There’s a scenario happening more and more in restaurants. A couple walks in, gets seated, and looks at the menu. When the server walks up holding a tablet, he’s there to take your order and place what you would like on the tablet.
Mobile is the next generation of ordering. However, mobile POS systems are not the new wave of technology in restaurants; it’s the permanent wave.
As the couple orders drinks and dinners, your restaurant’s server engages with the couple. During the conversation, the server mentions a special on an appetizer. While they’re thinking about partaking in the appetizer, the drinks come to the table by a runner.
How did that happen?
By ordering through a tableside ordering solution, the drink order went straight to the bar or kitchen immediately. The couple is so impressed with the speed of service, and they will take the appetizer after all.
Immediate service, engagement by the server, upsell on the ticket, and the restaurant’s revenue just increased.
This storyline results from a restaurant having a mobile POS system, which scratches the surface of what mobile technology can do for your restaurant.
We look at five benefits of having a mobile POS system and the advantages your restaurant can have.
Menu Management in Real Time
A mobile POS is more than just taking orders and ringing up sales.
The mobile POS system is just part of a central structure through your restaurant that tracks and manages inventory, sends alerts when stock is low, and can even automate reordering of products.
A mobile POS will even provide real-time menu availability as the server takes the order.
This allows your server to alert guests much quicker with what’s available and what’s not. There’s no going to the kitchen to check with the staff, only to return to the guests to relay the information.
A similar issue is when a guest may be allergic to something that may or may not be in a dish. Again, through the brain of a mobile POS system, the server knows the exact ingredients of what’s in that dish without asking other servers, the manager, or the kitchen.
Part of precise menu management for a mobile POS is in its automated reporting. For example, a mobile POS system can run reports on sales, which is an insight that can help you plan to stock, identify trends, or cut back on items when sales are low.
Mobile POS Orders Increase Accuracy
With tableside ordering, a server is wholly engaged with the customer, which means there is much less chance an order will be incorrect.
Without a mobile POS, a server can take a guest’s order at table 1, another order at table 2, and possibly a third order at table 3. Then, the server goes back to the point-of-sale terminal and relays all three tables’ order information.
Things can happen between taking the orders and inputting them into the point-of-sale terminal.
- The server gets distracted by another server.
- The server rushes to input the orders all at once and begins to back up the kitchen.
- The server misreads the tickets and keys the order incorrectly for table 2.
It’s all possible and happens through the old system of ordering.
With a mobile POS system, it’s the customer and the server at the table, that’s it. The order goes in right away with tableside ordering, and the customer, if they prefer, can even view the order on their mobile device.
Or the customer can order at the table, directly on their mobile device after scanning a QR code, since the menu on their mobile device is fully integrated with your restaurant’s POS system.
A unique mobile POS system will even have the ability to keep a ticket open so customers can add dessert, another drink, or anything else off the menu to the same ticket they started. A huge benefit to your restaurant if guests settle in to watch a game, or additional people join friends at the table.
And to further the accuracy point, when an order is placed on the guest’s phone, the order goes straight to the kitchen.
Higher Engagement With Customers
The servers are your restaurant’s public relations system from the time your server greets the customers at the table and through the guest experience.
So how does a mobile POS system help with the human interaction of guests and servers?
Above we discussed, better menu management, order accuracy, and overall increased server knowledge allow for quality time with the customers.
And cashing in on that quality time means less stress of running around and enhanced service by the server. In addition, this engagement with the guests can lead to personable service and upselling menu items.
Your servers will be grateful since engagement leads to bigger tips for them and increased revenue for you.
Safe Contactless Experience
If your restaurant offers a mobile POS system, it also provides contactless pay. As all restaurant owners learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, offering contactless ordering and payment options is a significant part of the new normal.
Having a mobile POS system can help keep the inside of your restaurant contactless, as well as streamline operations for outdoor dining and curbside pickup. Allow your servers to take their mobile POS system with them and meet the guests where they are at.
Because of the pandemic, online ordering and picking up is as every day as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. It’s clockwork. Customers are realizing they enjoy having control in their hands with mobile ordering.
According to Supply Chain Dive, 67% of restaurant operators added curbside pickup during the pandemic in 2020. These additional measures to keep staff and customers safe meant significant changes in restaurants’ operations and design to better facilitate an off-premises experience.
Curbside pickup is here during and after the pandemic and having a mobile POS system is an absolute way of life for restaurants.
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Reduce Labor Costs
By trimming away all the labor extras, such as writing orders and then inputting those tickets into the point of sale terminal, answering guests’ questions about an allergy, or failing with an incorrect order, will add up in the server’s favor.
The server will have more time to take on more tasks during their shift or handle more tables. This streamlined efficiency puts more productivity back on the servers.
“It’s freed up the server and given the ability to manage a larger station,” said Corey Robertson, Senior Director of Operations at P.F. Chang’s. “It’s cut down the time from going to the computer stations and the side stations, back to the guests. It has an ease of use from ordering at the table, it’s sped up the drink delivery time.”
“It has not only allowed us to create a better experience for the guest but also has an ability to run more efficient labor as well,” He added. Watch the full video here.
Conclusion
The simple act of adding a mobile POS system changes the way your restaurant operates in a completely efficient way. The result is more table turns, less comping of orders and happy customers that will return to your restaurant.
A mobile POS system will almost immediately offer a huge return on your investment.
CAKE’s Tableside Ordering System allows your restaurant to enable mobile transactions and experience elevated service at the table or on to go.
There’s virtually no training required since the mobile POS mirrors what your current POS system displays. Once in place in your restaurant, your servers and staff will be up and running almost immediately.
Enable mobile ordering that your customers will enjoy, a crisp curbside management system that opens a line of communication between the runners and guests, and tableside ordering where your employees can have better engagement with diners.
CAKE by Mad Mobile has created these mobile POS solutions and more for P.F. Chang’s and Texas Roadhouse. Find out more about Mad Mobile’s technology and request a demo today.
