Page 36 - GS190702

Education

Creating a hospitable can integrate purchases with consumer-pleasing features
such as coupons, promo codes and QR scans, and online
smart POS climate features like enabling customers to book appointments
and services, order products and track deliveries.

These all-in-one solutions can also improve business
operations with apps to improve customer loyalty,
manage inventory, know when promotions are likely to
be most successful and identify top performers in their
workforce. Merchant payment service providers can help
their hospitality customers understand how to enable
these features and put technology to work to ease ongoing
challenges.
Workforce management

By Nicky Koopman Employee turnover in the food and accommodations
AEVI sectors averages greater than 70 percent, according to
analyses of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Smart
he hospitality business can sometimes seem POS solutions can help business owners and managers
inhospitable for small to midsize business get a better grip on their workforce issues in a number of
(SMB) owners. Sales are always a challenge, ways:
T help is hard to find and retain, and there are • Ease of use: High employee turnover means
always new competitive threats to deal with. That's why constant retraining of staff on use of key business
merchants in this segment are eager to innovate around applications, whether it's a core POS system, table
payment services. management or tip settlement. Easy-to-use apps on
an easy-to-use device that is familiar as a smartphone
The hospitality industry spans a great variety of food or tablet can quickly ease new employees into the
and beverage establishments and accommodations. It flow and enhance productivity. Some apps provide
encompasses coffee shops, quick serve restaurants, fine training videos right on the device the employee
dining, hotels, hostels, and bed and breakfast venues. A will be using.
recent survey of 500 companies engaged in hospitality • Business insights: Reports on daily activity can
revealed that many want to innovate to stay competitive,
but some lack the wherewithal to do so. The survey, help managers and owners spot the most and least
valuable employees. That can be useful in assigning
conducted by PYMNTS in conjunction with AEVI,
illustrates a resource and information gap that merchant tasks to reward employees who please customers
and generate the most revenue.
payment solutions providers should be aiming to fill.
• Labor management: Apps can manage employee
While larger businesses in these segments have been clock in and clock out to make sure employees are
quick to adopt POS solutions with integrated apps, smaller working their assigned shifts, manage time-off
merchants are lagging behind. But that lag is not due to requests, and export data to payroll systems and
lack of interest: among respondents with annual revenue services.
of $250,000 or less, 40.2 percent indicated they had not
previously heard of the features available with smart POS Loyalty management
systems, but are interested in putting them to use. There's nothing like a happy, repeat customer when it comes

Putting smart POS to work to building revenue streams. But the PYMNTS survey
indicates merchants in both food and accommodation
Merchants in the hospitality industry generally are offer relatively few in-store features, including scannable
dealing with savvy consumers who are technology aware codes, coupons, promotional codes and delivery options.
and eager to take advantage of features that provide them Loyalty programs that capture customer information
with an edge ‒ whether it's a choice reservation, loyalty at the POI can be instrumental in creating promotions
redemption or spotting the latest trends through reviews. and rewards and determining what is most successful at
Business owners in this industry who are not in step generating repeat business.
with their consumers can quickly find customer traffic
declining without realizing the market has moved on Diners and travelers are increasingly adept at using their
beyond them. personal devices to find good deals and locales. When a
B&B or restaurant provides a user-friendly interface to
Smart POS solutions can transform the traditional merchant sign up for loyalty promotions, consumers are more likely
countertop into a dynamic point of interaction (POI) that to use that than fill out a postcard.

36