Restaurant POS Systems' Value Proposition

I wrote about ROI in an earlier post, and I want to return to it once more. My theme was that ROI comes in two flavors: money saved or money earned. The more money a system saves you or makes you, the more value the investment delivers. I also recommended that "save money" not "make money" be the anchor for your ROI calculations. And I touched on some of the ways Maitre'D does both. That’s why it provides good ROI.

I bring it up again because ROI is the answer to a question we often get: “why does your system cost more than Acme’s?”

It costs more because it delivers more value than AcmePOS. Let's dig a little deeper into that premise -

Understanding the true value of POS solutions

Value is the basis of pricing for many products that improve business operations—whether they’re technological or mechanical or even services. The greater that improvement, the more the product costs.

If POS X costs $1000 and saves you $1200 annually it’s a good investment. If POS Y costs you $1200 and saves you $1600 annually, it’s a better one—even though it costs more.

This is true for us, and it’s true for the other companies in the top tier of vendors. Our prices are incrementally higher (I don’t want to overstate the price point differences) because our products deliver more value.

That’s the simple axiom upon which all investments are made. It’s not the pos systems cost that matters; it’s the value it delivers.

That’s the principle behind how we designed our core system and the modules that can be added onto it. Each module—core or optional—are all part of Maitre'D for one reason: to add value.

We are able to deliver more value by investing in our products. Our products are in constant evolution as we're committed to developing enhancements and new features. And we invest in quality assurance to make sure that our solutions are always as reliable as they've always been. We're continuously investing in everything that is important to you - things like PCI compliance, EMV solutions and quality support services. We invest time, money, and effort, and a heck of a lot of it. And this time, money and effort creates value.

A few examples of how POS delivers value

How will it save me time per order?

Maitre'D provides a range of functionality that lowers the time it takes to serve an order. Mobile Maitre'D eliminates the time consuming steps of taking an order, and then leaving the floor to enter that order into the POS station. There’s another step that’s removed when you add Maitre'D CVM—our kitchen video monitor. Now, that order goes straight to the monitor—along with the recipe, presentation photographs to help the expediter, and other aids to get the meal to the table faster. Saving time per order increases table turns as well.

How will it reduce waste and spillage?

Efficiently handling both inventory and portion control is critical to profitability. Maitre'D delivers this in its core system and across multiple modules. The most obvious is Inventory Management, which automates virtually every part of the inventory cycle, including ordering, low-inventory alerts, bar code intake and much more. The kitchen video monitor that speeds up preparation also manages portions, since it displays the exact recipe with every order. Our liquor control system eliminates overpours, errors and freebies. And our sales forecasting tools increase the accuracy of your purchasing.

How will it save me money on my delivery costs?

Maitre'D automates and accelerates every part of the delivery process. It recognizes a repeat caller from her Caller ID and a repeat online visitor from cookies or log in. That speeds up order taking, which means lower wait times for callers (and lower call abandonment rates). It automates pre orders. And it charts the most efficient route for drivers—that lowers your annual fuel costs. This also allows your drivers to deliver more orders on their routes—which lowers your labor costs.

How will it all work together to cut costs?

All Maitre'D modules are integrated. Sales is integrated with Inventory which is integrated with Labor which is integrated with Cash Management . . . and so on. That supports better scheduling, better ordering, better staffing levels, better forecasting—it supports all the elements that together drive value across the operation. Dollars and cents value: the kind you figure out with arithmetic.

Everything comes back to value. And that’s how you should select a system. Don’t buy for features, buy for value. Take the time, with your team, to think through ways you want to improve your business—on the floor and in the back office -- to come up with a lot of hard value questions to ask your potential vendors—ROI calculator in hand:

You’re going to find, generally speaking, that the companies that can provide the best answers to those questions cost more than those that fumble through them.

And that’s an investment worth making.

Download our latest white paper, Time to Take the Next Step, to gauge whether you’ve become bigger than your POS:

• Learn about the telltale signs that you’ve outgrown your POS
• Find best practices to follow when selecting the system you’ll upgrade to