The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation within the restaurant industry, creating a new operating landscape. For brands to achieve exceptional frictionless service, they must constantly meet customer demands while also operating efficiently to overcome macroeconomic pressures. Despite the challenging backdrop, the restaurant industry is poised for continued growth in 2023 and brands continue to embrace technology to stay ahead.
In fact, a recent NRN survey found that 92% of operators will likely invest in new solutions this year. Now more than ever, restaurant brands need a nimble and battle-tested POS partner that can reliably build, adapt, and scale with them to drive growth. When looking for a POS system, it is crucial for restaurants to choose a partner that can roll-out and implement the POS seamlessly at-scale, to help guarantee continued growth of locations, channels, and omnichannel technologies.
Although grand aspirations are built during the customer’s POS selection process, many providers fall short during implementation. It is an inherently complex and disruptive process that impacts operations, employees, and most importantly, the guest experience at every store across hundreds of locations. This in turn has implications for restaurant footfall and sales.
Key Considerations for Choosing a POS Provider
It is important for brands to select a partner that will help them execute at scale from Day 1. Ideally, brands should seek a provider with proven readiness, expert management capabilities, and flexibility to support growth.
Proven Enterprise Readiness
For growing brands, enterprise readiness is key. It is important for brands to select a provider with deep experience, knowledge, and understanding of the complexities and risks attached with scaling restaurant operations. The ideal provider should have a well-developed toolkit of processes, planning, and strong vendor relationships to prevent or neutralize any issues that could arise.
Expert End-to-End Management
Choosing a provider that can manage the entire process – from deployment to franchise onboarding to post-go live onsite support – is also important to minimize finger-pointing. Working with a partner offering a dedicated franchise management team that can create custom solutions to drive the best outcome for franchisees, will better guarantee success. Attention at the franchise level will free restaurant leaders from roll-out management tasks and enable them to stay focused on strategy and growth.
Flexibility and freedom of choice
In today’s dynamic environment, flexibility is foundational to success. Deploying a purposefully designed, flexible platform that brands can build on to accommodate change is crucial. A platform that is built using an API-first approach will not only enable you to add partners and solutions as needed but also will enable agility and success in today’s environment.
PAR Brink POS is the cloud-based POS system that delivers on all these considerations, providing customers with unrivaled expertise, resources, and flexibility to elevate their game and drive growth:
- For the past 40 years, Brink POS has been deployed in 20k multi-unit chain locations, doubled active locations over the last two years, and managed installations for over 50% of top-tier QSR and Fast Casual US restaurant chains. Their track record also includes 99% on-time opening rates, even with an incredible volume of 400+ installation events per month.
- A team of industry experts and project managers coordinates all stakeholders and variables across hundreds of locations. A national pool of 200+ experienced techs across 50 states and 24/7/365 in-house support delivers localized coverage and personalized value to customers.
- A leading ecosystem of 250+ integrations and unified best-in-class solutions including payments, loyalty, online ordering, and back office simplifies operations and ensures future-readiness.
The Customer Take
Many restaurant leaders are paying attention to these considerations as they select POS solutions. When searching for a new POS system, Zaxby’s wanted a partner who would ensure a smooth transition to new systems and had the ability to scale with the brand. “[PAR] has really put a nice wrapper of service and support around that to match the enterprise use case. And the fact that the technology just happened to again, kind of fit within that sweet spot of cloud engineering integrated out of the gate just made it all the better,” stated Mike Nettles, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Zaxby’s.
In another example, Tom’s Watch Bar was looking to open at least 5 locations in 2023. They sought a new POS platform that could easily scale up operations without adding technical hurdles and impacting the quality of service. With Brink POS, Tom’s Watch Bar’s team never missed a beat. “Considering the brand’s growth aspirations, the cloud-based Brink POS makes it the ideal centerpiece in a standard tech stack that will help the IT team and [our operators] equip future locations more easily,” said Dan Doyle, Director of Technology at Tom’s Watch Bar.
Fresh Kitchen, a modern fast casual dining concept, similarly looked for a cloud-based POS with an open API and large integration ecosystem that could be deployed quickly, at-scale, without compromising quality. Fresh Kitchen chose PAR Brink POS because, “we wanted to ensure that the system was always at the forefront of integrations with loyalty solutions and third parties. One that offered multiple levels of team members’ security and has a very stable platform,” said Daniel Meretsky, VP and Head of Technology
Interested in a POS that enables growth? Learn more about PAR Brink POS or request a demo today!
