3 Features of Mobile Payments Your Restaurant POS Needs
Mobile payments are becoming more popular in restaurants, especially within the last year. You may have already implemented new options for customers to pay, or perhaps you’re now enhancing your business with new payment options. No matter where you are in the integration process, you need to consider why you’re adding this new option and how it can benefit you and your customers. Don’t jump on the mobile payment bandwagon without considering the three most important features of mobile payments.
Enhanced Customer Convenience
As of 2021, many of the restaurants your customers visit most often have implemented some form of mobile payment. Because mobile payments helped restaurants to stay open while following pandemic guidelines, they became much more popular–even common among the quick-service and fast-casual giants across the country. Now that customers are used to this option, they’ve come to expect it.
When social distancing is no longer a factor, customer convenience will always remain key. Mobile payments allow customers to have more influence over their own experience. Firstly, they can pay the way that they prefer when you offer them options. Some customers prefer to use mobile payments like ApplePay and will appreciate the opportunity to choose it. Secondly, paying by mobile usually speeds up the process of taking care of their check. Putting this in their hands allows customers to leave when they want to rather than waiting on the check, the change, or anything else.
It’s important to note that many customers genuinely prefer mobile options. Even when other choices are available, 20 percent of smartphone-equipped consumers are regularly using a mobile app to pay for meals. Another 39 percent said that they would choose mobile if the option were available. It’s not just a handful of people who want this option; adapt to customer expectations and impress them with ultimate convenience.
Contactless Methods Ensure Safety
Regardless of whether your restaurant is open for business, free of restrictions, your customers may still have hesitancy in returning to indoor dining. It’s hard to tell for how long these hesitations may persist since current pandemic information continues to evolve. In order to increase your potential customer base, your restaurant needs to establish some longer-term safety measures. As previously noted, one way of making your customers feel safer is by offering contactless options like mobile payments. Instead of passing credit cards or cash (along with the associated germs) back and forth, QR codes can be implemented for customers to pay using their own device.
With vaccines rolling out and the pandemic nearly behind us, it’s easy to assume this particular feature isn’t all that important. Don’t underestimate the impact the last year has made on your customers! Even if there isn’t another virus around the corner, your diners are much more likely to take precautions during cold and flu seasons for years to come. Do what you can to ensure they’re focused on your food, not germ transmission.
Increased Operational Efficiency
When your staff is preoccupied with operational chaos, your customers are likely to notice. Free up your staff to focus on customer service instead of running back and forth with checks, payments, and receipts by implementing mobile payments. Allowing customers to order and pay at the table reduces the amount of touches the server needs to make at each table without reducing the quality of service. Even if a customer isn’t paying with their personal cell phone, handheld order and pay devices for the server allow for similar operational efficiencies. When you’re able to serve your customers the same high quality food in a shorter period of time, their satisfaction will rise–along with your revenue.
Before you decide what type of digital or mobile payments are best for your business, you need to consider your individual goals. A great place to start, though, is looking at ways to ensure that you’re capturing the widest possible potential customer base. Features of mobile payment options like safety, customer convenience, and operational efficiency are the most critical for business growth. Implementing new payment methods that have these features will ultimately reduce your waste–in both time and money–and increase your customer satisfaction.
Paradise POS allows restaurants to accept a wide variety of payments. Talk to us about your needs today!