Our recent survey of over 300 restaurant owners and managers told us that 80% of respondents are currently using a restaurant POS solution, and 60% of them are currently evaluating systems. Our ten-finger arithmetic says that a lot of those restaurants are thinking about switching systems. We've been involved in making that transition thousands of times—and we thought we'd share some thoughts on it over the next few posts.
For us, a successful switch always comes down to achieving a single goal:
Complete the transition without disrupting the business.
We call it Quiet Continuity.
There are a lot of elements to consider, like your technology, your data and your integration challenges. In this post, we'll look at one of the most critical elements of Quiet Continuity: your people.
QUIET CONTINUITY AND YOUR STAFF
Although you're making a transition to a new, improved POS—better technology, better functionality, better everything—the folks who use the POS should barely notice the change. It's always tempting to look at a new system—especially one like Maitre'D that has so much flexibility—as a blank canvas. But it's vital that interface design, kitchen video layouts, report formats—everything staff interacts with—be as familiar as possible. Logins should be the same. Buttons and menus should be accessed the same way, from the same layout, with colors and fonts the same. The reports and other analysis tools you spent so much time customizing and creating should still be available after the switch.
We're not advising you against implementing advanced features you didn't have before. Nor are we suggesting that you shouldn't improve and streamline how staff interacts with the POS. By all means: improve away! Instead, we're laying out what we think is a primary guiding principle "build on what you have." That's the best way to ensure that there are no delays placing and serving orders while even your best servers struggle to remember "now where do I select condiments again?"
Auto makers are a great example. Every year they add new features and improved specs—10 years ago only James Bond could start his car with his phone. But no matter how many bells and whistles carmakers add, the ignition key, the speedometer, the seat adjusters: always in the same place (and, sure, designers could find better places for them). You could step out of a 1964 Falcon and into a 2012 CLS63 AMG and drive it another 50 years without ever opening the owner's manual.
That learning principle applies to POS systems too. Learning how to do brand new things is a whole lot easier than learning to do things a brand new way. You can integrate online ordering, loyalty, or any other advanced feature your new system offers—but make sure those new functions are the only thing people have to learn. That way staff training time is shortened, back office productivity accelerated, and the technology intimidation factor eliminated.
We mentioned at the top of the blog our recent POS survey of 300 restaurants. Something else we learned was this: the number one reason people are switching has to do with technology. So in our next post we'll look at some of the issues related to achieving Quiet Continuity with your hardware—computers, cables, backup and more.
