While the hospitality industry, including hotel and food service operators, looks to post-pandemic signs of recovery, the next challenge it faces is due to rising costs.
A recent Deloitte report highlighted how issues related to surging inflation are rising. So, operators are looking at a variety of ways to increase efficiency and profitability.
Caught between labour shortages and constrained ability to raise prices due to the cost-conscious consumer, industry priorities are shifting towards increased throughput.
A practical way to reflect a renewed focus on managing economic pressures and talent management is to look at increasing covers and speed of service. Here, the EPOS is key.
Improve the order and payment process
Ensuring it is possible to serve more customers, more quickly is a vital tactic for growing sales. The most fundamental requirement for speed is in the order and payment process.
An EPOS system equipped with order ahead, mobile ordering and pay at the table, and mobile self-checkout capabilities is essential for quicker turnovers and higher margins.
Another way the modern EPOS should support faster checkout is by accommodating various payment types. This is where it pays to partner with a mature EPOS provider to accept:
- Cash
- Credit and debit cards
- Prepaid credit
- QR Code vouchers and loyalty schemes
- Mobile wallet and e-wallets payments
- Gift cards
- Buy Now, Pay Later
- Contactless card payments
- Mobile payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay
In addition to optimising the transaction, look for an EPOS provider that can provide multiple receipt options too. The rise of ‘click & collect’ makes this capability all the more important.
Get to know your customers better
Introducing click & collect to increase covers certainly puts extra pressure on the speed of service. Many of the order and payment options already discussed may be required.
Whether or not click & collect is an option, even the likes of hoteliers will want to know who are their most frequent customers. That’s where loyalty at the EPOS comes in.
Getting your customers to identify themselves on arrival and during payment or checkout enables an operator to understand what the best of them need and prefer.
But managing this process can be cumbersome unless the EPOS is able to automate rewards and loyalty processes as part of checkout, which may also include payment.
Using EPOS data-driven insights
Increasing orders, payments, adding more customer fulfilment options, and adding loyalty are all ways to combat current challenges. But the data generated by these capabilities is gold.
Beyond the functional ways that a good EPOS system can enable greater efficiency for a hospitality business, the data it generates should generate valuable insights too.
Dashboard and reporting features can identify what items, offers, days and times are most popular with which types of customers. This can help optimise many business aspects.
Design a better offer, deals and promotions based on EPOS data-driven insights; also enhance inventory management; and, better match staffing levels to meet demand.
To find out more about how a hospitality EPOS system can help hospitality businesses increase sales, loyalty, efficiency and differentiation, contact PowerEPOS
