How can a point-of-sale system improve restaurant efficiency?

Order management is pretty basic, until it's not. These days most restaurants receive orders from more than one channel. Whether they know it or not, it's best for all orders to be channeled to fulfillment - the kitchen - through one source. Making sure your POS is integrated with your order channels is critical to efficient operation.

Almost no one orders exactly what's on the menu. We can all thank "have it your way" for that. Couple that with the fact that nothing irritates a customer faster than not getting what they ordered. The only response is to make sure modifiers are CRYSTAL clear. Take the time to make sure most common modifiers are preset in your POS so your crew doesn't have to decipher 17 different phrases or word combinations for "extra cheese."

Your POS is a repository for a lot of actionable data. The trick is to get into a habit of reviewing the data to see what it's telling you. I set aside Thursday mornings to go through weekly item and staff sales reports and make sure I'm on top of what's selling and for how much, and who's doing the best job in terms of average tip percentage, average discounts, and average ticket per customer.

There's no such thing as a perfect POS. Honestly, most pretty much do the same things. They just do things a little differently. Make sure you use a POS that has technical support appropriate for your business - hopefully 24X7X365 - and choose one that you can manage yourself, without a consultant or any one else to help you. (When you need to fix something on a Saturday night at 8PM you need to be able to do it without calling anyone...)

A point-of-sale (POS) system is a game-changer for restaurant efficiency. For instance, consider a popular system (In Denmark) like OnlinePOS or Fresto. It ensures order accuracy, reducing manual errors in the order-taking process. This leads to faster transactions, minimizing wait times for guests. Moreover, POS systems enhance staff productivity. Servers can focus on customer interaction rather than manual order recording. This improves service speed and overall dining experience.