As a restaurant business grows, POS systems need to adapt and change with it. But a static POS system might become outdated quickly. Here's how to tell if it's time to buy a new system.

July 8, 2022 | by Peter Dougherty — GM of Hospitality, Lightspeed Commerce

Your hospitality business needs the right tools to grow and thrive, starting with your point of sale (POS) system. A restaurant POS is a vital part of your operations, so having an outdated one in place can be detrimental to your success.

Your current POS system may have been great when you first started your business, but as your business grows a hard-wired legacy POS system is less adaptable and can't evolve alongside your goals. The faster, simpler and more intuitive technology of a modern, cloud-based POS can help decrease wrong orders and food waste, streamline operations to prevent staff burnout and get food out to customers faster.

It may seem like a big undertaking to decommission your current POS system and install a new one, but once the task of installing and onboarding your staff to an intuitive, customizable cloud-based system is complete, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it before. It may be time to switch to a new POS now if your current system is not flexible enough to grow with your business, is too difficult to use or is costing you big in maintenance fees and updates.

Besides the ease of use, a major benefit of a cloud-based system is its ability to change and adapt as your business grows. With built-in add-ons, integrations with popular restaurant apps and software, and free, automatic updates deployed periodically, you can implement new features on demand.

A modern restaurant POS is also going to help grow your bottom line with advanced analytics that provide insights on the health of your business. Information such as sales and shift reports are available to you anywhere and in real time, which means no need to print lengthy reports from your terminal at the restaurant. A modern POS will also provide you with additional insights like menu item stats, customer profiles, staff performance and other reports that will help you make more informed business decisions. Plus, your guests will feel good knowing their credit card information is secure and encrypted with the most up-to-date technology.

If any of this resonates with you, then you are probably ready to make the switch to a cloud-based POS for your restaurant. As you research the options out there, it's important to ask yourself a few questions to determine the best fit for you.

When you have your list of must-have features ready, contact the POS providers you are interested in learning more about to see if they offer a free demo of the product. This is your opportunity to see how the product functions, ask questions about it and learn about useful features you may not even know exist yet.

Some questions to ask a sales representative during your demo include:

Beyond the product information, this is also a good time to inquire about the onboarding process, find out how installation works and ask if the company provides any type of training materials to help you and your staff get started with your new restaurant POS. By doing due diligence during the research process, you'll be sure to end up with a product that is the perfect fit for your restaurant.

Mr. Dougherty is the General Manager of Hospitality at Lightspeed. Never shy to tackle challenges, Mr. Dougherty has helped grow Lightspeed from Startup to Scale and has played a key role in launching Lightspeed Restaurant in the Americas, rebuilding core components of the GTM teams and most recently, turning Partnerships into one of the fastest growing groups in the business.

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