experience. For example, a customer who is asking about an entrée can be shown a one-minute video of how it’s prepared by the head chef. Wow. Bringing the head chef to the table is so above and beyond today’s service experience, but it’s also so simple and replicable. This is a massive customer experience win that will make you the talk of the town.

Positioning: Many restaurateurs have experimented with mobile technology, but hesitate to go any further because they believe the device detracts from eye contact and can have a negative impact on hospitality. But with today’s intuitive touch operating systems these distractions are minimized by a device that is easy to order on. The real challenge is to manage customer perception, which can be done by training staff to frame and position mobile POS technology as an advantage for the customer rather than a distraction. It’s simple:

Your server says: “I have a new option for you. I can take your order and enter it in our old system after my colleagues have their tables entered, or I have this new ordering device connected to the kitchen and bar that allows us to immediately enter your order now, saving you time. Which do you prefer?”

Positioning in this context changes the perception of the device from “being in the way” to “being the preferred way” and embraced as a value added proposition by your customers and staff. Staff don’t waste time transcribing orders or waiting in line for someone else to finish with the touch-panel. They can spend that time customer-facing.

Accuracy: Think about a situation in which the server forgets to ask the customers how they wanted their steak cooked. The server is half-way through the order entry at the touch panel and realizes she doesn’t know the steak preference. If the restaurant is extremely busy, your server may be tempted to just choose the medium modifier. Mobilizing your POS system avoids this type of order inaccuracy because servers are forced to collect perfectly accurate orders at the tableside or in the QSR line. They can’t miss a data point because the mobile device demands complete and accurate information in real-time when customer-facing. Customer wins, staff wins, and the restaurant wins.

Up-sell: Wouldn’t you love to replicate your server who drives the highest up-sell?  A mobilized POS system reminds and encourages your servers to up-sell specials, high margin items, exotic drinks, desserts and coffee. This drives more wins for everyone: you see a higher check size, the server earns more tips, and the customer feels like they got better value from a knowledgeable staff member.

Knowledge: Speaking of knowledgeable staff members, training investments in staff are often lost when your server gets a new job elsewhere. Mobile technology maintains those knowledge investments: Here are some examples of what new staff members can do with mobile technology on their first day:

• Nutritional information and allergy information can be read to guests
• Best wine/entrée combinations make every server highly knowledgeable on day one
• Wine descriptions and histories on harvest for that year are at their fingertips
• Video files from the head chef on entrées, head bartender video on drinks
• Promotions and loyalty tracking information at tableside
• A server can pull up the customer’s favourite order or what they ordered on their last visit
• Nearby theatre information: guests mention they are going to a movie, so the server can show movie trailers on a tablet

This list of possibilities to share knowledge is endless.

Server satisfaction: Consider the time-motion factor. Mobile POS eliminates so many unnecessary server footsteps – to transcribe orders into a touch-panel on the other side of the room, to check if an order is up in the kitchen, at the bar, or at the sous chef station, to communicate to bus staff on tasks. Your immobile POS system doesn’t tell a server when to come for these items. Mobilizing your POS communicates to servers when items are up, saving footsteps and allowing more time to serve customers.

Labour: Mobilized staff with information at their fingertips should mean fewer staff are needed to provide better service to more people. Unfortunately the jury is still out on this one. Several case studies, primarily in Europe, have shown that sales almost invariably increase, service is enhanced, tables turn faster, but the labour metric often stays the same. The change comes from a shift in duties from servers to a team of runners who deliver for the server. The implication is that overall store output increases while labour patterns change.

Mobilizing your customer: Can embossed-leather menu expenses disappear altogether? Taking the mobile POS to another level, several vendors are offering tablets that allow your customers to browse your menu electronically. Instead of handing customers expensive printed menus that you keep renewing, your customers can surf through a multi-media menu while the kids enjoy a game of Angry Birds before the food is served. Theft, battery management, investment level, and durability issues are yet to be determined, but don’t be surprised if you see menu tablets in forward thinking restaurants. Many restaurants already have their menus online, so the transition to menu tablets wouldn’t be difficult.

Commerce and check-out: Today many servers approach the table with a dedicated PCI compliant portable payment device that has a printer for receipts and is directly connected to a payment processor via VPN. It is another separate system to charge, manage, load with paper, and maintain on the Wi-Fi network. Today’s mobile technology has all this capability built in with mag-strip readers, NFC chipsets, and an opportunity to simply have the guest enter their email address to receive an electronic receipt. There is a better way by leveraging an all-in-one mobile ordering device.

Mobile technology has become so intuitive and human. You can leverage it to mobilize and liberate the power of your POS system. It promises to enhance the guest experience, reduce employee turn-over, increase sales and order accuracy while maximizing restaurant output. The value-added content you leverage on the technology is only limited by your imagination.

How to get started:

1. Get your vision in line: What are you? What do you want your brand to mean to your customers? How can your image be enhanced with mobile POS technology? Think about how you want your staff to appear and how they will appear to your customers.
2. Talk to your existing POS system provider. Share your vision with them and ask them to be a partner that can work through the technology to make your vision a reality.
3. Do your research of competing solutions, looking for best-of-breed functionality from multiple vendors. Make the list of functions you want, prioritize what matches your vision, and try a pilot with clearly documented business metrics for success in a period of time.
4. Put a training plan in place and run multiple tests to ensure it works before using it with customers. Realize it won’t be perfect upfront, and you will need to tweak it over time.
5. Survey customers and staff to understand how to make it better.  When you are confident that most of the wrinkles are ironed out and success metrics are achievable, mobilize your POS.

About the author

Glen Bowker has a passion for applying the latest enterprise mobility technology to optimize business results. His career includes experience with wireless carriers, wireless application providers, mobility hardware manufacturers, and wireless internet portals. He welcomes comments, dialog, and questions at: GlenBowker123@gmail.com and can be followed on Twitter @moblhospitality