When running a restaurant, you need to stay ahead of the competition in a fast-paced environment. Toast POS is built exclusively for the restaurant and foodservice businesses.
Toast POS will give you the technology you require to succeed in the foodservice industry in many ways if you’re familiar with its strengths.
The Toast POS will enable your business to increase revenue and streamline business operations.
Introducing Toast POS services in your restaurant facilitates table payments. In return, the business serves customers faster and enhances quick payments. The POS facilitates the company to accept payments in line. The store will help its clients quicker and minimize stalled operations.
Toast allows the business to enjoy advanced services such as tableside ordering, the ability to modify menus quickly, and real-time report processing. Customers can order online, giving buyer convenience resulting in customer satisfaction.
A busy restaurant requires an efficient way to manage its workforce. Toast POS comes in handy as it provides a labor-management platform with an easy to use interface.
How much does Toast POS cost?
The POS is the core of restaurant business operations, and each business needs to undertake thorough research when deciding on the best software and hardware to use in its services. It is crucial to engage with different vendors and review various demos to determine the POS that will best serve the business.
Do not base your choice of the POS on the cost alone. It will be a costly mistake to go for the cheapest POS in the name of reducing business expenditure. The focus should be on what value the POS will introduce into your firm.
When calculating the Toast POS cost, you will need to consider both the hardware and software costs that come with the package. The hardware will include the POS terminal, for example, the screen cash register. It is the terminal that handles the entire business operation, from taking the orders, sending the order requests to the kitchen staff, processing customer payments, and sorting table management.
The terminal comes in different sizes, and this will mean different costs for each size range.
The other factor to consider when budgeting for the POS is the costs of the POS software. It will be essential to ask the vendor to break down all the costs for you including subscription fees and any upgrading fees.
Factors that Determine Toast POS Costs
- Business Size
The size of the business will dictate the Toast POS that will serve the firm fully. Toast is excellent for small establishments, for example, bakeries and cafes, as well as large firms such as full-service restaurants.
For larger businesses, the POS will include facilities such as advanced table mapping and the ability to create a menu. It also allows data sync automatically across different locations. In such a case, the owner will use the same password and username to login from wherever they are in the world.
Some POS will charge you extra for each location, while some others will give you a feature that supports unlimited outlets.
The number of employees your business supports will also determine the features you need in the POS. Managing many employees will require you to go for a system that provides a labor-management platform.
- Sales Volume
Some POS service providers will have a cut from your sales as part of their fee structure. The cut is usually inclusive in your monthly subscription, and the percentage is per transaction the business will carry out. It is advisable to negotiate for fair pricing since the vendor will charge depending on the volume of the sales, the plan you choose, and your agreement.
- Business Needs
Some POS features will be vital for some businesses and unnecessary for others. When factoring in the POS to buy, consider the options the software is giving your business and choose accordingly. Advanced features will mean added costs. However, do not forego some advanced features that your business will need with the intention of saving buying costs. The features will result in better business operations and hence, an added value to your firm, including increased sales.
If you do not want a POS that does a cut from your sales, go for one that does not split the sales.
How does Toast POS work?
The Toast POS has a combination of features that support the food industry businesses. The firms that have table service use the POS to enable the servers to process payments and take orders. It allows the company to create new customer orders enhancing output and efficiency. When the client is satisfied, the business enjoys better sales.
The Toast POS has a Payroll and Team Management product that integrates the POS and Payroll, enabling seamless HR functions. It allows firms to enjoy smooth time tracking. It also allows a platform for tips that boost employee morale.
Gifts and Loyalty Programs:
Toast provides physical and digitized gift cards enabling the restaurant to sell gift cards both online and from the store. The platform allows for the POS screen to automatically feed the loyalty programs with data, thereby increasing registration to the plans.
Restaurant Inventory Management:
The Toast POS enhances visibility into food inventory. It helps reduce wastage and increases accountability on the use of the company resources. It enables the business managers to keep an eye on the food costs and get real-time inventory reports. The management is, therefore, able to make decisions based on the reports. Stocktaking becomes easy since the POS gives clear visibility on the exact value of the products available on the shelves. The system also controls your purchases, over-portioning, and theft.
When using the inventory management tool, you will not need to export any data. The data is always in sync since the POS has the integration tool.
Online Ordering:
Toast POS allows your clients to order increasing online convenience for the customer. It will enable the buyer to make orders directly to the restaurant without going through a third party. Toast ensures that your online ordering site matches the look and the feel of your restaurant’s brand. To meet your restaurant’s needs, you will make changes in the online ordering settings and the delivery settings.
You have no reason to worry about how to make the changes in the ordering settings. The POS will walk you through all the parameters that require you to modify to enjoy a seamless experience with the site.
The backend settings on the online ordering site determine the types of orders your business can handle. It also dictates the procedure to direct the request to the kitchen and the categories of payments the firm accepts.
Modify the ordering menu so that the consumer finds it friendly and easy to navigate.
Toast POS provides tips to follow that guide your guests and the kitchen workforce on how to get the most out of the restaurant menu.
During the peak hours, Toast POS allows you to slow down the online orders when your kitchen is too busy to handle the requests.
Tableside Payments:
Your firm needs to keep ahead of the competition and get the best out of the restaurant business, and your focus should be consumer convenience. Tableside payments enable the client to pay right from the table without having to take their cards to a different station for payment processing. The firm can decide to have tablets to servers to carry to the customer’s table, or you can choose to station the tablets directly at the table.
Tableside payments increase convenience, especially when it comes to splitting the bill. It’s easy to split the bill and pay by order individually at the table. It becomes much more comfortable than having one person put the tab on their credit card and have everyone else top up the card to pay for the order.
The Tableside payments also enhance a faster checkout, giving room to the business to change tables quickly.
The use of Toast POS Tableside functionality gives your customers satisfaction from the seamless operations and speedy service. In return, it increases the tips from consumers. Toast POS also has tips suggestions, and this may also result in higher tips.
Toast POS Tableside checkouts process all types of payments. It offers secure payment methods and ensures that you are EMV compliant. The fact that the customer does not have their card leave their hand to make payments makes the consumer feel secure. The POS also email receipts to the customer enhancing customer experience.
How many restaurants use Toast POS?
The convenience and excellence that Toast POS introduces to the business has resulted in a massive growth in the number of restaurants using Toast. Since its launch in the year 2013, Toast has grown its staff into hundreds of people, and the number of restaurants it is serving into thousands of firms.
POS uses a platform that allows all sizes and categories of restaurants to be able to use the software. Toast has enabled many restaurants to come up with exceptional websites, which have become the reason for revenue increase for the businesses. When investing in your restaurant, it is vital to plan to spend on a website so that your business can stand out.
Below are examples of businesses that are using Toast POS across the board. Toast offers professional tips as you build the website so that you know what to focus on to acquire an attractive website. Some of the firms that are taking advantage of the advanced functionalities of Toast POS to stay ahead of the competition are as follows:
Acorn (Denver, CO): The business focuses on displaying their address, contact hours, and contact details as the first thing you interact with on their page. It ensures that the firm’s guests find that basic info without scrolling down. Acorn has their contact and location info available at the top left of the page, giving a display of the same.
Parachute (Chicago, IL): When your guests visit the website, they want to quickly access the menu so that they can decide on what to eat when they get to the restaurant. It’s crucial to have the list readily available on the website and make it easy for the guests to navigate through and find the food items. The ideal food menu on your website should be in the form of a webpage format or the least, include PDF of your most recent lists. Parachute stays ahead of the competition because of its simple, beautiful website.
Mei Mei Street Kitchen (Boston, MA): A great website should engage and attract your visitors in the best way possible. The more content you have on the website, the more the opportunity you to keep your visitors engaged on the site. Mei Mei Street Kitchen has so much content on the website, and that has become their winning point. The website has information about the restaurant, food truck, sustainable approach, and so much more. You will also find links to their recent events. The kitchen also does a blog that keeps the visitors coming back to the website in between their restaurant visits.
Toast POS serves many more restaurants, and the impact on revenue for those businesses is evident. Check the advanced options you have on Toast and opt for what will add significant value to your firm.
Costa Vida (Multiple Cities): The restaurant website emphasizes loyalty programs. The business rewards its best customers, which encourages repeat visits and new visits as well. When a consumer is unlocking their loyalty rewards, usually they end up spending more on the business. Costa Vida makes it easy for the customers to know their loyalty program status by allowing them to view the details online. The kitchen has a “rewards” section on their website.
Does Toast POS have an app?
Toast has a cloud-based restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts. The company focuses on building a cloud-based system specifically for restaurants. The app is in use nationwide, and cafes, restaurants, nightclubs as well as enterprise franchisees benefit from its advanced features.
The app offers an all-in-one platform for businesses to run and manage their operations. It empowers firms to go paperless and manage their reports from one screen. Using the app also gives the company an opportunity to receive Toast customer care support, whether day or night.
The Toast cloud-based system is safe and secure and allows you to access restaurant data from anywhere in the world. You do not need to physically be in your store to get the reports or keep track of your stock. The app is accessible on any mobile device.
The Toast app enables business owners to reduce operational costs and improve workforce efficiency. It also enhances the customer experience.
In case you delete the app from your hardware, you can reinstall it from a direct link that allows you to download the app. If you need to download a specific version of the Toast app, the customer care agents can send you the link, and you are good to go.
Does your restaurant need Toast POS?
The aim of every business that wants to thrive in a competitive environment is to delight its clients. If your customers view you as an excellent service provider, they will keep coming for more. Toast POS offers functionalities that ensure you achieve that goal.
Toast POS allows your clients to order digitally delighting the guests. The POS platform is user-friendly, and the guests easily navigate through to get whatever services they need from you.
When the customer orders, they receive a text, which gives them an easy time to wait for the request to be processed.
The POS also allows you to show off your menu to the world literally. You can take photos of the same and upload them on the restaurant website.
Toast POS enables you to have more than one-way for guests to order in your restaurant. It gives room for you to serve more guests.
If you are looking forward to running a business that remains relevant in a competitive world, Toast is the POS to budget for bring it on board.