Mobile POS: How It Works and Advantages
Ensuring speed in the operation without losing sales – and improving the customer experience on top of that. Sounds like a dream? With the mobile pos that is exactly what your restaurant, bar or nightclub achieves. In this article, learn more about this technology and how to use it!
What is a mobile POS?
First, it is worth recalling What POS means: the acronym for Point of Sale refers to the place or tool where sales are made between the business and its customers.
The POS most people know is the fixed one, the one that usually has a computer, a card machine, a cash register and an invoice printer.
This format is still very common in grocery stores, retail shops and smaller businesses, which have a low volume of customers.
As for mobile pos, as the name suggests, is the modernized version of that old model. With a portable POS, not every customer has to go to a checkout counter. The servers go to the customers, greatly speeding up the digital payment process (by card), reducing lines and avoiding frustration.
Besides that, there is also the possibility of using a smart card machine as a mobile POS. Isso moderniza o atendimento e reduz ainda mais os custos de operação.
Another way to use a mobile POS is through totens de autoatendimento. Embora sejam mais fixos do que os smartphones ou tablets, eles também são opções que oferecem autonomia e agilidade aos clientes.
With them, the customer does not have to wait for a server and can close their bill/tab on their own and pay by card or another digital payment method compatible with the device and your business.
How does a mobile POS work?
But how does this happen in practice? The secret is in the integration between the various areas of a restaurant, bar or nightclub. And all of this is possible thanks to one solution: the ERP management system.
With it, you can connect the POS to the card terminal (mobile or fixed), to the inventory, the kitchen and the finance area, among other areas of your business. That way, everything runs automatically and simply, with security and efficiency.
O POS system in its mobile version lets you take orders straight on the card machine, smartphone or tablet. This brings agility to the waiters, who can serve several tables in less time.
This reduction in walking around is amplified by sending orders directly to the KDS (Kitchen Display System). This makes prep much faster – and also avoiding errors and human failures.
That is how, when a customer orders through the mobile POS, everything is done automatically: the information is sent to the ERP and to the KDS, which carry on the prep process, cash flow, among others.
What are the advantages of a mobile POS system?
But what other benefits can a mobile POS bring to your business? The main ones are: efficiency and savings.
With this tool, a restaurant or bar cuts lines, increases table turnover and delivers a modern service experience that builds customer loyalty. Learn more about the advantages of the mobile POS.
Improving the customer experience
The main benefit of this kind of technology is what matters most to a food service business: customer happiness. Com um PDV móvel, você pode acabar com a espera dos seus clientes, seja para pedir ou para pagar.
This may seem simple – and even basic –, but only those who have lost their patience waiting for a server or standing in line at a restaurant/bar know how annoying it is.
And only those who have been through it know they will not go back to a place that left such a negative impression. You do not want your business to be like that, right? So consider adopting a mobile POS.
Cutting costs
Optimizing the operation and cutting costs is every entrepreneur's dream – and with a mobile POS that becomes reality. The tool lets you reduce the number of “complete POS stations”, which have more equipment (and therefore cost more).
That alone is already a big saving. But it does not stop there, there is also a reduction in your team's wasted time.
With the mobile POS, they can spend their time answering customers' questions, delivering orders and handling other administrative tasks, instead of standing at the register waiting for a customer to come pay the bill.
Besides that, since it costs less, you can even increase the number of POS stations in your restaurant or bar and still end up saving money. That way, you can serve more customers in less time and at a lower cost.
Security in transactions
Just like sales from a “traditional” POS, those made on the mobile model are also completely secure. The transactions are encrypted and have all the anti-fraud measures that are part of a point of sale.
Besides that, the mobile models only allow digital transactions, which prevents errors and fraud that can happen with cash payments. They land in your company's account in real time, with full transparency and traceability.
Uses of the mobile POS in restaurants and bars
In practice, a mobile POS helps speed up payment and, because of that, it is there precisely as a tool customers can reach easily and quickly. See below the main uses of this technology in the food service industry.
Leia também: Restaurant POS system: how to choose the best one?
Mobile checkout
The most common use is precisely to turn the smart POS machine into a mobile checkout. That way, you can take the POS to the customers' tables, greatly speeding up the service process.
Self-Service Kiosk
It may not seem like it, but a self-service kiosk is also a mobile POS. That is because, even though it stays fixed in one spot, the device lets you multiply your number of points of sale and offer a completely autonomous payment option to your customers.
digital tab
Speaking of self-service, the digital tab can also be a mobile POS. If you have the right system, your customers' own smartphones become smart POS devices. Isso reduz filas e dá mais modernidade ao seu estabelecimento.
How do you get a mobile POS?
Many people believe that to have a mobile POS, all you need is to buy a payment machine and/or a smartphone/tablet. And although these devices can work that way on their own, ideally they should work together with a POS system.
As for EPOC POS, you can use it both on computers and on mobile devices and on the on the smart card machine..
That way, you can integrate the POS with every other area of your business, such as inventory, administration, kitchen, bar and with the waiters and other service staff themselves.
Besides ensuring an efficient operation, this maximizes the benefits of the mobile POS, saving time and investment.
To understand more about how this integration happens in practice, fale com nossos consultores and find out how the system can revolutionize your business!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a mobile POS?
It is a more modern, portable POS used by the servers, who go to the customers, greatly speeding up the digital payment process (by card), reducing lines and avoiding frustration.How does a portable POS work?
It works integrated with an ERP system, and so it connects card terminal (mobile or fixed), to the inventory, to the kitchen and to the finance area, among other areas of your business.What are the advantages of a mobile POS?
1 – Improving the customer experience;2 – Cutting costs;
3 – Security in transactions.
