Is your Point of Sale (POS) system performing at its peak?

Is it delivering all that it could? POS technology is moving fast, and while we at Bepoz incorporate a healthy measure of future-proofing in our systems, there’s no point in having a future-proof system if you don’t use it!

In the days when your POS was your cash register, it occupied a position at the end of your sales process. Since then, POS has shifted considerably, and now sits in a much more central position. Today’s POS now handles far more than the receipt of cash – inventory control, workforce rostering and management, accounting, sales analysis and even venue display signage. Here are a few features that may have improved since your POS system was last upgraded:

Marketing and Promotions

Today’s POS systems are so much more than a cash register. They enable hospitality businesses to create and implement a variety of promotional campaigns, on all timescales. Everything from today’s Happy Hour cocktail to recording and managing loyalty sign-ups, to issuing and redeeming vouchers. If your POS doesn’t offer these facilities, it should. If it does, are you using them to your best advantage?

Integrations

Are you making full use of the capabilities of your POS? A POS these days should be capable of integrating seamlessly with a wide range of third party systems and services. Just some of these are:

• Online ordering from suppliers
• CCTV surveillance.
• Accounting
• Payment systems
• Workforce management, clocking systems

If it’s some time since you acquired your POS, it’s worth reappraising it to see if there are now integrations that would benefit your business.

Reporting Analytics

In the old days, you did your best to make a profit, hoping that your marketing plan embodied a successful formula, and you learned the answer at monthly or, at best, weekly intervals, when you did your books and analysed your trade. With a modern POS system you can expect real-time reporting and analytics, enabling you to respond promptly to trends, enabling you to exploit them with pricing initiatives and setting alerts for ordering based on sales.

Stock Control

Stock control in fast—moving hospitality businesses has traditionally involved a good measure of guesswork and estimation. These days, your POS should be monitoring your stock and inventory levels based on sales, and alerting you to your pre-set minimum levels to trigger a reorder.

Smart Alerts

Your POS can have all the features described above, but does that mean you have to be peering at the screen over your till to use them? No – your POS can be used to create proactive alerts sent to your phone by SMS to tell you, wherever you are, key things you need to know about your business. POS SMS Alerts support sales tracking, stock discrepancies, pricing changes, and broadcast alerts to all staff members.

Support

POS technology is constantly advancing. Your supplier should be alerting you to innovations that are relevant to your business, and be readily available to install them and train you in their use.

These are just some of the advances in POS that you may be missing out on. The best way to make sure your POS is truly fit to compete is to have a Bepoz consultant pay you a visit. Give us a call today.