Drive your business with a versatile restaurant pOS system from Shift processing

When choosing a payment processor for your restaurant, make sure that you are aware of the costs involved. Avoid frequent mistakes and ensure that there are no hidden charges. A POS company that seems to offer low processing rates could be actually charging more than it seems with hidden costs. If the low rate seems too good to be true, it might just be.

Much of those costs can come if not enough production is met per month. Many payment systems will demand monthly minimums for you, as the business owner, to meet. If the monthly sales minimum is not met, they will then demand a fee. You might monitor trends in the future where your costs rise from where they stand in the current day.

We know that you want to save more of your hard earned money and revenue. Who doesn't? As a payment processing company that does business with a plethora of restaurants and bars of every size, you'll be happy to learn that we bring experience with your industry. 

Pricing Structures

A company new to the restaurant or bar industry has a lot to discuss and learn. From creating a cost structure and a marketing plan, to possibly choosing an accounting firm for your restaurant and taking out business loans from a bank. Whether your restaurant is new or old, we want to help reduce the stress and labor that will inevitably come.

With so many different cost plans out there, it can be difficult to decide which will be ideal for your restaurant.  There's tiered costs, which is usually incorporated on a monthly subscription based cost model. There's transparent costs, which shows the consumer how much money goes into making the product and reports to them how much profit the business will gain from their purchase. Some companies choose flat rate costs, which charges each person a flat rate, the same price someone else would get charged for the same products, services or items. We know it can be stressful, so we are here to help or even provide tips and insights if needed.

Common Competitor’s Fees

Other processing companies may charge higher monthly fees, annual fees or demand a termination fee if you cancel your contract before the contract expiration date. You might even notice some hidden fees along the way.

Restaurant owners, as well as business owners in other industries, that are weighing their payment processing options need to take these kinds of charges into consideration.

In a focus to keep charges as low as they can be, a big ingredient is staying PCI compliant. Maintaining proper PCI policies, such as maintaining proper security, will keep your restaurant from experiencing any PCI compliance fees.

Some businesses may choose to incorporate an interchange plus cost plan, which is essentially the processor's rate plus a markup which can be kept as a sort of commission. The total cost, then, would be whatever the interchange rate is, plus the markup price. This is often featured in business types like real estate.

Payment Processing Equipment

Our POS credit card terminal accepts all major types of credit cards, like Visa, Mastercard and American Express, and even non-card ways of payment like Apple Pay. This allows for convenient pay with just the click of a button for the customer. It allows them to access the mobile card on their phone screen and through that payment gateway, basically making an online payment and making it easier for them.

Making payments as simple as possible for your consumers could even improve your customer support, overall sales performance, and business operations in general. With additional included functions like the ability to split checks, real time inventory tracking, inventory management and even data management software, a POS platform has plenty of benefits. Many systems also have CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software and hardware to help manage customer relationships with ease.

Maintaining simplicity is required for getting repeat business from your customers. They'll come back more often if they know that making payments is easy and simple through your POS system. If you can maintain a required level of simplicity, you should have no problem getting customers to come back more often.

Your POS system should help make both your life, as a restaurant owner or manager, and the lives of your employees just a little bit simpler. Some POS platforms can even help you efficiently maintain and run your social media accounts. 

Choose a reliable POS system that can be easily learned and, if some employees need training on it, accommodates to their needs. Any employee will appreciate having a fast, casual and efficient training module to learn how to use their new POS platform.

Many restaurants will create loyalty programs that offers rewards for going to their establishment. Many restaurant POS systems can help to maintain practices like these. From using the software to sign customers up for the list or loyalty program, to accepting some sort of reward card or number, your POS system should be able to benefit you.

Establishing a loyalty program is a key ingredient of customer management. You can track frequent orders made by each customer on the program's list and use the data gained from reporting and analytics to appeal to them later on.

Shift offers you the necessary processing tools and management features upon switching processors. Many credit card processors charge a card processing up-charge to their merchants. We, however, don't charge it to the merchant, but to the customer.

Additional POS Tools

A mobile Point of Sale system could be useful for mobile restaurants food trucks. This allows them to travel to multiple locations on a daily basis, as long as they can access servers. Mobile Point-of-Sale lets mobile devices and tablets, like iPads, accept payment from any location. Shopkeep is a popular iPad POS company, but have high fees for their clients, as do most iPad POS companies.

Using tablet-based POS is a very convenient choice for many stores through a POS app or an actual POS terminal. Most mobile point of sale options will include automatic backup features in case the device shuts off or disconnects from its online network or servers.

Finding the right POS system for your business will largely depend on your business size. For example, many businesses like small pizza or coffee shops have turned to processors like Toast POS, Upserve POS, Clover and Square. They do this because those processors flourish with smaller purchases and smaller purchase amounts. Business sizes usually affect the type of POS that a business will choose. 

However, many restaurants and bars with heavy processing amounts decide to go with a full-service POS station because of the increased number of purchases.

If your restaurant or bar is deciding between a couple of different POS systems on the market, consider how many purchases your process a month and how much free time you find yourself having while on the job. If you would like to save time so you can labor in other areas throughout the day, you might consider a POS system that has more advanced management tools and features.

Often, the POS features that a system has can be customized to your preferences. You'll be able to control and tailor your system to your exact preferences.

Want a point-of-sale system with accounting software similar to what is available with Quickbooks? Maybe a system that can help you manage reservations? Or what about one with a kitchen display and digital menu layout? It all depends on preference. 

Before you settle on a point-of-sale system, we recommend that you compare quotes and search for a review or two to give you the best experience possible. Some processors might even offer a trial or a demo so you can test the system before committing.

Differences in POS Systems

Some payment processors offer modern cloud based POS services, which basically takes away the POS server and moves the traffic from each transaction to a different gateway. Cloud based POS is convenient for businesses in the food service industry that are often on-the-go, like food trucks.

Next, you might be wondering what the difference is between restaurant POS systems and retail POS systems. While a retail terminal could be used to process a restaurant’s sales, it is not recommended because of a couple reasons. 

First, most systems in the retail industry will process purchases made by consumers immediately after. This would not be advised for a restaurant because of how frequent tipping is. If the whole payment went through right away, there would need to be a second transaction made to put the tip through.

Second, restaurant POS systems are almost always able to handle payment for orders made online or tableside. This is especially useful for establishments that allow carry-out and delivery orders that are almost always made online or over the phone. Without a means to accept payment online for these types of orders, it can further complicate the payment accepting process.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, choosing a POS system will come down to preference. Your restaurant may view a high tech POS system as more useful. Or, maybe a simple mobile POS platform is right for your business. Whichever you think will provide the best experience for your restaurant, we at Shift can help your restaurant process payments at no cost to you. How great does that sound?

Hotels, full-service restaurants, cafes and more all trust us to process their transactions with no costs attached to you, the business owner. If your bar or restaurant is looking to streamline costs, what could be better than a reliable processor that doesn't charge the business owner?