POS systems are one of the most powerful tools for a business. A business-savvy entrepreneur knows their establishment will be more profitable and run more efficiently if they invest in a high quality POS system. Here are some ways it can increase your profits.
More Powerful Inventory Management
A POS system with an inventory management module will take your productivity to a whole new level. It will let you make inventory purchasing decisions better and faster because orders are based on historical sales instead of hearsay and guesswork.
The inventory control component can be programmed to reorder when certain ingredients or merchandise reach pre-defined levels. This does away with the risk of insufficient inventory and makes sure you always have the right items on hand at the right time and in the right amounts, as well as minimizes waste and overstocking.
Fewer order and transaction errors
If any at all. Restaurants with table service in particular will benefit from a POS system’s capacity to eliminate order errors by allowing them to be recorded on hand-held devices and sent to a kitchen display system directly. The potential of mistakes due to servers re-entering information from paper orders into a terminal or trying to decipher handwritten orders in the kitchen is gone.
A retail POS system lets you ring up customers’ purchases using a barcode scanner instead of having to enter the SKU number and price of each item manually into a traditional cash register or keyboard. Some stores, especially those with limited inventory, use POS systems with touchscreens and preset keys, again minimizing the risk of transaction errors.
Exact labor scheduling
A POS system makes it easy to achieve exact labor scheduling. You can instantly access all work- and scheduling-related information. All you need is a POS system with an integrated time and attendance module and an integrated labor scheduling module. Then, you compare store or restaurant traffic patterns without an effort on any given day and given shift.
Using this information, the software will determine exactly how many servers or store associates should be scheduled to work each day and each upcoming shift. You will never have too few or too many in-house staff members to accommodate your operation’s needs. What’s more, no unnecessary labor expenditures will be incurred.
Prevents Theft
According to data of the National Restaurant Association, quick service restaurants lose up to 7% of sales to employee theft and internal employee theft is responsible for 75% of inventory shortages. Did you know your POS system can help you increase profit by decreasing theft? Here are a few functions that can be applied to this end.
POS systems enhance employee accountability by tracking inventory and remove possibilities of pocketing cash without ringing up items. This is achieved by a feature enabling a cash drawer to be opened only when a transaction is completed.
POS systems can catch employees red-handed by displaying transaction information recorded on your security camera. For example, you have a bar. Your bartender charges a customer 10 dollars for a drink, but only rings up 3 dollars, and pockets the remaining 7. All of this will be recorded for you to see.
Creates Loyalty
Loyal customers mean more consistent cash flow. A reliable POS system has an effective customer loyalty component. There are many examples of how loyalty systems can be applied to augment profit. For instance, there is buy 3 get one free or spend $100 and get a $5 gift card. The system can print or attach a coupon to the customer account based on the product category or amount of their purchase, which is only good for a set number of days. This way, the customer is more likely to come back.
Some POS systems have the capabilities to text and email coupons for their next visit. This could be used to regain customers that have stopped coming or draw good customers back in.
You Get Paid For All Items Sold
When servers write out their tickets, they often skip items like an extra sauce or a side dish. This affects the bottom line. If you lose $10 a day in missed items, it adds up over time. It’s 200 a month, and that’s counting just 5 days a week! For a year, it comes to a whopping 2400 dollars. With a well setup POS system, you can avoid this. In many cases, it costs less to lease or buy a POS system than what you’re losing on missed items.
Maximizes Efficiency
Communication is key when it comes to businesses like a restaurant. In particular, you need good communication between kitchen and wait staff. For example, the cook can’t read the server’s handwriting. They waste valuable time in additional communications that could be better used turning tables and serving customers. What is more, incorrect orders are often made in the kitchen in such situations. This results in food waste and customer dissatisfaction. When using a POS, cooks get a neatly printed order that’s perfectly legible.
When using a POS system, the checkout process is also much more efficient and accurate. Customer service is sped up by allowing orders to be entered with the touch of a single button per item. Orders reach the back of the house in seconds if the POS system is integrated with a kitchen display system.
POS systems help enforce cash accountability by getting cashiers to do a blind money drop. That means the cashier adds up the money in the register without knowing how many total sales have actually been made. When cashiers are pocketing money, they will often make sure the cash matches the drawer count to a T and pocket the rest.
Higher Accuracy
Miss-rings lead stores to lose lots of money. A cashier rings up $20 instead of $30, and your store loses $10. All pricing is preset when using a point of sale system so that it is not possible to enter the wrong amount for items.
In sum, a POS system can improve productivity and communication, minimize theft, increase customer loyalty, and eliminate waste. All this drives the bottom line.