The data collected can help you personalise the shopping experience, for example by offering targeted promotions or complementary products based on previous purchases.

  • Refine your marketing strategy

Sales data can also be used to refine your marketing strategy. For example, if you notice that sales increase during certain promotions, you can plan similar campaigns in the future.

Mathis Jean-Gilles