The Best #POS for SALES (and it IS called a Point of Sale) is the user-friendlist, fastest, easiest, least frustrating, AND easy to modify drinks (and food order items) when under pressure!
Maybe we should call it a POA for Point of Accounting. (Jamie, in the video below, is most concerned with accounting – not speeding revenue)
In the above “How to Set Up Your Bar’s POS System” video it’s stated that the objective is to make management’s job easier. The objective should be to make the bartenders job easier so the bartender can make the company more money.
Unfortunately managing isn’t the primary purpose or function of the business, or purpose for the business being in existence in the first place. The primary reason for the business being there is to make money. The way that is done is through providing faster more attentive service and selling more product in less time, more quickly, maybe using fewer employees, lowering the percentage of payroll by increasing revenue (not cutting wages below what’s a livable income), and making the highest volume of sales in the least amount of time.
Managers on the other hand, are there to work, and shouldn’t have to rely on reporting software updates made by bartenders as extra work the bartenders have to do, and in so doing, slowing down the whole system in the process.
Buying into a POS system that touts making Managers’ jobs easier so they don’t have to work as hard at the expense of fast customer service and higher volume sales in busy places should NEVER EVER be acceptable.
The video stated that each separate drink needs its own button. This for me as a bartender means that at least 300 drinks need to be put in the system, but there are tens of thousands of combinations of liquor, liqueurs, juices etc – which a bartender can make. Any one of these drinks can be ordered. So having precise drink buttons, added soda, added juice, ice/no ice, etc is a waste of time and money. RESIST THE TEMPTATION!Â
I’ve worked old school mechanical cash register bars, MICROS keyboard bars (one keyboard with a waterproof flat pad and a drink in each box with a few generics and a way to bump the price up on anything by hitting “martini” (which only increases the price), and modern touch screen POS with multiple multiples of windows, drop downs, pop-ups, add ons, modifiers, and ways to manually enter in text.
The best and fastest that allowed me to build drinks, ring in and close out checks the fastest was the single keyboard layout. I personally made over $1,052,000.00 worth of drinks per year for several years in a row using that system in a high volume venue (room capacity 480 people) with one other bartender in the front bar (and a service bartender with cashier servicing 5 cocktail waiters).
While not ALL bartenders are thinking bartenders, some of us are. For one man to increase output decrease production times means shaving seconds off of EVERY SINGLE PROCESS POSSIBLE because a human being is limited as to how fast they can move (power) and limited as to how long they can move at that speed (sprint speed endurance).
The new POSs with all of the single button per drink systems are horrendously time consuming an de-motivating. They may be manager friendly, but you’re forgetting to mention User Friendly entirely.
If your website were laid out the same way as the POSs visitors would have to click on 10 or 15 links to get to the point where they can place an order. So your website is designed by a smart designer and SEO who KNOWS that the least amount of clicks necessary are what will prevent frustrating site visitors. The site, your SEO web developer will tell you, is funneled and set up to work quickly, efficiently and like a vending machine kiosk. Your POS needs to be designed to work the same exact way. Fast – preferably everything on one single screen, and definitely in as few screens as possible.
[pullquote][/pullquote]If your lines become longer and there are no other stations left to open, and the bartender can easily keep up but the POS is the bottleneck as he or she is going through sub-window after sub-window, scroll-down after scroll-down, search after search, and pop-up modifier after pop-up modifier – then the POS is NOT DOING ITS REAL JOB which is to make the bartender’s drink factory production line order fulfillment job easier, faster, less frustrating and high volume. YES there’s a way to increase the price of individual drinks. Have a “Bump” button to increase the drink price, and make it possible to hit bump twice or three times. Then hire good bartenders who have a clue. Yes, enable the ability to type in a manual descriptor (some customers need to see why it’s more expensive than a straight shot). Then grant one bartender the ability to modify a drink upon reopening a check because that’s another HUGE delay in time – waiting for a void of a mistake or because of some unhappy customer demand. The bar comes to a halt to handle one drink and ten people are left waiting to give their orders for what could amount to 70 drinks.
If it takes your bartender more than a small fraction of the time it takes to make the drinks then your POS is set up wrong – you’re losing money. You’re losing customers. Instant gratification is what drinkers want. Drinkers want to get back to their conversations immediately. Drinkers don’t like being frustrated by waiting. One screen, enter the drink, bump, bump, (modifier text if necessary) and DONE!! NEXT!!!! BOOM!! BOOM!!
The Best POS for SALES (and it IS called a Point of Sale) is the user-fastest, easiest, least frustrating, easy to modify under pressure!
Site Author, David Jonathan Curtis: David Jonathan Curtis, a seasoned professional in his fifth decade of bartending and bar management, began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in both iconic Midtown clubs and Wall Street bars, generating over $1,350,000.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia and now Tampa, Florida. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.
