Does Your Pizzeria’s POS System Actually Ship?

• Your POS system can create a smoother expertise for supply drivers, prospects and, finally, your self should you faucet into its full capabilities.
• Consultants from numerous segments of the restaurant business weigh in with useful ideas for growing smarter supply methods along with your POS.

Associated: Utilizing your POS system to regulate meals prices

By Tracy Morin

In PMQ’s June-July problem, we lined learn how to use your POS system for higher stock monitoring and improved revenue margins. This month, we’ll take a look at methods it will possibly help the supply course of, making a smoother expertise for supply drivers, prospects and, finally, operators themselves. Whether or not you’re seeking to faucet into the capabilities of your present system or available in the market for a brand new POS to assist with essential enterprise capabilities like supply, learn on for useful ideas—offered by specialists from numerous segments of the restaurant business, in their very own phrases—on learn how to ship smarter along with your POS.

Information Diving
The Skilled: David Chatkin, president, Sarpino’s USA, Chicago, IL
The Intel: Sarpino’s has been a supply idea from inception. Our POS supply system gives numerous API integrations with third-party distributors, accounting P&L software program, and enterprise intelligence instruments to mix Google Analytics information with POS and warehouse information to attract extra conclusions and insights. DoorDash Drive can be built-in, which provides much more capability to the Sarpino’s self-delivery fleet. The system may be very versatile and adaptive and permits customization and fixed additions and enhancements to assist supply.

The most recent characteristic we’re piloting is Presto’s AI voice answering system, which permits us to course of transactions with out a human cashier. It’s a terrific labor answer to permit employees to give attention to manufacturing. Moreover, the AI system fields calls that in any other case wouldn’t have been answered, thus including income as effectively. Push notifications, order monitoring, SMS affirmation, contactless supply and versatile cost choices are all instruments obtainable to make the right supply and to speak with the shopper.

Actual-Time Routing
The Skilled: Meaghan Brophy, POS system knowledgeable, Match Small Enterprise, New York, NY
The Intel: Primarily, POS system gives restaurant managers and drivers higher visibility into operations, which permits for higher planning and streamlined supply movement. Search for POS suppliers that supply these advantages:

• Map views of on-line orders for environment friendly supply routing: Actual-time map views assist you to group deliveries primarily based on location, confirm addresses forward of time, and assign a number of orders to at least one driver, which may save drivers time and frustration and permit for extra well timed deliveries. Some POS techniques additionally provide real-time visitors views, so you possibly can anticipate delays and issue them into promised supply occasions.
• Distant administration: Many POS techniques enable eating places to assign orders to drivers as they’re on the go and even ship turn-by-turn instructions. Some techniques additionally provide estimated driver return occasions, which assist stop overbooking or overpromising on supply occasions.
• Actual-time standing updates: POS techniques observe order and supply standing in actual time in order that managers know the place their drivers are and might correctly gauge future availability and timelines. The very best POS techniques additionally maintain prospects up to date with real-time standing. This visibility, paired with correct supply time estimates, helps present a terrific buyer expertise, which may affect driver ideas in addition to reorder charges.
• Constructed-in reimbursement calculations: POS techniques with built-in routing will also be programmed to mechanically reimburse drivers primarily based on their designated routes. This protects time and prevents drivers from needing to recollect to self-report their odometers.
• Devoted driver app: The very best POS techniques have driver apps with GPS navigation, order particulars and the flexibility to contact prospects, all instantly by way of the app. Drivers can simply view supply notes from prospects, which helps with discovering appropriate addresses, particularly in house complexes. These apps additionally notify drivers when they’re assigned orders, which supplies them with extra visibility into their workday.

Associated: Utilizing your POS system to navigate the labor scarcity

Cash Issues
The Skilled: Ray Camillo, principal, Blue Orbit Hospitality Consulting, Atlanta, GA
The Intel: A supply driver’s greatest challenges are delivering on time and processing cost, and their No. 1 concern is ideas. As app cost and tip processing have changed money, ideas are sometimes requested upfront, which implies the institution delivering the meals wants a status for delivering meals quick, sizzling and in nice situation. Drivers are judged—and tipped—primarily based on the efficiency of the final supply. Due to this fact, a strong software program answer turns into an important difference-maker for serving to drivers rating higher ideas, which is aligned with the restaurant’s purpose of creating more cash. With funds processed forward of time, software program should assist the motive force ship the very best quantity of orders within the shortest period of time.

Years in the past, UPS developed proprietary software program that might generate essentially the most environment friendly supply routes primarily based on the place their load of particular person packages had been going. Journey-sharing providers like Uber use a extra sturdy model of this to route the closest driver to the shopper. With greater labor and stock prices, eating places can in poor health afford to squander cash on supply drivers, and good drivers will go the place they will take advantage of cash.

Delivering meals effectively is a posh downside that restaurant operators typically assume drivers can clear up on the street—armed, at finest, with solely a deep data of native roads. By means of analyzing visitors information, street situations and switch sequences, supply software program algorithms enable a driver to service as many shoppers within the shortest doable time. Drivers can’t probably do that in addition to machines, so when eating places allow them to handle their very own routes, they go away cash on the desk and generate inconsistent supply histories. The restaurant finally ends up hiring too many drivers, which prices more cash, they usually make fewer ideas than they might get if a strong routing software program was in cost. There are a lot of standalone routing techniques obtainable—corresponding to Circuit or OptimoRoute—however some point-of-sale software program corporations at the moment are integrating this software program into their platforms.

Built-in Options
The Skilled: Graham Campbell, chief working officer, Givex, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The Intel: Pizzeria operators must also search for a system that gives:

• Future ordering: Cellphone orders could be taken upfront, queued up and produced simply in time for the pickup.
  • A supply driver module.
• The flexibility to deal with advanced pizza orders, corresponding to simply switching toppings or providing left-side, right-side and double/triple toppings, whereas supporting stock.
• An built-in on-line ordering module that may be provided together with third-party supply platforms.
• Integrations to third-party suppliers: This permits operators to faucet right into a broader pool of drivers and maintain the method streamlined by letting operators handle and monitor instantly from the purpose of sale.
• Integrations to make sure that any orders positioned by way of accomplice apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats will probably be enter mechanically into the POS and the correct income heart, so employees members don’t must manually punch within the order.
• Blocked hour and minimal pickup/supply time overrides: These empower a restaurant operator to regulate the in-house expertise and, finally, arrange supply drivers for achievement, as a result of they are going to obtain deliveries solely throughout your most popular home windows of time. You may block hours from being obtainable for on-line ordering by order kind (i.e., pickup or supply) with out affecting retailer working hours. It’s also possible to arrange minimal pickup or supply time interval overrides to customise minimum-order lead time by order kind and time of day. These options give operators extra instruments to assist ease the transition to on-line ordering whereas protecting these on-line gross sales manageable to your kitchens.
• Environment friendly enterprise operations: Automate your kitchen with a kitchen show system (KDS) that communicates along with your POS system. That is very important for achievement, as it is going to assist streamline operations, make sure that all meals are cooked to perfection and reduce meals waste.Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor and editor of PizzaVegan.com.