Anyone who works within the hospitality industry knows that delivering quality food in a timely fashion by efficient and courteous staff can be a difficult thing to master.
There are so many factors to consider and the entire process needs to be handled with a precision that can test the patience of a saint. With so many things to balance it can sometimes feel like running a busy restaurant is like trying to spin a million plates on narrow bamboo poles, all at the same time.
There are some things out there that can help though. One of them is a good point of sale software that will give you the tools and flexibility to run your business more effectively and efficiently regardless of the size of restaurant you run. A typical restaurant POS software system includes a centrally located touch screen monitor for order inputting and at least one cashier station with a cash drawer, receipt printer, and credit card reader.
But how does a POS software system work in real life? Well let’s have a look at a typical restaurant scenario:
In this scenario let’s say that a group of 6 guests have reserved a table for 7:30pm for dinner. They arrive early and decide to have pre-dinner cocktails at the bar. Their order for drinks is given to the restaurant bar staff. The bar person inputs the drinks on the touch screen monitor and the drinks are added to the customer table bill.
Following cocktails the diners are ready to eat and head to their table. The central monitor of the POS shows the waiter which table they are assigned to and keeps a running total of the bill.The diners are seated and their orders taken. Each guest choices are input into a quick and easy portable display system by the waiter and their food orders are immediately sent to the kitchen for preparation, whilst their drinks orders are sent to the bar.
A display system in the kitchen receives the orders which are printed out on the printer to the required preparation area. The printer will firstly print customer order for starters and then at a predesignated time later the customer order for main courses.
As soon as the starters are sent from the kitchen, the main courses orders will be printed and prepared. Once these are finished the waiting staff will once again be notified that the food is ready and they will once again retrieve and serve it whilst it is still piping hot..
If the customers decide to reorder more drinks at any stage these orders are once again sent directly to the bar and the drinks are brought quickly and efficiently to the table.
Following the meal, the diners may order desserts or coffee and liqueurs. These orders are again sent to the kitchen/bar/barista for preparation and once they are ready the waiting staff is again prompted to collect and serve them to the happy customers.
As the meal ends, each of the customers may ask to have an individual bill, which the restaurant POS system handles seamlessly by printing out an itemised readout of the drinks, meals, coffees and liqueurs served and thus reducing the risk of errors and or incorrect charges to any one of the diners.
Payments can be made easily with the POS system using an array of payment methods, including debit and credit cards, with little to no effort, providing fast and efficient service to all customers.
Being able to automate the many and varied tasks your staff are required to do allows them to be able to focus on customer service and making guests feel welcome and well-tended too.
Kitchen staff with a good POS system will find the system much improved over the old-fashioned method of quickly scrawled orders that were easily misread. The system will allow them to keep track of orders, the timings required to prepare food orders, as well as any special dietary or allergen requirements requested by customers.
All the ingredients to make your restaurant, cafe, fast food outlet, or bar more efficient are included in a good, dedicated POS system, leaving you with happier customers, happy staff, and ultimately an easier and less stressful free hustle and bustle of the business.
We here at RPS are an advanced management software development agency specialising in new and emerging technologies. Our specially created hospitality business software is developed with the end user in mind and is bourn from years of consulting with businesses across the hospitality industry. It is designed to be easy to use and requires little in the way of technical knowledge or maintenance, so you can achieve the results your business deserves.