What is Toast for Restaurants?
The Toast for restaurants is a System that allows businesses to automate operations and bring them under one platform.
The Point of Sale for restaurants helps restaurants to deliver excellent customer service. The POS automates labor management, reporting, stock control, among other business operations.
Toast for Restaurants integrates business operations such as online ordering, loyalty programs, labor-management, among other services. It helps bring business solutions together, enabling the business to excel in serving its clients.
How Does Toast POS Work?
The restaurant business allows you to amaze your clients with the excellence of your service from the word go. As soon as the guest enters the restaurant to the point they exit, you need to delight them with remarkable service delivery.
The first thing to ensure is that the staff is always ready to receive the guests as soon as they arrive at the restaurant. Do not keep your guests waiting and guessing that perhaps someone is still coming over at their table to offer service.
Serving the food should also happen with expertise. It is the only way your guests will come back repetitively, and that is what you want with all your guests.
If you need to win your guests to come back repetitively, ensure that all your services are running smoothly. It is for this reason you need Toast POS for restaurants.
It is vital to understand the basics of how the POS works as you set out to use the platform. Some of the primary areas that Toast POS will serve your restaurant are as follows:
Processing Sales:
When the client orders, the waiter person keys in the details of the order request into the computer or by using the touchscreen. The POS then calculates the bill for the guest, including the tax charges.
When the client pays, the waiter person then keys in the receipt number and the amount involved. In the case of cash payments, the POS enters the cash amount and calculates change. Where the guest opts to use a card, the POS charges the debit or credit card.
Kitchen Management:
Some POS systems automate all operations. The system automates an order request display for the view of the kitchen staff who, in that case, have a screen in the kitchen. When the chef prepares the dish, they key in on the POS that the food is ready to serve. The waiter person views that communication on their screen. Some systems generate a receipt from the kitchen and send it to the food preparation personnel.
The same procedure also applies to the beverage preparation staff. The POS notifies the bar attendee of an order request and includes the name of the waiter person. When the beverage is ready to serve, the bar attendant uses the same POS to notify the waiter person.
Inventory Management:
The inventory system on the POS will be tracking how the ingredients are utilized as the staff go on with receiving orders and serving clients. When the elements run out, the inventory system subtracts the items from the list of available stock and places them on the list of things the business should purchase.
How Much Does Toast POS Cost?
Toast offers just one software plan, and it starts at $79 per month for each terminal. The package includes core functionalities such as cloud-based report generating, managing the menu, and managing kitchen operations.
If you need advanced system operations included in your POS purchase, you will get the services at a higher charge than what the core functionalities will cost you per month. Such procedures involve ordering online, managing inventory systems, processing gift cards, and payroll management.
Hardware bundles are available at Toast, and they include touchscreen terminals, display screens for the kitchen, among other services. The standard Toast hardware bundle starts at $899.
Toast has options available for in-person and remote installation options, for $499.
All the Toast POS systems come with Toast, integrated payment processing. Toast customizes the fees and payments per business, depending on individual business needs.
Impact of POS on Restaurants
Service Levels:
Modern POS is causing a massive evolution in the restaurant industry. One evidence of the effect the POS is having on the food industry is the increase in the service levels. POS integrates all the restaurant operations, increasing the speed at which the restaurant offers services. In the end, the business service output is higher than what manual processes would do.
Staff Movements:
The installation of the POS system also helps you to retain the staff on the floor to serve the guest. You avoid scenarios where the team has to run around from the client’s desk to the kitchen and back. When such movements happen, your business reflects an image of a chaotic environment rather than where the guest can enjoy their meal with calm.
Labor:
The POS also enables the business to distribute its employment smartly. The labor reports that the POS generates will allow the company to understand who is delivering the best customer experience. Such information then enables the business management to make informed decisions. It also facilitates the firm to customize the best labor behavior rewards.
Know Your Customer:
The Point of Sale enables the business to know their customers. You will be able to understand who are your frequent guests, what they are likely to buy from you each time they visit, and their average spending on your firm. Such data will ensure that your restocking happens from an informed approach.
The customer data collected also enables you to know where your guests are coming from and the duration since the last visit.
Customer Service Efficiency:
It is a pressure for the customer to visit your restaurant, and they do not need to carry their gift cards in their wallet, but they can use their mobile phones to access the tickets. The restaurant system can also remember the client’s debit card so that they do not need to remove the card each time they visit.
Convenience for Restaurant Owners:
The business owners want to know they have complete access and control to the firm operations even when they are not physically present in the business.
The restaurant is a face-face business. The POS enabling the owners to access the firm while away does not mean that owners are empowered to stay away from the store. The purpose of that POS functionality is to ensure that the owner can travel to different places when there is a need and not lose touch with the business.
The functionality enables the owner to react to anything they would want to respond to in the restaurant without traveling back to sort out issues or make decisions.
How Many Restaurants use Toast POS?
Different restaurants major on various functionalities of Toast Restaurant POS. Examples of restaurants that taking advantage of the advanced features of the POS are listed below. The cases also show the different POS features are focusing on as they build the restaurant.
Upper Crust Pizzeria (Multiple Cities) focuses on online ordering. The idea to have one make an online request for service has spread widely, and if your business focuses on the POS to enable the company to serve online customers, then you can be sure you will grow sales. Upper Crust Pizzeria has its website focus more on online order processing, and the impact on the business revenue is positive. It ensures that its clients can make online orders efficiently from the website.
The online market is widespread, and it’s a noble business decision to capture the online revenue stream.
Old Lady Gang (Atlanta, GA) focuses on making it easy for the clients to make reservations. The business has the reservation option right at the center of the homepage. It makes it easy for the business guests to see the times available for reservations helping them to book easily without using a middle person.
If your business takes reservations, allow the guests to do so with as much ease as possible. Do not send your guests to the phone when they need to make reservations. Make the process as easy as possible, and it will help increase the number of bookings you receive as well.
Costa Vida (Multiple Cities) emphasizes creating loyalty programs for its guests. The programs allow the business to reward its best customers, which encourages repeat visits. It produces new regulars, and the results are evident with improved revenue for the company.
Costa Vida makes it easy for their guests to access their loyalty card status online. The business has a “REWARDS” section on the website where the guests can access their cards with ease, unlike relying on punch cards.
Consumers indicate that loyalty programs would increase their visits to a restaurant by 35%. The benefit of the loyalty program is that when the guest is unlocking their card, they spend around 39% more on the average. Such trends boost sales for the company.
Olympia Oyster Bar (Portland, OR) is aware that customers are likely to visit more during specific events or when the traffic is low. The business then focuses on highlighting the activities it runs through the week and concentrates on that aspect on their website.
The guests go through the events on the website. The visitors view the unique things the business is engaging in and any upcoming events in the future. It allows the customers to plan to attend the said events, and that automatically will mean increased sales for the company.
When you add your recent events on the website, you will realize that your website will always have content for your guests, and people will enjoy to visit the page and read what you are doing on your end.
Dutch’s (Portland, ME) is another business that makes use of Toast for the restaurant. Dutch’s primary focus is to link its business to its clients through social media. The company has a big section on its homepage, where they focus on their Instagram account. The firm also shares a significant part of their business gallery for the guests to view online.
Make the most out of Toast for restaurants and get optimum results for your restaurant.