Ever since tablets started growing in popularity, businesses of all types have been leveraging the technology to improve their operations on many levels. Restaurants and other foodservice establishments are no exception to this rule. Let’s take a look at the benefits of tablet POS implementation, and why deploying these devices may make sense for your business.
1. Impressive versatility: Tablets can be used interchangeably in two different configurations—stationary and mobile. In a stationary configuration, they process transactions in wireless mode and are mounted on a stand from which they may easily be removed. Mobile POS applications include tableside order-taking by servers, self-service ordering in quick service establishments, and the ability to pay-at-the-table. Some restaurants also harness tablet POS technology at tables to display images of different menu items, promote specials, and provide entertainment for customers while they wait for their food.
2. Increased efficiency, boosted accuracy, and improved sales: Equipping servers with tablets speeds up the ordering process by eliminating the need for orders taken at restaurant tables to be re-entered into a POS terminal (this also eliminates the time servers spend deciphering handwritten notes). Instead, orders are transmitted directly from tables to the kitchen, hastening preparation and delivery time. This, in turn, improves customer service and encourages repeat business. Electronic order transmission from tablets also decreases food preparation errors, minimizing the amount of time spent correcting mistakes and enabling servers to assist other customers.
What’s more, with tablets in hand, servers can continue to input diners’ requests for appetizers and entrees as drink orders—which have already been transmitted to the bar—are brought to customers’ tables.
Again, this bolsters efficiencies and may induce customers to order more drinks and food than they had initially planned. The latter is especially true when tablet POS devices automatically remind waitstaff to suggestively sell food and drinks and/or are either affixed to tables or used by servers to depict appealing images of restaurant fare.
3. Line busting: Utilizing tablets to shorten lines can be effective for quick service restaurants, whether they’re used inside the premises or in drive-through lanes; this also works for other establishments that offer counter service. In all cases, servers can take orders—and even payments—as diners wait their turn for assistance, increasing customer through-put and satisfaction while preventing waiting patrons from becoming so impatient that they decide to eat elsewhere. Additionally, tablets can function as the chief hardware component of self-ordering kiosks, again reducing bottlenecks at the POS.
4. Ergonomic advantages: With their small footprint, tablet POS devices fit easily into tight spaces—making them a viable alternative for restaurant operations with limited room for POS equipment at the counter. The less cluttered the latter, the greater employees’ comfort when processing transactions—and the fewer the mistakes they will make in completing the task.
5. Great for smaller restaurants: Tablet-based POS technology can be perfect for businesses that only need a single terminal. Tablet POS software is typically a smaller investment than a traditional POS system, but they still offer the functionality businesses need.
Whether used as an adjunct or alternative to traditional POS, tablet POS technology clearly offers big benefits to, and is worth the investment by, restaurant operations of all sizes.
