Agility has been a buzzword in 2020. In fact, many operators went on record saying they craved more agility with their technology and software as they attempted to adapt to sudden changes like curbside takeout, contactless transactions, and huge increases in online ordering. Add into the mix high turnover rates and huge cuts in labor expenditures, and a point-of-sale (POS) system that is not only agile, but also user-friendly, has been key in driving profitability.
There’s a different sector of the industry that has long been familiar with high turnover, long lines, and zero dine-in consumption: event arenas. Think about it: the typical event arena staff shows up a few minutes before the doors open for a game or concert, and they are expected to churn through customer orders with little-to-no formal training. The rush hits at halftime, or in between bands, and there’s no time for technological snafus or users that can’t find the right button.
The event arena space is where the Appetize Enterprise Cloud POS solution was born and perfected, and now, the company is bringing its cloud-based software to the quick-service industry, aiming to leverage its adaptability and versatility to help operators create dynamic teams and fast transactions.
“Our platform is designed from the ground up with zero training in mind,” says Brian Whitney, vice president of sales at Appetize. “We made Appetize Enterprise Cloud POS so easy to use that it takes a pool of new employees and makes them experts almost immediately.”
So what separates Appetize’s POS platform and makes it so easy to use? For one, it’s an intuitive, image-based interface, meaning that when a chicken sandwich is being rung up, the employee can easily find it just by looking for a chicken sandwich on the screen. That means it’s ideal for newer employees, but it also helps shave time off all transactions. Appetize also leverages an “automatic offline mode” that ensures orders aren’t missed if the network is temporarily down, or a tablet that is being used to order is out of range.
These features make Appetize ideal for operators as they navigate the latest challenges of the pandemic. For example, employees can come out with a tablet and take orders from any car in a crowded drive-thru lane without the worry of losing connectivity—the order that is placed arrives on a kitchen monitor as soon as it is entered. And because the POS system is a cloud-based, systemwide platform, it means things like LTOs can be added to the software across an entire brand in real time.
The biggest challenge for operators right now is that they don’t know what quick-service transactions are going to look like two weeks, two months, or two years down the road. But the key, Whitney says, is to ensure you have technology in place that is nimble enough to be able to handle whatever comes next.
“You’re seeing more and more brands push forward with having multiple lanes in their drive thru dedicated to different types of off-premises ordering,” Whitney says. “That’s not going away, it’s here to stay. But the largest brands are finding that the systems and infrastructure you’re going to have in different markets to make that work is probably going to look a little bit different—what works in South Florida might not work in South Dakota. So you need that brandwide platform that is adaptable, can support their capability to serve that market and still fully keep the brand alive—that’s what we do, by providing intuitive software that can be easily updated and configured for whatever it is your brand is trying to achieve.”
To find out how you can optimize your POS system for whatever comes next, visit the Appetize website.
