The hospitality industry is steadily growing in its adoption of handheld device technology for point-of-sale (POS). At first glance, this adoption could be explained by reliable revenue increases resulting from the untethered POS. It’s not unlikely for properties to report 40%, and sometimes higher, growth during their busiest periods.
Today, more than 50% of food and beverage outlets list POS mobility as their top IT initiative in the next couple of years. It’s about serving more guests more efficiently. The increased revenue helps justify it, but it’s the easy deployment and offline functionality that help secure the decision.
New technologies, applications and integrations on a single tablet enable staff to address guest needs on a personal level. Rich, mobile POS combined with guest profile data arms staff with tools necessary to take guest service to all new levels.
New considerations for enhanced service – from understanding guest allergies and sensitivities, to suggesting menu items based on historical guest preferences – add up to unprecedented levels of care. Understanding what guests really want helps differentiate an exceptional experience from a mediocre one. The art of personalized attention is the result of guest profile data.
Guests want POS experiences that are fast, seamless and highly secure. An important initiative is secure payment hardware. This may require refreshing out-of-date hardware. Many PCI auditors advise using a validated P2PE (point-to-point encrypted) payment technology for all mag-stripe and NFC transitions. And a PCI-validated P2PE payment technology prevents card data from entering the POS altogether. With the data encrypted from the payment device to the gateway, hospitality operators benefit from a significantly reduced data breach risk.