What to Look for in Hospitality POS Software for 2020
Considering an upgrade in 2020? If so, it’s critical to ensure you don’t rush into a decision before you’ve truly thought about it. Not only will you need to evaluate your current business needs. You will also have to take shifting industry trends, evolving customer demands, and your competitors into consideration.
Here’s what to look for:
Robust and Insightful Reporting Tools
It’s not enough to have basic reporting functions. Your reporting software should give you detailed insight into your operations and give you actionable data to help you make better business decisions and increase your overall bottom line.
With robust reporting, you can easily identify ongoing trends during busy or slow periods and use the data to staff more appropriately, better forecast inventory needs, hold your staff accountable, reduce food waste and other costs, and offer more profitable promotions to customers.
Get your free buyer’s guide: Focus POS Systems
Cloud-Based Functionality, Anytime, Anywhere
Detailed reports are great to have, but they are useless if you can’t access them when you need to. Choose hospitality POS software with cloud functionality so that you can view your data and manage your business remotely, wherever you are and at any time through any internet-connected device.
With cloud functionality, you can:
- Make menu changes
- Add employees
- Edit time cards
- Pull up reports
Make sure, however, that your POS doesn’t wholly depend on an internet connection to run. Otherwise, you can risk significant downtime any time your connection is interrupted. If your POS can store data locally during an outage, and push it back up to the cloud once the connection is restored, you don’t risk downtime or data loss.
Online Ordering
81% of consumers use a restaurant website to order food online, and 70% of website traffic will be off-premises by 2020, according to the National Restaurant Association. The multichannel model has officially arrived in the restaurant industry, and it’s imperative that your hospitality POS software be equipped to handle that.
If you haven’t already made the leap, you absolutely must implement online ordering in 2020. Not only is this necessary to stay competitive, but it plays a significant role in the customer experience. Allow your customers to order through the digital channels they crave, and increase average order sizes while you’re at it through increased upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
Loyalty and Marketing Tools
The best way to keep your competition from stealing your customers away from you is to reward them through loyalty and keep your brand top-of-mind. The best way to do that is by investing in hospitality POS software that includes loyalty and marketing tools.
Marketing tools help you increase the reach of your brand, while loyalty programs allow you to offer personalized promotions and rewards that customers crave. These also provide you with necessary data on customer preferences and the effectiveness of your promotions, so you can better tailor your marketing efforts.
Choose the Right Hospitality POS Software
When researching what software to invest in, you want to make sure that whichever POS you choose has the functionality and flexibility to scale with you as you grow, and can support your future business needs so you can see a positive return on your investment.
Make sure you speak with a reputable provider, like the experts at Focus POS, to determine what these needs are and help guide you through the process. Focus POS offers industry-leading hospitality POS software designed to handle all your current and future needs. For more information, contact Focus POS today!
