Operating a restaurant or bar is no easy task, and even small improvements can have a big impact on the success of your business. This is especially true when it comes to your Point-of-Sale (POS) system. The more efficiently your POS runs, the more efficiently your whole restaurant operates.

With that in mind, here are seven ways you can improve your payment processing—and your bottom line—without investing huge amounts of time or money.  

1. Go Beyond the Bank

The relationship with your bank is vital to your business, but it doesn’t mean that they’re the best choice when it comes to your POS. Even if you have an excellent history with your bank, it’s worth checking rates and terms offered by other POS systems as the bank might not have a POS offering that is the best fit for you. Many POS providers specialize in credit card processing, which allows them to offer benefits no bank can match.

2. Talk to Your POS Provider 

Maybe you love your current restaurant POS. If so, good for you! But if you haven’t had a chat with your POS provider in a while, it’s a great idea to check in and see what’s new. There may be compatible services that would be a perfect fit with your bar or restaurant—and your POS system. Some of these may require an equipment upgrade, but having an ongoing dialogue with your POS provider will make it easy to tell when that’s a necessity. 

Clients of Riverside Payments get access to 24/7 reliable customer service, so you don’t need to worry about your POS system having a system breakdown. 

3. Compare Notes With Your Friends in the Industry

Every single bar and restaurant has some sort of POS system, even if it’s just a clunky old cash register. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to chat with your friends who work at other restaurants, and ask how they like their POS systems. You never know when you might find some good advice you can apply to your own business. If it’s appropriate, discuss the rates and terms you’re paying for your POS—after all, knowing that information only benefits your individual businesses and puts the pressure on the POS providers!

4. Know Your Average Ticket Amount 

POS systems often use ticket size as a determining factor in pricing tiers. Knowing your average sales ticket size—among other business stats—can be a big help when it comes to comparing between competing POS offerings. It will also help your POS vendor rep know what to look for when it comes to finding the best deals and add-ons for your business.

5. Look at How You Accept Payments 

Most POS providers charge different rates for fees associated with cash and card purchases. This is another case where knowing the statistics around your business comes in handy. If most of your transactions are in cash, you might not need to worry about a higher credit card fee. Just remember that cash is becoming old fashioned, so look at the trends over time in your data before making any drastic action.

6. Bring Your POS System to the Table

If you’ve been to a big chain restaurant recently, or a tech-savvy independent shop, you may have seen the servers carrying around little interfaces to take orders and collect payments. They’re carrying their POS interfaces with them, which means they no longer have to run back to a central place to enter orders or process payments. This speeds up turnaround times considerably, especially when it comes to eliminating lag between a customer handing over their card and a server running the payment and returning it. Not only will your service be more efficient, your turnover times should be shorter as well.

7. Accept Payments Through Apps

Contactless payments are a big thing outside of the United States, and it’s only a matter of time until they catch on here as well. You should be set up to receive payments from things like Apple Pay or its Android equivalent, and you may want to open up your options to include restaurant payment apps, such as TabbedOut or Cover. While these transactions might only be a small percentage of your sales, it never hurts to be ahead of a growing trend!

When choosing a POS Provider, the biggest thing to avoid is a provider that locks you into using only one processing company. Some POS providers will do this so they can charge higher processing fees. When choosing a provider, whether it's Riverside Payments or someone else, make sure that you have the option to choose your payment processor.

The most important part of your POS system is to bring in the money! Working with a POS provider, like Riverside Payments, guarantees that you save money on a more reliable and customer-friendly system. Find out how you can make the switch to a better payment processing system.