How to Select POS Hardware for Your Restaurant

Whether you’re starting a restaurant that is fresh, or updating your legacy hardware in an existing location, selecting the most appropriate restaurant POS system is a enormous choice, one not to be weighed lightly.

When shopping around the various options, several factors will need to be taken under account.

Perform adequate research and be ready to ask the appropriate questions.

While consumers may get easily distracted by the present market trends, fancy gimmicks and one hit technology miracles, it’s critical to ascertain what you really need to conduct your company.

When selecting and implementing a new POS system, consider the following in regards to your hardware choices:

Technical specifications

• What do all of the fancy acronyms mean, and how do they affect your profit?
• Which technical specifications directly relate to your business objectives and encourage your pain points?
• How many GB of memory do you require?
• Do you desire a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD), and how much storage do you require?
• Would you like a resistive or projective capacitive touchscreen?

Contemporary cloud POS systems typically have minimum requirements for the hardware itself, since the majority of the processing requirements are packed to the cloud, which makes the application that resides on the machine not as dependent upon the CPU and memory.

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Touchscreen Technology

Touchscreen technology is another important element to consider when selecting a new POS system, and is based on personal taste and POS functionality.

Projective Capacitive (PCAP) is a popular option, and is the identical sort of glass used on smartphones. Another common choice is Resistive Capacitive.

Both kinds of restaurant technologies have their benefits and drawbacks.

Benefits of PCAP Touchscreen:

• Provides multi-touch capabilities
• Provides protective shielding and more lifecycle
• Supports drag and drop/various gesture motions
• Comprises strong touch precision
• Superior picture quality

Disadvantages of PCAP Touchscreen:

• Doesn’t work if the user is wearing gloves
• More expensive
• Glass is much more prone to breaking

Benefits of Resistive Touchscreen

• More cost effective
• High immunity to dust and water
• Best used with a finger, gloved hand or stylus

Disadvantages of Resistive Touchscreen

• User must push harder to use
• Poor comparison
• Doesn’t support multi-touch

Customer Displays

Using a customer display in your restaurant point of sale terminal may be an easy way to maximize your guest experience and delight customers.

After all, everyone appreciates seeing their things as they ring up.

• What size screen are you wanting to use with your guests?
• Some client exhibits only show item descriptionsand price, in addition to tax and total cost in a text format.
• Graphical displays permit you to display advertisements, in addition to show a running order which may be used for order confirmation and order accuracy.

Again, which features best suit your restaurant’s needs and environment?

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Environment

A restaurant can be a harsh place concerning housing technology. Think grease, spillage, weather….not to mention dozens of workers manhandling your restaurant POS hardware on a daily basis.

• What’s the IP rating of a product?
• Can it function properly if its dropped?
• Is it waterproof?

An IP rating tells you the degree of protection a system offers against fluids and solids. The”IP” stands for Ingress Protection (or International Protection) and is followed by 2 numbers. The first number indicates the degree of protection against solid particles (dust, dirt…) and ranges from one to six. The second number tells you how much water a device can manage without suffering harm and ranges from one to eight — the higher the number the greater the security.

A purpose-built point of sale system was created for the extreme conditions of the restaurant atmosphere.

Aesthetics

Your hardware wants to”fit” in your surroundings, and align with the ambiance of your own atmosphere. Does your restaurant have a contemporary and glossy feel to it?

When deciding on a new POS system, your new unit should complement and harmonize with your complete brand, not struggle with it.

Many businesses are trading in their own bulky and unattractive legacy systems and substituting them for eye-catching and appealing cloud-based solutions.

Do you need your POS to make a barrier between you and your client, or make an intrapersonal and inviting setting?

Bear in mind, even aesthetics contribute to overall customer satisfaction.

Ease of Use

It’s important to think about if your new POS system will be simple to use or not.

Will you and your employees have the ability to quickly learn and adapt to the new hardware?

Training workers can be lengthy and costly, so search for technology that’s easy to implement.

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Industry Experience

Find out more about the providers you are contemplating.

• How long are they in the business?
• How successful are they in the business?
• What is the vision and mission of the brand and products?

Because your new point of sale system is a long-term buy, ensure that the supplier has the standing and long standing experience to support you and your company requirements, long after the purchase is made.

Support Services

Regardless of how”top notch” your restaurant POS platform is, finally a issue or issue will appear.

How can you solve it? Make certain to thoroughly investigate potential guarantees and support license agreements.

You do not want surprises when you’ve got a problem that’s affecting your ability to serve your clients.

Lifecycle

Make certain to check at the lifecycle of your point of sale.

• Is your technology and the operating system in the beginning, middle or end of its life?
• Are you able to receive repairs and upgrades throughout the anticipated lifecycle?

This not just should consist of hardware, but security patches and upgrades to the operating system also.

Which sort of technology is your prospective vendor providing?

A vast majority of current POS businesses on the industry currently provide consumer grade pills as mobile POS choices.

These devices are like your smartphone and typically have to be replaced or updated every two decades.

Do you wish to refresh your point of sale every 2 decades?

Future Business Needs

Planning for the future is also something to consider when reviewing hardware choices.

Considering your current needs, yet simultaneously setting your company up for success in a business gathered with revolving changes, trends and transformations can also be sensible.

Start looking for a company that delivers technology equipped to deal with the versions and fluxes of the restaurant business to avoid buying new hardware every time a change occurs.

This will enable your business to stay compliant and keep your budget intact!

See also

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