Mobile, self service and social media are trending across the hospitality industry as restaurateurs and hoteliers consider them must haves for their next point-of-sale (POS) investment. Meanwhile digital signage is being flagged as a technology that shouldn’t be forgotten in this category.

According to Hospitality Technology’s annual POS Software Trends Report, the key business drivers pushing hospitality venues to upgrade their POS are to deliver: mobile POS, new payment options and personalised guest promotions. Mobile phone integration was a key requirement followed by tablet integration, mobile wallet integration, and table side POS for ordering and/or payment.

Mobile
Mobile, order taking and payments that are managed by staff on single-user devices are working their way into restaurant environments, replacing the older multi-user, static POS. In addition to this, mobile, self-ordering managed by customers using a smart phone or tablet is increasingly being favoured as the more cost effective option. Customers are able to browse menus and place orders providing all the benefits of self-ordering, but with lower technology investment costs.

A great example of this is the Flypay app, a new, waiter-less payment solution used by restaurants like Wahaca and Burrito Mama, that has been designed to improve customer experience. It cuts bill delays, boosts floor staff efficiency and lowers costs. Using the app diners can pay in under 60 seconds via their smart phone to check, split and pay their bill; usually chip and pin payment takes about 10 minutes. They can also pay off specific items individually, or split the bill equally between friends. The Flypay system is entirely ‘waiter-less’ and retrieving the bill is instant via the use of QR codes and NFC tags. Wahaca is using the Flypay app as a speedy pay-at-table solution, while Burrito Mama is using Flypay within their customised order-ahead app.

Restaurant chain YO! Sushi recently raised service efficiency and improved the payment process for customers through a mobile payment solution. Restaurant waiting staff can now capture and track orders electronically, and also raise bills on the spot when requested by the customer. According to the mobile POS provider, Omnico: “This handheld device-based software puts full EPoS capabilities at staff’s fingertips. Order accuracy and efficiency have been boosted, the payment process transformed, and the YO! Sushi dining experience has gained a new service edge”.

Hoteliers however who are slower to adopt the technology, are advised by Richard Pemberton, ICT Director, Best Western Hotels GB, to sit up and take notice of mobile payments as well as m-commerce in order to make their websites more mobile payment friendly. Also, they are reminded that mobile payments can be linked with back-office tools such as a hotel’s property management system (PMS) or customer relationship management (CRM) system. By seeing a mobile customer’s preferences they can tailor towards them.

Recently though hotels have been considering the benefits of mobiles, which have the potential to be used as key cards and more. Via a hotel’s own app, customers could take advantage of: mobile room keys, room and floor selection, self check-out, and room control settings like the temperature. The app would also work for ordering room service, booking a treatment at the spa, or paying for a drink in the hotel bar.

Self service

Bars and restaurants are modernising their service methods through table-top POS used by customers for self-ordering. This allows for increased speed of service and enhanced guest experience, avoiding long waiting times.

For example, Pizza Hut is currently trialling an interactive table, created in partnership with its app partner Chaotic Moon Studios. Guests can build their pizza using a table-top touchscreen and see it take form, much like with car building tools. Guests will be able to select crust, sauce and cheese (half or whole), then add toppings. The entire menu will be available. While customers wait for their pizza at the interactive tables, they can play several retro games accessible from a screen that pops up after an order is placed. Pizza Huts is also looking into linking the table-top screens to customer’s smart phones via personal accounts, and enabling mobile wallet payment.

On a self service, customer entertainment note, in-room TV’s are struggling to keep up with high expectations from guests that are used to comprehensive, digital experiences as the norm. Instead hotel guests are seeking refuge from their own digital devices such as the tablet, and streaming or downloading content to keep themselves entertained. Here, the hotelier’s opportunity is to now join this private digital experience and improve it. How? By connecting individual devices to in-room TVs, so guests can self entertain, but on a flat screen as opposed to an iPad. According to Tim Butterworth, Independent Hotel Technology Professional, one of the hotels leading by example in this arena is the recently opened Palais Hansen Kempinski in Vienna who has installed ‘personal media network solutions’ in each of their rooms.  Guests can control their in-room TV from their iPad and enjoy a seamless, unified technology experience from arrival to departure.

Social media integration

Hospitality owners are fast recognising the flexibility of social media to integrate into many customer centric services. Online ordering, for example, can be linked with social media sites to let consumers move between sharing on social media and purchasing. Also consumers’ profiles can be seen by merchants who will not only recognise the consumer, but also get to know their marketing habits. For example, EatSmart, an online ordering tool used by sandwich bars, cafés, delis and contract caterers, also runs an efficient ordering system integrated with social media. It keeps customers up to date about daily deals and specials, etc, in an inexpensive and instant way.

Greene King, a public house chain, sees social media as a powerful business tool and is training its licensees to develop a stronger presence for their pubs. Focusing on the benefits of social media for communicating with customers, building loyalty and raising awareness, Green King hopes the training will enhance each pub’s relationship with its customers in order to grow the business.

Despite the recent up take of technology within the hospitality industry, businesses have struggled to find a balance between useful and invasive. Some hotels have concluded that social media tools and incentives that link to customers’ own devices can be portrayed in a negative way, and in doing so have been dropped all together. However, speaking in favour of a more controlled use of technology, Carson Booth, vice president global property technology, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, said that guests want a better way of being able to experience the world in a more personalised way. “Technology within the hospitality industry is a tool which should be used to deliver the right service to the right person.”

In support of social media, Randy Dearborn, MGM Resorts’ vice-president of multimedia and guest technology, integrates customer service with social media and uses it as a way to keep staff on their toes.  At the MGM Grand, he placed a Twitter feed on the video wall behind the reception which soon become a streaming tool for customer feedback: “Some guests used the Twitter feed to complain if they experienced bad customer service. Rather than take the Twitter wall down, we thought, ‘what better way to hold staff accountable?’,” he said.

Digital signage

Although the hype of digital signage may have passed, it is still considered another area not to be forgotten for its ability to be a real revenue driver. Randy Dearborn also is particularly excited about iPad menus. “With iPads in place for restaurant drink menus, Dearborn says he can increase pricing “with a flick of the switch”. This dynamic pricing is useful for when, say, a conference is in town and there are lots of delegates ready to spend with their corporate credit cards,” he argues. In addition, the digital data will help the F&B team to choose which wines to stock. “I can see how people choose their wine – we can see every click. We’ve got $17 million in wine inventory; now I can tell our buyers which ones to focus on, so we get bulk discounts, then we can drop prices,” he reasons.

In summary, Will Hawkley, director of KPMG’s Leisure Advisory Group, predicts that hospitality operators will soon look to five key areas for business improvement: social media and mobile apps, big data, mobile payments, wearable technologies and funding. He said: “Most of that change is being driven by technological advances. 70 years ago the average life span of a company in the S&P 500 index was 75 years, today that has fallen to 15 years and in 2025 the expected life span will be five years.  The winning companies of today could be losers very quickly if they fail to keep pace with the changes around them, no matter what industry or sector they are operating in.”

If you’re looking to invest in a new POS system for your hospitality environment, why not contact us for a free quote to get you started.