You need to upgrade your food truck's point of sale system. What's the best way to do it?

“Along with facilitating the daily operations of running your food truck, POS systems can organize your profit-and-loss statement and can track your sales tax from each city you operate in. With this information, you’ll be able to track the performance of your business operations,” said Richard Myrick, author of Running a Food Truck for Dummies. POS for food trucks is packed with a variety of features that can help you run your business. Your POS system includes both hardware and software components so make sure they meet your company’s needs. Hardware refers to tangible components of the POS that your employees can physically use to complete transactions and manage data. Such components may include laptop, card scanner, touch pad and etc.

Cloud-Based POS Consider a cloud-based POS system. Cloud-based solutions offer flexibility, real-time data access, and the ability to manage the system remotely. This is particularly beneficial for food truck owners who need to monitor operations while on the move. Cloud-based systems also provide automatic updates, ensuring that your POS software is always up to date. Mobile-Friendly Interfaces: Given the nature of food trucks, prioritize POS systems with mobile-friendly interfaces. Look for solutions that are compatible with tablets or smartphones, allowing staff to take orders and process transactions directly from the point of service. This flexibility can lead to faster service, shorter queues, and improved customer satisfaction.

Integrate social media sharing options within the app. Encourage customers to share their orders and experiences on social platforms, creating organic marketing and increasing visibility, while installing customer-facing displays that show order details, pricing, and promotions. This not only engages customers but also ensures order accuracy, as customers can confirm their selections.

If you are in need of upgrading your food truck's points of sale system, the best way to do it would be to research and invest in a modern, user-friendly and efficient system. This could involve consulting with other food truck owners, reading reviews and ratings of different systems, and demoing potential options. It is important to consider the specific needs and requirements of your food truck, as well as the budget and long-term goals. Once you have selected the best system, it would be wise to schedule a time for installation and training to ensure a smooth transition and optimal use of the new system. Upgrading your food truck's points of sale system can greatly improve the overall functioning and success of your business.

In Nigeria, I am in the opinion that food trucks are not effective because of the lack of POS systems, not POS to collect payments, but the features of inventory tracking, customer relationship management, scheduling deliveries etc. those that have POS systems don't take full advantage of the data to aid in planning and execution.

Figure out what is available. Look for options that are built specifically with the flexible needs of a food truck in mind. Compare capabilities and different price points and see what features are essentials and which are nice to have. Then you can narrow down choices based on price and ease of use.

There are a variety of POS systems available in the market. However look for solutions that are popular in the region you are located in. Go for softwares that are less complicated when looking specifically for a food truck. I have used PetPooja, a software solution in India. This has enabled many SMEs and MMEs.

In my opinion you should always go for CS, as it is one of the most important factors in POS. You might not need a personalized Food truck POS, as there are good solutions for restaurants that you can use, but watch out for the price/functionality rate. Always reach out to multiple POS providers and see where you feel the most comfortable, as they will handle a large part of your daily business. Remember that POS marketing is often aggressive as there as so many providers, and the one that are too sales oriented often have a bad customer support, and often might trap you with low initial fees, only to hold you hostage later. So don’t just buy the first thing that pops up, but do your due diligence.

In my opinion before we start looking for a new POS system, we need to identify what is needed from it. We got to consider about the size and volume of the food truck, the type of food and service it offers, the payment methods we would accept, and the features we want to have. Then accordingly we should consider the POS system, also we have to check the API and how can inventory and operations can be eased , how user friendliness the POS system has etc. This way we can zeroed down to a POs system which May suits best to our need for the food truck business.

Make the most of your system by keeping it updated. Be sure you have the latest version to take advantage of the newest features and bug fixes. It's important to keep your POS free of viruses and as secure as possible. So updates can help with this as well.

The things you should consider when looking for a POS system for food trucks are size, durability and efficiency. Some of the big POS system companies don't tailor to food trucks and target restaurants, bars and cafes.

There are a lot of things to consider when choosing your Point of Sale system for a food truck. You need to look at durability, reliability, depending on the company your menu does it need to be simple or complex, does it need network connectivity, or WiFi, if WiFi what is the signal strength for credit cards? Is the connection strong enough to run a CC transaction.

If you are upgrading an existing POS you should always watch out not to lose any of significant features that you already have. Also, you need to make sure that any software is aligned with your future business plans, so watch out for scalability of solution. If you want to make the right investment to grow the business the right POS should have modular sales reports, inventory management, HR modules (if you have over 7 employees) and of course integration with card payment providers with low commission rate.

I recommend selecting a point of sale (POS) system for your food truck that's designed with scalability in mind and offers comprehensive features, such as inventory management and customer data insights. Without a forward-thinking POS solution, the process of growing and scaling your business could become significantly more challenging.