A fast food POS system offers many benefits, from improving operating efficiencies to ensuring high-caliber customer service. But in order to maximize these benefits, you’ll need to ensure that the fast food POS system you select has perfect combination of features. Here are four features every fast food POS system needs:
1. An intelligent, intuitive user interface
Employees of quick service restaurants must work at a higher speed and with more efficiency and fewer errors than ever before, particularly during peak hours. If this doesn’t happen, increasingly demanding customers will be lost to the competition. At the same time, high turnover rates plague the quick service industry; 75 percent of quick service employees remain at their jobs for six months or fewer, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Selecting a fast food POS system with an intelligent, intuitive interface is the key to addressing these issues. Specifically, the fast food POS system should be configured so that screens (including customizable screens), clearly labeled icons, packaged commands, and suggestive selling reminders guide employees through the order-taking process, including payment acceptance and the application of any coupons. The more intelligent and intuitive the interface, the easier it is for employees to learn to use the POS system.
2. Conversational ordering
Customers frequent quick service restaurants for food that’s not only good, but also delivered fast. However, diners don’t always place orders in the most logical fashion, which can lengthen the ordering process. New employees and/or changes in the menu can cause delays as well.
These challenges are easily overcome when a fast food POS system has a conversational ordering feature. With conversational ordering, employees aren’t locked into a specified ordering sequence and can keep up with customers should they order in seemingly random fashion or decide they don’t want an item that has already been ordered. The end-result: faster, better customer service.
3. Integrated kitchen video display system
The practice of printing out orders on tickets isn’t compatible with top-notch service at fast food restaurants, which is why your fast food POS system should have an integrated kitchen video display component. When orders appear on video display screens in the kitchen, multiple employees can quickly see everything that must be prepared. Employees in the line can start making orders, while the prep crew simultaneously gets an idea of where item replenishments are needed. This shaves valuable time off the order delivery process.
Additionally, the fast food POS system is updated as orders are filled, minimizing the chance that crews will prepare unnecessary duplicate items for a single order (e.g., two cheeseburgers, when only one was requested). The outcome is less time needed to fill orders as specified—leading to fresher food and happier customers who will return to your establishment again and again.
4. Flexible, high-speed payment acceptance capability
No matter how quickly customers receive their orders, they can’t leave the restaurant until these orders have been paid for. At the same time, they don’t want to be forced to use just one payment method. Consequently, a fast food POS system should support multiple payment types, including cash, credit/debit cards, and, ideally, contactless payments. Integrated peripherals (e.g., PIN pads and credit card readers) and software that accommodates different types of tender are critical elements here.
Investing in a fast food POS system is one of the best ways to position your quick service restaurant for success. Don’t compromise that success by choosing technology that lacks critical features like the ones discussed above.