For the longest time, most restaurant owners thought of their POS system as a fancy cash register. With technology becoming more advanced, many innovations being developed today are becoming standard features within the POS industry.

1. Wireless Hand Held POS Devices. The newest generation of wireless restaurant hand held POS devices allow your servers greater freedom to take orders as well as collect payment without leaving the customer. Waiters can present your daily specials to your customers on the spot, easily process credit cards from one table to the next, send a bread request for table 37 to the kitchen, and add walk-ins to the waiting list – right from the handheld device. By this, your servers will be able to spend more time interacting and keeping your customers happy.

2. “Sticky” Paper Printers. One of the newest invention for POS systems are the printers that uses “sticky” paper. This type of printer uses paper that is similar to a Post-It that allows you to reposition the receipt over and over again. The paper can be printed to whatever length you need, and then stick to any surface where it will remain until it is removed and, even, placed elsewhere. With these printers, the paper can stay with the order through the entire order process. The new paper is also liner-free eliminating the need to manage non-recyclable waste and can be easily removed and restuck to a different surface – again and again, whenever you want. You can use it for all orders, exceptions, specials, as bag tags or any combination.

3. Digital Menu Board/Signage. Your POS system can be used to deliver media rich content, using video, audio and pictures. Many POS bundles have fully integrated and seamless digital menu board software that allow you to create content using the same database. Menu pages, titles, menu items and prices can all be interlaced with high-quality multimedia to give your restaurant menu board that gives both a dramatic and interactive display without having to buy addtional components.

With most digital menu boards, you can easily do menu changes, change scheduled price, daily specials and continually update it throughout the day by sending content to be displayed from the store database in real-time.

4. Self-Service or interactive Kiosk. Ever thought about getting a customer self-service kiosk for your business’ restaurant POS solutions? A self-service kiosk or interactive kiosk, first came to prominence with the photo kiosk machines from Kodak — from wikipedia. Later adopted by consumers who mixed it with advanced technologies such as touch-screens monitors. This very useful piece of device, a self-service hardware combined with a self-service software, can be used to cut down on labor costs and speed up the ordering process. Aside from that, most POS packages can enhance the customer’s user experience even more, using sound and motion graphics, to engage your customer.

5. Cell Phone Paging. Some restaurants are selecting to take the more modern approach by paging customers’ personal cell phones. This can be done by allowing your host or hostess take the customer’s cell phone number and list it into their cell phone paging device. And when their table is ready, the paging system calls the cell phone with an automated voice message to notify the guest to report to the front of the restaurant so they can be seated. This is a very convenient way for guests who want to roam around farther than common pagers will allow and there is no fear of the customer walking away with your pager.

These tips are just the appetizer when is comes to knowing your restaurant POS equipment. Watch out for more…

Michael Tash is Vice President of Customer Relations at POS-for-Restaurants.com — helping you use your technology to be more efficient and more profitable with over 20 years of its restaurant experience.