Learn about best POS systems available for your food truck business that benefit the customer and employee experience.
In the fast-paced food truck business, taking customer payments quickly can be the difference between a successful trading day and a squandered one. Relying on traditional cash registers to take these payments at pace can sometimes result in mechanical faults, which end up costing you important sales. With modern innovations to POS in the hospitality sector, you may be wondering, what is the best POS system for my food truck? There are plenty of brilliant ones, but only you can choose the option which best suits your business. Sit tight as we explore each option, from TouchBistro to Square POS and Toast POS. We compare POS systems to help you take faster payments and optimise daily business operations. Great question. The hospitality buzz-word POS stands for a point of sale (or POS) system. A POS system for a food truck is specially designed to accommodate the speed and accuracy required when taking mobile order payments from customers on-the-go. By nature, food truck POS systems need to be set up for payment flexibility. Beyond flexibility and affordability, here’s what you should consider before you decide on the best POS system for your food truck: Is it able to process multiple payment types… Debit, credit, cash, gift card, refunds, split group payments, tipping, online ordering — food truck POS systems really do have to be prepared for any type of transaction. When customer cravings strike, you want to be able to deliver the moment of lip-smacking goodness they’ve been waiting for, not be fumbling with the card machine error code…. and accept different currencies? Tourists often flock to food trucks for a taste of authentic local food, meaning your POS provider needs to empower you by being ready to accept a diverse range of currencies. Can it give me profitable insight into my customer data? Building a relationship with your regulars encourages word-of-mouth marketing, and can lead to a significant increase in sales. A quality POS system will summarise customer spending behaviour into helpful reports, and allow you to see who could benefit from regular rewards from a customer loyalty scheme. It may even help you build other repeat orders from would-be one-off customers. For example, if you set your POS system to flag up when a customer spends X amount, and notice a local business has placed a large lunch order, offering them a subscription discount may lead to a consistent spike in weekly sales. Will it help me manage my inventory? Fortunately, alerts for low product levels and notifications for stock rotation are common in hospitality POS software. Whichever POS provider you choose, make sure they offer helpful inventory features to give your food truck a competitive edge. Do I actually have space for it? With less space than most commercial kitchens, ensuring the POS hardware your provider offers actually fits comfortably in your food truck is a must. Most food truck POS providers offer mobile POS systems that can be used across phones, tablets and desktop devices. This is especially helpful if you’re used to using an iPad POS system, or have multiple food trucks you serve from and move between. How easy is it to set up, and how much follow-up support do I get? When you shift truck locations regularly, stay on your feet in a small workspace, and switch between every role from line cook to business owner, the last thing you need is a complicated setup process. Your POS system should be straightforward to get started with, and even easier to teach to colleagues. Check to see if your POS provider has reliable customer support (available as and when you’ll need it in your time zone), online training guides for reference, or account management. Most POS companies have one or a combination of these things as standard, plus options such as website live chat or in-app support. Are you looking to upgrade your point of sale to a modern POS system and benefit from its modern features? Our retail experts and certified partners can help you find the best POS solution for your business, be it a restaurant, small business, or in general retail. To request a quote, just fill in the form below to start the process. It takes less than a minute. Here’s how it works: Will it work offline? There are few things more frustrating than spending the day preparing for a sales rush, only to be defeated by an internet outage at the last second. Luckily, with a POS offline mode from popular POS providers like Lightspeed POS, Erply POS and more, weak network connection is one less thing to be concerned about. POS offline mode empowers your team to keep taking safe, secure customer payments, even when your internet connection is weak or completely down. What else can it do for my business? Food truck POS systems offer all kinds of helpful and proactive business features you might not have even thought of. One of our favourites is the tax summary feature offered by TouchBistro POS as part of their audit reports. How does it work? By considering the fact that you may need to charge varying sales tax amounts depending on where your food truck is parked.
