A POS System for Small Business That Saves You Time

Is there anything quite like the small business down your street greeting you with that familiar smile and knowing your order before you even have the chance to request it?

Small businesses support community, and they deserve technology that supports their operations just as well. With small teams and limited resources, an absolute must of POS systems for small businesses is that the technology saves them time. 

Time is money, after all, so you may find the following POS time savers actually save small businesses money, and help them make more of it, too!

First, Why Giving Staff More Time Improves Guest Experiences

As a small business owner, you likely have just a handful of team members to manage. Let’s touch briefly on why saving them time in their day-to-day tasks is so important to satisfying guests and growing your business. 

Your team is full of sparkling personalities, product experts, and eager hosts. Frankly, their talents are wasted on the sole role of taking orders and collecting payments. With time saving technology thanks to your POS system for small business, you can utilize your staffs’ myriad of skills to provide an enhanced dining experience for guests. 

Newfound time of their hands means your team has the bandwidth to increase guest engagement:

• Educate guests on your brand story and unique product line
• Make thoughtful upsells to increase tab size
• Invite guests to upcoming events
• Recruit members for your loyalty program 
• Build genuine relationships with regulars and first-timers alike

Now that you agree it’s a must to save your staff time, let’s dive into the POS system for small business features that do just that. 

POS Time Savers For Front Of House Staff

Front of house (FOH) staff are your plate-running people pleasers, and the more time you can save this team, the better face time they have with your adoring guests. 

Timely Task: Updating & Reprinting Paper Menus

POS Time Saver: Digital, Easy-To-Change Menus

When your chef has a stroke of culinary genius and wants to include a special menu item for the day, it shouldn’t add tedious tasks to your FOH staff’s plate. Digital menus make it quick and painless for staff to add or remove items. Plus, with cloud-based technology syncing all menus on and offsite, your changes are reflected immediately across all staff and guests devices. 

Timely Task: Retrieving Credit Cards From A Rolodex

POS Time Saver: Card On File

Collecting credit cards in a rolodex behind the bar is an archaic practice these days. It inconveniences both guests and staff, and wastes your FOH team’s time. Frantically searching for a card in a crowded box is stressful, especially when a guest is tapping their foot to leave. 

The best POS system for small business offers card on file, which keeps tabs open after a single swipe. No need to hold a physical card! Plus, if a guest does have an emergency and needs to skedaddle fast, they can simply leave. At the end of the night, all unclosed tabs will automatically close themselves. You can even set up auto-gratuity so that your staff gets their well-earned tips. 

Timely Task: Using A Stationary POS Terminal To Input Orders, Print Receipts, & Close Out

POS Time Saver: Mobile POS System

Gone are the days when a single cash register sufficed in supporting an entire team of servers. With a mobile POS system, servers can conduct the entire ordering operation tableside! They can open and add to tabs, as well as collect payment and signatures right there. Staff save time, steps, and have the opportunity to continue to engage guests. 

Timely Task: Customizing Orders & Experiences

POS Time Saver: Dynamic Tab Functionalities

Your staff will bend over backwards in order to give guests the exact experience they came for. Luckily, the following POS system for small business tools make it a fast process so staff can minimize headaches and maximize tips:

• Flight Tools: If your small business runs a tasting room with tons of taps to choose from, flight tools are your servers’ new best friend. The best POS lets you set up a Flight as a unique inventory item, and populates the staff-facing POS interface with predetermined beverages that can be added to a flight. This makes it easy for servers to input a customizable flight to any tab as the customer rattles off their choices. 
• Modifiers: Easily customize any menu item using modifiers. Whether it’s a substitute, add-on, allergy concern, or an upcharge, your POS system for small business should make it intuitive and quick to submit to the kitchen and bar.  
• Seat Numbers: Each order—food and drink—corresponds to a seat number with the best POS system. This takes the guesswork out of correctly delivering plates to a large party of people. Servers don’t have to memorize everyones’ orders, and runners don’t need to be filled in. All dishes land in front of the right mouth, and no time is wasted asking who has what.
• Transferable Tabs: With tabs that live dynamically across all server devices, guests have the freedom to explore your space, and order and pay from anywhere. Open tabs are quickly and easily transferred to or shared by a new staff member at a new location. Talk about letting guests choose their own adventure, without causing any dismay for your team!
• Splitting Tabs: Splitting a large table tab can be a big time suck for a busy server on the wrong POS. Smart POS systems for small businesses make it painless with easy-to-use tools: Split a tab evenly, by seat number, or by menu items with just a couple of clicks!

Timely Task: Swiping Cards & Collecting Signatures

POS Time Saver: Contactless Payments

When you have a full house, your FOH staff are better off making a great first impression on the new guests coming in the door than standing tableside while a departing group pays, signs, and tips. Plus, customers are so digitally savvy from all their practice online shopping the past couple of years and likely have their credit card saved on their phone. Contactless payments puts checkout power in their hands, and makes for an expedited exit experience. It’s also family friendly: Kid’s got a dirty diaper? Close your tab and get out of there! 

POS Time Savers For Back Of House Staff

Your back of house (BOH) staff are the unsung heroes in optimizing the guest experience. These tools from POS systems for small businesses streamline data entry and ensure all systems work as one. 

Timely Task: Manually Entering Data Into An Excel Spreadsheet

POS Time Saver: Cloud-Based Reporting 

Collecting relevant data and understanding the numbers makes or breaks a growing business. If you don’t know what makes your customers tick, you don’t have an informed path forward! Thankfully, the best POS systems for small businesses use cloud-based technology to sync all sales data from all channels into one comprehensive dashboard, so your BOH team saves precious time without compromising any data. 

Manipulating data once it’s collected can be a time-consuming process, too. But with pre-built reports from the best POS systems, you can find the numbers you care about quickly. Now your team can make informed business decisions without wrestling an excel spreadsheet. 

Timely Task: Managing Depleting Inventory 

POS Time Saver: Seamless Inventory Management Integration

When you’re selling from multiple channels—on-site from staff devices, self-ordering from guest devices, and online for to-go, pickup, etc.—your inventory is depleting from multiple sources. To have the most accurate inventory counts at any given time, you need cloud-based inventory management solutions. BOH staff no longer have to spend their time monitoring inventory counts in the back. 

Plus, by integrating your POS with an inventory management software, you have several parts of your business working together. Dynamic menus can sync with your other systems, so as inventory goes out of stock, your menus automatically reflect that and no guest can order something you no longer have. This is great from the customer’s perspective, and also saves staff time hurrying to nix a menu item that they just ran out of. 

Time-Saving POS Systems For Small Businesses Are A MUST

All of these tools from Arryved POS make for happy staff and guests alike. With more efficient staff, your team can get the same amount of work done with less people, which is especially helpful if your business continues to struggle with the labor shortage. And with faster service and staff eager to engage them, guests have a better experience, too. 

Is your small business POS system effectively supporting your business and your team? Get a free demo of Arryved POS today to learn about how their system goes above and beyond to ensure product satisfaction.