Customer service is the lifeblood of the table service industry. In order to provide the best experience for your customers, you need to have table management under control, be able to automate kitchen functions, easily manage inventory, and optimize your labor. With a high quality table service POS system, you’ll be able to manage all those aspects with simple software.
Table Management
With table service POS, you’ll be able to see graphical representations of your restaurant’s floor plan. The software makes it simple for your hostesses to see exactly what tables are available. Your POS will also display the length of time that customers have been seated and what the running order total is. This makes it simple to manage table turnover and spot issues like excessive customer wait times.
You can simplify how you manage customer checks with your table service POS. Servers can transfer checks between tables or combine checks from multiple tables. Your servers will face fewer frustrations and your customers will be pleased with the painless payment process. It’s a win-win.
Tableside Functions
Mobile POS enables your wait staff to enter orders into the POS system directly from the table. This ensures accuracy, because servers don’t have the opportunity to misremember orders before they return to the stationary terminal. Speed of service is also improved, because orders are sent instantly from the table to the kitchen.
Tableside ordering empowers your wait staff to upsell and cross-sell. Because they are at the table longer—not rushing off to enter orders in the stationary POS—they spend more time with patrons, improving customer service.
Wait staff can also accept payments right at the table. Customers will feel secure because their cards never leave their sight.
Kitchen Automation
Using a table service POS, orders placed by servers are sent directly to the kitchen automation system. Orders can be automatically printed or represented on a kitchen display screen. This streamlines the process, preventing servers from walking handwritten—and sometimes hard to read—tickets to the back. Fewer mistakes are made this way, meaning happier customers and fewer wasted ingredients.
The kitchen automation system is fully integrated with your table service POS, so you can see the running time for orders. Kitchen staff will be able to easily view food orders, and the orders can be broken down by ingredients or prep station. This makes managing food preparation much simpler. With a stronger focus on speed and accuracy with a kitchen automation system, customers will be much more satisfied with their service.
Inventory Management
With table service POS, your restaurant won’t face ingredient shortages or excessive inventory that spoils before it’s ever used. Instead, you’ll be able to streamline the processes for ordering, receiving, and entering inventory.
Table service POS systems can keep track of ingredients used as orders are entered into the system, and automatically decrease them in your database. This detailed reporting can help you maintain the optimal levels of inventory based on the usage of individual items.
Plus, with integrated sales tracking, you’ll be better able to predict demands based on sales history. This takes the guess work out of budgeting for inventory.
Labor Optimization
Paying labor costs is one of the biggest expenses of restaurants, so establishing the optimal number of employees for each shift is critical. Viewing your sales history provides you with a foundation for estimating how many employees you’ll need to handle dinner rushes on Friday nights or brunches on Sunday morning.
Employees can clock in and out within your table service POS, which then populates detailed timekeeping and payroll reports. You’ll even be able to schedule exactly when employees can clock in and out with preset grace periods. This helps manage the always late employee and prevent the high costs of paying overtime.
Managing a successful restaurant is a fine art—balancing the costs with providing quality customer service. With a table service POS, you’ll get the specific features you need to make the balancing act a little easier.
