In a previous post, I shared the general observation that the POS software market has reached near-full saturation: nearly every restaurant has a POS system. I described how the nature of the POS market—which is still strong—has shifted from new installations to replacements and enhancements. Something else has shifted along with it: you buy differently than you used to. You’ve become far more strategic, far more knowledgeable, and far more problem-oriented than you were, say, 15 years ago.

Features hardly differentiate one POS from another today. We both know that feature lists are all mostly the same—at least from products of the same caliber. In earlier days, when we were asked “what makes Maitre'D different?” we would bring out our features lists. But nowadays, it’s like the racket your air conditioning compressor makes: after a while you just don’t even hear it anymore. When features do differentiate one POS from another, they usually do not for very long, because if that feature is important to the market, most POS vendors will add it sooner or later to stay relevant and competitive. Comparing features lists today, can result in an entirely different outcome one month later.

If you’re not tuned into features, then what does make a difference to you these days?

Here's what we're seeing and hearing…

You Know Your Business—You Want Us to Know It Too

When you’re interacting with the sales team, you expect something other than an enthusiastic feature champion. You look for credibility, capability and chemistry. That means, you have a positive response to the vendors’ account and technical people. They understand your specific operation, understand how you’re using your current POS, and understand ways to help you solve specific problems and make specific improvements. People are a big differentiator when selecting a POS vendor: ask vendors about their team’s experience and knowledge.

You want a vendor that has been around, and will stick around for the long haul

In the past 4-5 years, there are dozens (at least!) of new POS system vendors that have entered the marketplace, most thanks to big VC money. But as Craig Aberle of The Point of Sale News explains in his article: VC money will only get them so far. There’s a natural cycle that successful software companies end up going through – and need to get through to survive: they grow and grow, and since POS companies are not easily scalable, they eventually hit growing pains. Those growing pains range from hiring the right people and keeping the right people on their teams, managing demands from increasingly large accounts and balancing R&D resources between developing for existing customers vs. gaining new customers, maintaining multiple versions of a product and being agile enough to respond quickly to ever-changing payment security and fiscal requirements. Vendors that have been in the market for 10, 20 or 30 years have learned how to juggle these challenges and can breeze through them more easily than a startup.

You’re Focused on Problem Solving

All this isn’t intended to mean you’re not paying attention to what the product does. On the contrary, you’re far more tightly focused on functionality than you were when you made your first POS purchase. Focus is the key word. You’ve become a much more sophisticated and experienced buyer. You’re not impressed that there’s an online ordering module: for you that’s a requirement to entry. Instead, you ask if it integrates with your specific applications, if it validates using your preferred standards and methods, and if it’s reported on in specific ways.

You’re Looking Ahead

Most of you have been in the fray as new technologies—some game changing and some simply incremental—have risen and gained widespread adoption. Yesterday it was tablets and today it’s mobile wallets. And you have a sense of the direction that the next few years will take your POS environment. It will be increasingly integrated with all of the customers’ channels and networks, it will provide new ways to order and pay, it will incorporate the Internet of Things (it will connect you to your grills). And of course there are all the things that aren’t even on anyone’s radar yet. All of that has to be part of the conversation with any vendor. You have to know if they’re going the direction you want to go . . . and you want to know if they will be around for the long haul and can lead the way.

As I said—this is how we’re seeing things and what we’re experiencing. Does it resonate with you? Are you finding that you’re making more or less feature-focused technology buys?

Whether you're still into features or not, you might be interested in reading our free whitepaper: Beneath the Surface of POS Features.