Hospitality EPoS Systems
Hospitality EPoS Systems
While the hospitality sector includes a wide range of very different businesses, in this general guide to hospitality epos we cover some of the general benefits that apply to most hospitality businesses as well as some specific features which apply to only some. This general hospitality epos guide is a great place to start before you explore one of the guides above specific to your business.
How does a Hospitality POS System Help?
Accuracy – Fewer Errors
Providing a framework to ordering which provides the required options (modifiers, upsells, special instructions) ensures that customers get what they ordered and that the billing accurately reflects this. Integrated payments where the billing and payment systems work directly – rather than a staff member manually keying in a payment amount ensure accuracy and reduce manual mistakes.
Data – Less paperwork – More Insight
The value of collecting business data is the insight it provides and the way it can save you time on paperwork which can be spent on improving the business and the guest experience. Whether it’s providing accurate information for financial reports and accounting or helping to automate your ordering based on what is actually selling – automatically collecting data means you can spend time on the insights it can provide. Data allows you to make faster management decisions in areas like inventory, staff management and on sales.
Why Data Matters
It’s likely whatever way you are running your business you feel like you’ve got too much information and data to manage already. The answer is using the right data for informed decision making. The data can help lead decision making in many areas of your business from ordering, product costings and margin calculations to forecasting the correct level of staffing. Data should help you make management decisions without overwhelm. The right system gives you what you need to make informed choices. As both native AI modules and the potential for outside AI integrations grow – so too will the quality of data you can expect.
Features – Get What You Need
With so many different hospitality POS systems available, a vast range of different hardware and 3rd party integrations available it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Keep asking yourself the important questions – what do I need, what new opportunities can this particular feature provide. It’s easy to focus primarily on cost as this is the easiest thing to directly compare, but while working to your budget is important determining the value different options can provide is equally important. The best features are ones that pay for themselves in terms of improved efficiency, customer satisfaction, sales & profit growth and which help you save time which can be spent on working on improving the business.
Insight – Check performance and Identify Opportunities
You can’t fix the problem you can’t identify. Yet, the right hospitality epos system can instantly help you identify low margin products, inventory issues or staffing issues.
Integrations – Work effectively with partners to improve your Business
Whether you are a hotelier selling rooms through 3rd party reservation platforms, a restaurant providing table bookings through a reservation platform or a pub providing information to your accountant that can go straight into Xero – the importance and value of integrations cannot be understated. Your hospitality epos system acts as the hub for all of these different integrations, updating platforms to ensure you can maximise sales without overbooking.
Less Paperwork – Better Customer Experience
For people not running a business the volume of paperwork would astonish them. The amount of time spent managing admin related to staff, suppliers, tax etc….the list could go on. If having access to actionable data, accurate financial information and an understanding of what’s happening in the business would be helpful, the right EPoS system will help you gather and use this information. Making our life easier, cutting down on the time spent on administrative tasks and freeing you up to work on your business and not on your admin.
Speed – Faster service = Better Customer Experience
Each interaction with a customer in a hospitality environment whether that’s ordering something to eat or drink or paying a bill has a time value. If you can speed up the process while on a single interaction the time savings may appear meaningless, across many interactions those time savings add up and can contribute directly to your bottom line. If you can send an order directly to the kitchen to be processed instead of walking across a busy restaurant to deliver a hand written order to the kitchen you’ve just saved time. If you can process a payment on an integrated payment device directly at the table, again you’ve just saved time. As well as saving the business time (and money) – you’ve also improved the guest experience. It’s easy to dismiss these time savings but when you actually think about the impact at scale over thousands of customer interactions you can suddenly see the potential for processing more covers and how that translates directly to the bottom line.
Staff Management – Forecast and plan for your staffing requirements
The ability to plan rotas, anticipate staffing requirements based on forecast demand means you can run efficiently and effectively.
Table Management
Maximising the use of your space is key to your success. Whether you need a system to handle bookings, whilst ensuring you can cope or you have mostly walk in business where speed of service translates directly to more covers – a hospitality epos system can help.
Stock Control & Inventory Management
Outside of leisure and tourism where the venue is the experience, for most hospitality businesses inventory management and stock control are central to their sales and profitability. Put simply, you want to ensure you have the right products in the right quantity when you need them. You need to know what you’ve got and you need to plan for what you need. It sounds deceptively simple and it’s likely that your experience has helped guide you on ordering up till now. However, the right hospitality epos system which can look at trends from your data and accurately forecast your requirements becomes one less thing you need to worry about.