Most restaurant owners approach POS selection wrong. They compare feature lists and prices, pick something that seems good enough, and hope for the best. That's not strategy—that's gambling.
A real POS strategy starts with your business goals and works backward to the technology that supports them. Here's how to think strategically about your point of sale system.
Define Your Goals
What are you actually trying to achieve? Not "get a POS"—that's a tactic. What business outcome do you want?
Be specific about your goals:
- Speed: "Reduce average transaction time by 30%"
- Control: "Know my actual vs. theoretical costs weekly"
- Growth: "Support online ordering that does 20% of revenue"
- Scale: "Add 2 more locations without adding admin staff"
- Freedom: "Run my business without being on-site every day"
These goals will drive every other decision. Without them, you're just shopping for shiny objects.
Assess Your Current State
Where are you now? What's working, what's broken, and what's the gap between current state and your goals?
Honest assessment includes:
- Current system pain points: What drives you crazy?
- Staff feedback: What do they complain about?
- Customer impact: Where does technology hurt the guest experience?
- Data gaps: What questions can't you answer today?
- Integration issues: What systems don't talk to each other?
Write down every frustration, every workaround, every "I wish it could..." comment. This becomes your requirements list and your way to measure if a new system actually solves your problems.
Map Your Requirements
Turn your goals and pain points into specific requirements—must-haves, nice-to-haves, and deal-breakers.
Categorize your requirements:
- Must-Have: Non-negotiable. System is disqualified without these.
- Important: Strongly preferred. Willing to compromise but reluctantly.
- Nice-to-Have: Would be great but not essential.
- Deal-Breaker: Features or characteristics that disqualify a system.
Be ruthless about what's actually a must-have. If everything is critical, nothing is. Focus on the 5-10 things that truly matter for YOUR operation.
Evaluate Options
Now—and only now—do you start looking at specific systems. Compare them against YOUR requirements, not generic feature lists.
Evaluation should include:
- Demo with YOUR scenarios: Not a canned demo—show me how to do MY workflow
- Reference checks: Talk to similar venues using the system
- Total cost analysis: Not just monthly fee—hardware, processing, add-ons, support
- Implementation plan: How long? Who's involved? What's the process?
- Support assessment: Call their support line before you buy. See how they respond.
Plan the Implementation
The best system in the world fails with bad implementation. Plan the transition carefully.
Implementation planning includes:
- Timeline: When will you switch? Avoid peak seasons.
- Data migration: What moves over? Menu, customers, historical data?
- Training plan: Who gets trained when? How much practice before go-live?
- Fallback plan: What if something goes wrong on day one?
- Success metrics: How will you know if the switch was worth it?
Measure and Optimize
After implementation, measure against your original goals. Then continuously optimize.
Post-implementation:
- 30-day review: What's working? What needs adjustment?
- 90-day review: Are we seeing the improvements we expected?
- Ongoing: Regular check-ins to ensure you're using all the features you're paying for
Common Strategic Mistakes
Avoid these traps:
- Buying for today only: Think 3-5 years ahead. Will this system grow with you?
- Ignoring total cost: The cheapest monthly fee often has the highest total cost.
- Skipping references: Never buy a POS without talking to current users.
- Underestimating training: Budget time and money for proper training.
- Not defining success: If you can't measure improvement, you won't know if you achieved it.
Restaurants that take a strategic approach to POS selection report 40% higher satisfaction with their systems and are 3x less likely to switch again within 3 years.
Need Help Building Your POS Strategy?
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