Restaurants using the Square point-of-sale platform have a new suite of tools at their disposal, part of a raft of new solutions aimed at helping restaurants of all kinds improve their bottom line and increase operational efficiency. The company also announced new integrations with Cartwheel and Vromo, two delivery management software providers.
The new Square for Restaurants mobile POS will give servers the ability to quickly take orders and payments table-side or in line, with a device small enough to fit inside an apron pocket.
“Restaurants using the Square for Restaurants mobile POS beta program have been able to turn more tables and grow their sales even when they were short on staff,” the company said in a press release.
Square for Restaurants mobile POS runs on two handheld devices, Square Terminal and the forthcoming Restaurant Mobile POS kit. As part of the launch promotion, restaurants can use the software for $0 per location, until early next year, and $50 after the promotional period ends.
Square included a testimonial from a restaurant operator claiming a reduction in physical steps, a bump in alcohol sales and less stress for its staff members.
“We’re seeing a lot of additional efficiency in our operations with Square for Restaurants mobile POS because our staff are spending more time on the floor rather than out of reach putting in orders,” said Frankie DiCarlantonio, owner Scaffidi Restaurant Group in Ohio. “With the layout of our restaurant, Square for Restaurants mobile POS is saving a lot of physical steps, which has increased staff satisfaction and alleviated some of the stress on their positions. Alcohol sales also rose by 22 percent and we have seen voids due to out-of-stock items decline by 57 percent.”
The announcement also teased the coming release of the Square Stand Mount, which is an iPad-based point-of-sale that can be affixed to a wall or countertop, or also used as a kiosk. Square claims it will reduce space dedicated for POS equipment, and also help waitstaff move customers through the checkout professor quicker with integrated payment capabilities.
Broader updates to the Square for Restaurants POS include a coursing feature to help restaurants manage the flow of orders and enable servers to send items as additions to courses already sent to the kitchen, the Square kitchen display system, and the Square KDS that “will soon enable restaurants to route tickets from a specific POS to a specific KDS” that it claims will give restaurants more flexibility in organizing their kitchens.
The company will also be introducing its first reservation and table management system through an integration with OpenTable, which will give restaurants the ability to connect data from their POS with data from the OpenTable reservations platform to offer a more personalized customer experience.
Thanks to new integrations with Cartwheel and Vromo, Square restaurant partners can now use Soundhound to take voice orders automatically, without having to dedicate staff to answering phones. This summer, that will expand to allow restaurants to power their own delivery services in an effort to improve delivery profit margins.
“Square is dedicated to building the most robust ecosystem of products and services for restaurants of all types and sizes—from multi-location FSRs to QSRs, bars, breweries, and everywhere in between,” said Bryan Solar, Square’s head of restaurants. “No two restaurants are exactly alike and one solution doesn’t always fit all.”
