Everyone wants to get the most out of their POS investment. A way to do this is to have printers, screens, and terminals in the kitchen that allow the servers to communicate orders to the kitchen quickly and efficiently. The kitchen, however, is the roughest area of the restaurant on the equipment. If the hardware is damaged or not working properly, your bottom line is affected. Here are 8 ways to make sure your investment continues to work for you: Make sure paper is in the printer before peak hours: You are in the midst of the lunch rush; orders are popping out of the printer left and right. Next thing you know, the printer stops printing. The little green light indicates it’s outContinue Reading …
The term ‘cloud’ has been floating around everywhere these days. As computers and mobile devices become more of an integral part of our daily lives, the cloud is becoming increasingly important whether we understand it or not. Devices like the Google Chromebook operates solely off cloud-based services. Microsoft is moving its flagship software to the cloud in Office 365. All of my cell phone content lives in some intangible world, accessible from a number of devices at any time. So what does the move to the cloud mean for me and my restaurant? To get a baseline knowledge, let’s start by defining what the ‘cloud’ is. A quick reference to Wikipedia defines cloud computing as computing that involves a large number of computers connectedContinue Reading …
Almost everyone has faced the decision on whether or not to purchase an extended warranty. How many times do we say “no”, only to have the product fall apart the day after the warranty expires? Most restaurants spend tens of thousands of dollars on their POS equipment and software. There are few other purchases that are more critical to the restaurant’s operation. In our personal lives, when we make large-ticket purchases, we often seek out some sort of warranty or maintenance for the item. Take a car, for example. These days, most cars come with some sort of coverage that allows for regular maintenance on the vehicle. And this is a HUGE selling point for consumers! So why would this be any different forContinue Reading …
As we all know, life is stressful. According to the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, the top 5 most stressful events in a person’s life are death of a spouse, death of a child, moving, starting a new job, marriage and severe illness. These are all very legitimate stress-drivers. But if Holmes or Rahe were ever to own a restaurant, I would bet that they would agree that one of the most stressful experiences an owner will experience is an install or update of a POS system. From my experience with hundreds of installs, I know how stressful it is! There are few aspects of the process that aren’t stressful: it’s time consuming, you have to learn a new product, there are strange (yetContinue Reading …
The topic of mobile payments has been red hot lately. As we saw at NRF a few weeks back, the debate of whether Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or Near Field Communication (NFC) will be the clear winner has been heating up since Apple’s announcement of iBeacon and PayPal’s Beacon that utilizes BLE technology to submit transactions or to engage the consumer in ways that NFC cannot. NFC supporters have delivered valid points that would suggest NFC as a clear winner, while BLE advocates also have some great things to say. But what is right for your business? Thanks to our friends at Retail Customer Experience, you now have this handy infographic that gives you the run down on these two technologies. As you willContinue Reading …
Restaurant business owners and managers spend thousands of dollars every year investing in POS systems, hardware, software, and maintenance. All of the money spent on these components is spent in the hopes of automating their business and providing the best service to the customer. What happens to these investments when they are handed over to the staff? Unfortunately, most employees don’t really care about the restaurant’s hardware and would never dream of handling their own laptops or cell phones in the same fashion they handle the POS hardware. As an owner, what can you do to help get the most out of your POS investment? Here are some simple tips to help you extend the life of your hardware. 1. Do a daily spot checkContinue Reading …