Things You Need To Know Before Purchasing A Restaurant POS Hardware
The typicall POS systems you may see on restaurants and fast food chains are touch screen monitors, programmable keyboards, or scanners and handheld devices. Cash registers can be baught with or without a built-in cash drawer, printers can be dot matrix or thermal, programmable keyboards can have covers for spill protection and scanners can be a CCD scanner or an autosending laser scanner.
Touch screen technology: Many restaruant owners find touch screen monitors as more intuitive to use than keyboards, as it can reduce mistypes and can easily cancel orders within a second, and because it provides flexible user interfaces and programming. Aside from that, touch screens are easier to position in any counter and even uses less electricity, although, they can be more prone to breakdowns.
Hand held devices: Restaurant POS equipment like PDAs, which are commonly wireless devices that transmits data back to its base station and into the POS system. You can use the newer version, which is the write-on handhelds that allows you to write information such as the orders and sends them directly to the kitchen! This type of handheld device is perfect when up-selling desserts and drinks to customers either by roaming on tables or by approaching customers in line.
Keyboards: Most grocery stores prefer to use this type of POS systems, since they can program individual keys for specific item codes and prices. A standard keyboard consists of 101-key, which can be seen with any computer. Others are small and flat, which we commonly see in fast food outlets. POS keyboards often has a built-in magnetic stripe readers for processing credit cards.
Scanners: This useful piece of electronic device that reads bar codes, convert it and inputs its details to a POS system computer. Generally, it fastens a sales transaction and accurately inputs product or service payment of a customer. It typically connects through Y-connectors called wedges which makes them function as an extension of your keyboard.
Customers’ volume: When it comes to serving different volumes of customers, using this POS scanners could be very useful. If your counter line holds several customers, then its good to use a CCD scanner or entry-level laser scanner. If the line is loaded with customers, then autosensing laser scanners is the perfect choice. This type of scanner turns on when an item is placed in front of it, scans its code, and then turn off again. But if the counter line is overflowing with customers, you could sure use the help of an omnidirectional scanner, using its 15 or 20 lasers simultaneously, it can scan a bar code from any angle!
Other Restaurant Hardware To Consider
Cash drawers: Where you store cash, credit card slips, gift certificates, and other imporatant things. When looking to buy for a POS cash register, look for sturdy construction of at least 18-gauge steel. And since the usable life of a cash drawer is measured, make sure you can replace rollers, bearings, and other parts, because most cash drawers opens when a signal is released from the receipt printer.
POS printers: An addition to your restaurant POS system is a receipt printer, every retail business needs one to complete a sales transaction. A POS printer is needed in order to print a receipt and creating credit card slips. The dot matrix printers, also known as impact printers, are inexpensive and uses ink ribbon to print on regular paper. While thermal printers use heat and special heat-sensitive paper to generate receipts. It is slightly expensive than a dot matrix printer because it prints receipts faster and more quieter. They are also more reliable because they have less moving parts.
POS Customer display: Also called the pole display. This restaurant hardware lets your customer view their item and its price, and sometimes used to support advertising. Before buying a customer display, make sure that you check for the right height and width, which will perfectly fit your counter table, and its compatibility with your POS software.
The Check readers: If you don’t have one, I suggest getting one now. This device helps you be preventing check fraud by verifying essential account information, saving you tons of profit.
Magnetic stripe readers (also known as magstripe reader): This piece of hardware is used to read credit cards. You can also purchase keyboards and touch screens has a built-in magnetic strip readers for convenience.
Fingerprint readers: This type of POS equipment can be used to limit which staff can access a POS terminal. Typically used by employees to log on to their designated stations.
Always rememeber when purchasing a restaurant POS system, hardawre or software, you have to make sure that you review their details first. It doesn’t matter how expensive or cheap a POS equipment is, consider the environment where you’re going to use it. Regular cleaning keeps your keyboards and touch screens in top shape, vacuuming dust and lubing your receipt printer can extend its usable life and maintaining an over all clean workstation will definitely help your POS stations from annoying dust and spills. You can always request for a FREE POS system quote online where local vendors will offer you competitive price lists of any restaurant hardware and software you need based on the the information you provide them. So you would never have to waste money buying the wrong POS systems.
For more information on restaurant POS systems or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry in your location see more information at POS-For-Restaurants.com.
What is A Restaurant Point of Sale System?
A Restaurant Point of Sale (or Point of Service) could be any restaurant POS equipment, hardware and software combined like an electronic cash register, that is used to process a transaction. A restaurant includes many factors which makes a business function as it is supposed to. A restaurant Point of Sale terminal is used to accelerate sales transactions and secure the customers payment. Point of Sale means the transaction point, any location within a retail establishment where transaction occurs.
Now, in a restaurant, there are lots of moving parts that’s involved for it’s performance. Having a restaurant POS Software can greatly help in managing staff attendance and performance, inventory, accounting and customers’ transaction information, helps any retail business owner improve business performance. How is that? With features that provides powerful tools to help manage employee and customer data, a restaurant POS system increases both efficiency and profits.
Satisfying Customers To Increase Profit
Customer satisfaction is a very important factor for any retail business, meeting your customers’ expectations can increase customer return, wich will definitely increase your profit. The more customer returns you get, the higher your profit is! So your job, as the owner, is to make sure your employees are properly and accurately giving orders, providing assistance to customers and make an overall excellent performance all the time. With the use of a restaurant POS software, the ones with touch screen technology, decreases ordering time by 50% and increases ordering accuracy.
Because the goal of increasing profit, many retail point of sale vendors have developed new systems that can produce excellent results like the POS systems that enables you to integrate your accounting software such as QuickBooks and Peachtree. With a POS software like these, you can rest assured that all your financial data will always be up-to-date and accurate, you can even print sales report on any POS terminal just with the touch of a button!
Improving inventory management is really difficult. Manual handling and updating of your inventory sure is a lot of hassle, it’s both time consuming and costly. By installing a POS software that can help you manage your inventory, you will see and increase in efficiency with its advance management tools, you can associate any information with the items as well, such as purchase date or date of expiry, you will never have to back to manual again.
Difficulties with ordering system. Placing an order should have the right timing, ordering too late can cause you to run out of an available item, order too soon can cause a risk of the item going bad. Installing automated inventory management enables you to increase the efficiency of your products orders, set a special alert to notify you and your employees when you’re about to run out of products and the ones that needs immediate re-ordering, as well as set notification when expiration dates are nearing. So if your restaurant still doesn’t have a inventory management installed as part of your POS system the time is NOW to do so.
Fighting Leakage With The Help Of Good Restaurant POS Solutions!
Decrease shrinkage up to 10% by having a good restaurant POS solution to back back up your business. And because every data is being digitally recorded, you can have a full report on who processed a transaction and if the transaction made is accurate. By this, you are assured when it comes to the safety of your profit and can easily investigate profit loss.
The information I gave you is just the beginning of what a restaurant POS system is and the importance of having a POS software for your business. Get advice and do your research online before making your final decision on any POS system since it making the WRONG decision can cost you in the long run. You can also check retail systems verdons online and request for a free POS system quote before buying one from your local supplier. By this, you can get competitive price lists and avoid buying expensive restaurant POS equipment that doesn’t work for your business.
For more information or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry in your area help you go to POS-For-Restaurants.com
Restaurant POS Solutions: Will credit cards soon be obsolete?
Will Credit Cards Go Obsolete With This New Payment Method?
A leading provider of advanced, open-standard contactless chip technologies, Contactless and a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing services, First Data, have announced that they made a three-year agreement into developing contactless payment stickers that will be marketed by First Data as GO-Tag products. On the agreement, INSIDE is to supply the MicroPass payment sticker prelams only to First Data-qualified card manufacturers for production.
The agreement leverages the core technology from INSIDE Contactless and the issuing and transaction processing power of First Data. First Data will be marketing and distributing GO-Tag products to financial institutions, major U.S. merchants, and other distribution channels in a variety of form factors.
The general manager of Mobile Commerce and Point of Sale Solutions for First Data, Barry McCarthy, said that “First Data’s GO-Tag Solution represents an important step in the evolution from today’s plastic cards and fobs, offering a bridge to the future of mobile payments”. “Our partnership with INSIDE Contactless enables us to offer consumers an opportunity to turn just about any personal item, from a mobile phone to an employee ID badge, into a payment device.”
According to Charles Walton, executive vice president of payments for INSIDE Contactless, the agreement highlighted the versatility of the MicroPass platform to support a variety of contactless payment applications and form factors, also stickers.
Since Contactless credit card technology becomes more common in the marketplace, it would be a good idea to update your restaurant POS system with them in the near future. And we all know that customer service is all about the speed and fast transaction to a restaurant point of sale terminal, the better the service is the better your customer experience will reflect on the value of your services.
The author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com with over 20 years experience helping restaurants nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits using restaurant POS systems.
You may visit POS-For-Restaurants.com for more information on how our national network of restaurant point of sale experts can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times.