Bar management: Improving operations with your bar POS system

Faster order processing

Speedy service and effective order management are vital for busy bars to be successful. Faster drink delivery can result in more drink orders, happier customers, and less stress on bartenders. Here’s how effective point-of-sale-systems for bars can help improve order processing speed.

• Streamline drink and food orders: A good POS system can keep track of all of your orders, in the sequence they were placed, all in one dashboard. Bar POS software can help you see which food orders are being worked on, whose drinks still need to be made, and which customers ordered which menu items. This saves a lot of time and hassle for your busy bartenders.
• Reduce waiting time for customers: Bar owners know the negative impact of keeping customers waiting. It can create a ripple effect that results in lost customers and decreased sentiment for your business. Customers who planned to order food or more drinks may leave and take their business elsewhere. With a bar point-of-sale system, you can stay organized and prioritize orders as they come in to deliver them more quickly.
• Minimize order errors: With bar POS software, your bartenders can input orders in real time, then repeat back an order before confirming it. Compared to writing down orders, or going from customer to customer and trying to remember each order, a convenient POS system simplifies ordering and increases accuracy.
• Enhance the efficiency of bartenders: When bartenders can quickly and accurately enter in orders and close out checks, that helps them be more efficient and provide better customer service, which can help increase loyalty for your bar business.

Plus, with faster order processing, bartenders can increase the volume of drinks they sell. It speeds up the whole bar experience, including the amount of drinks and food customers can order each visit, which can translate into more revenue for your bar.

Streamlined inventory management

Inventory management can take up lots of time and resources, especially when it’s not managed accurately. Bad inventory management can cost your business in wasted supplies or decreased customer satisfaction when you’re out of products. The following are some ways a bar POS system can help improve inventory management:

• Real-time tracking of stock: As customers place orders and your bar staff fulfills them, POS inventory management software can automatically track your stock and show you when you’re low on certain items. This provides more visibility for your team, so items can get replenished more quickly.
• Automated reordering processes: You can also use inventory management features in a POS that connect to vendors, distributors, and wholesalers to automate reorders of stock that’s low or out. You can set a predetermined minimum to trigger reordering to the right vendor.
• Enhanced cost control: Proper stocking with the help of a POS can help you control bar supply costs. You’ll be able to time your orders, so you have fresh items when you need them. You can also use inventory management software to prevent over-ordering, so supplies don’t go bad and go to waste.

Inventory management software can also help you reduce the risk of manual errors when using spreadsheets. This can further help you protect your bar budget, save on labor costs, and free up your resources for better use.

Happy hour marketing and management

Happy hours can help draw new people into your bar or restaurant, increase loyalty for your business, and improve revenue by introducing guests to new drinks and food specials. With your bar POS system, you can improve happy hour offerings and maintain accuracy during busy times. Below are some ways a bar POS can create an effective happy hour.

• Customize a happy hour promotion: Look for bar apps like the Happy Hour app, which lets you manage discounts of various item categories based on specific days and times each week. This makes it easy to customize happy hour specials for bartenders to key in, without having to manually create and manage promotions each time.
• Track the success of happy hour deals: Once you’ve input happy hour specials into a POS, you can use data tracking to view performance. Insights like these help you refine your happy hour strategy, so you can continually improve sales and deliver better offerings to customers.
• Maximize revenue during off-peak hours: With happy hours integrated into your menu and POS system, you can attract customers and drive sales during off-peak hours. Use your POS data to identify which days and times need a boost, and evolve your happy hour strategy based on that data.

Sales insights from your POS system can help give you an advantage over competitors that aren’t tracking and analyzing their data. You can see sales strategy results in real time and adjust your tactics to improve what you provide to customers.

Personalized customer experience

You can use your bar POS system to help improve the individual experience every customer gets at your bar. With each purchase, you can track individual customer data and use their purchase history to provide better customer service and improve loyalty to your bar. The following features can help.

• Customer database and CRM integration: If your POS can integrate with your customer relationship management (CRM) tools, you can gather and store more customer data with every transaction. This can help you discover your most loyal customers and show you what items they’re most likely to purchase, which can inform your overall bar or restaurant strategy.
• Customer preferences and purchase history tracking: CRM integration gives your staff more data for each customer, so bartenders can learn what customers’ preferred menu items are. That helps your staff anticipate customer needs and deliver exceptional service through suggestive selling.
• Tailored recommendations and promotions: With a history of customer purchases, you can deliver personalized offers and messaging to customers. You might send email promotions with coupons for customers’ favorite drinks, for example, or create new menu items based on the most popular sellers.

Your POS system can help with building customer loyalty by enabling your staff to give customers more of what they want, when they want it. Bartenders can use suggestive selling based on past purchases. Your bar can send or offer personalized promotions based on order history. You can make each customer feel special and let them know you value their business, which can help make them more likely to keep coming back.

Enhanced employee efficiency

POS technology can help speed up efficiency and decrease errors at your bar. You can use an effective POS system to boost employee morale, since they’ll be able to do their jobs more efficiently, improve customer satisfaction, sell more menu items, and increase their sales and tips.

• Reduce manual tasks and errors: Inputting orders into a POS system provides a clear view of what needs to be attended to at your bar. Your staff can see orders in terms of priority and get each order right, with quick access to all customer orders in one place.
• Streamline reporting and accounting: Bartenders and servers who need to organize their orders for shift reports can do so easily with a bar POS system. A POS system makes it easy to track sales, tips, voids, and other features in a central location.
• Increase staff satisfaction: A simple and easy-to-use POS system can help staff do everything they need to do more effectively. Your team can make connections with customers, improve the accuracy of order deliveries, and provide speedier service. This can improve customer satisfaction and bring more guests into your bar, which can mean more business and more earning opportunities for your staff.

A study of 1,000 American workers found 80% of employees get frustrated with outdated technology on the job. You can help improve staff satisfaction, retention, and referrals by implementing user-friendly POS technology at your bar.

Safety, security, and compliance

POS systems can also help you protect your bar from security and compliance issues. A POS system can help you safeguard your finances, improve safety for staff, and boost customer confidence when you use secure systems. Here’s how POS technology can help improve your bar security:

• Secure payment processing, data protection, and customer privacy: A trusted POS system combined with the proper payment acceptance processes that meet Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards can help protect your customer data and the data of your business. By using advanced security methods like encryption and tokenization, this helps minimize the risk of bad actors gaining access to data during and after transactions. Maintaining PCI compliance can help improve customer sentiment and help protect your business.
• Alcohol regulation compliance: You can also use a POS with an age verification integration to validate identification to help minimize the risk of serving underage guests. Complying with the legal requirements for serving alcohol can help keep your bar or restaurant in business and out of scope with law enforcement.
• Cashless options: Some bars choose to go cashless. This can eliminate the burden on your staff from having to manage cash that could be stolen or that could make your bar a target for theft. Having less cash on-hand, in general, can help minimize vulnerabilities for your bar or restaurant.

Choosing the right POS system for your bar

When you’re considering a POS system for your bar, it’s helpful to get a free POS demonstration for the options you’re considering. You’ll want to make sure your POS system does the following:

• Allows you to customize menu and happy hour offers
• Integrates with the technology you already rely on in your bar operations
• Meets your budget

Clover provides bar POS software that helps improve order accuracy, saves time for staff and customers, and provides your team with valuable insights that can help you scale your business.

Why wait? Get started with a Clover bar POS system today to elevate your business.

Editorial Team

Customer service, Full Service Restaurants (FSR), Inventory, Loyalty, Payments & processing, Run your business

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