Saving time is a precious commodity in the busy world of restaurants, especially if your restaurant is short-staffed. From the kitchen staff to the front-of-house, teams continually look for ways to improve efficiency while ensuring service remains tip-top. This is where smart point-of-sale (POS) systems come in handy, helping to save staff management time while offering more insights into guests and revenue operation.
Here is how smart POS integration can work for your restaurant.
What is a restaurant POS integration?
POS integration is essentially any software that connects and communicates with your point-of-sale system. They share data with each other, enhancing the experience for restaurants by delivering more insights into guest behaviour and revenue streams.
You can automate aspects of your process and save your team management time as a result. Ultimately, you’re making better use of your data and tapping into more than one source to get important information.
Without these smart integrations, restaurants would be more reliant on manual processes, which consume more time and increase the possibility of human error. Plus, data points from different sources wouldn’t be available in the same place without POS integrations.
Why does a restaurant need POS integration?
It all boils down to convenience. POS integration lets you see many aspects of your restaurant in one place. You can view revenue information or look at guest behaviour to make better decisions on how to cater for diners.
Many POS integrations can also be customised, meaning you have more control over what you and your team see. Updating the software is easier, too, as it’s typically hosted in the cloud. This means you don’t need to rely on maintenance and can instead update the software when it’s available for download.
Another key benefit is the ability to access information from anywhere. You’re not rooted to the POS system and can pick up insights on your phone while on the move. Restaurant managers and their team have more flexibility, which can help save time and improve decision making.
Benefits of smart POS integration
Instant guest insights
There are many ways to provide excellent customer service to guests and keep them happy, including personalisation. With smart POS integration, you can get to know diners better and tailor solutions to drive repeat business.
POS integration lets you access essential guest data, such as average lifetime spend, to gain more oversight into dining habits. Examine dining behaviour from regulars, identify high spenders and look at specific trends, such as favourite dishes.
Use this diner data to send tailored emails, highlighting factors like specific offers on menus and other restaurant-related information to capture their attention. Having this information to hand from one convenient place in the POS makes it more accessible and offers greater transparency over guests.
Empower hosts with table statuses
With so much going on in a restaurant (especially during peak hours), staying on top of operations can prove tricky for hosts. Nowhere is this more obvious than when it comes to your front-of-house having to check table status manually
Smart POS integrations, such as the one with OpenTable, automate statusing tables for you and keep your staff updated about each table with just a few clicks, and without having to leave the host stand to check out on tables. Your staff will which guests are on their starter, main and dessert, as well as who has paid and is ready to leave. That means more efficient seating, optimised table turnover rate, smoother operations and happier guests.
By automating table status, you’re giving team members their time back to focus on maximising the guest experiences and seat walk-ins faster.
Centralise revenue reporting
While all restaurants have some form of revenue reporting, it’s not always a fluid process, and it can be time-consuming digging through all the information. However, with integrations for your POS, restaurant managers can centralise reporting and get insights even when you’re not at the restaurant.
In OpenTable’s POS integration, they can get a snapshot of the restaurant’s revenue performance. As a result, you save time by having a clear overview and can make better decisions, whether optimising quieter times or investing in marketing to boost bookings.
Other benefits include comparing shift revenue for a particular day and then averaging it against previous weeks, which provides more details about popular periods at your spot. Beyond that, you can see which additional revenue comes from OpenTable campaigns and break down revenue while tracing spend back to every reservation using interactive reports.
Get smart with POS integration
Improvements in technology mean it’s never been easier to integrate software into your restaurant setup. And by using OpenTable’s integrations for POS systems, you can garner more insights and lessen the burden for yourself and your staff. Ultimately, you can give them more time to focus on guests while you maximise the opportunities at your restaurant.
Learn more about OpenTable’s smart integration for POS
