Surely you’ve seen them all over the place. Self-checkout lines at the grocery store, the movie theater, and now even McDonalds. With growth expected to exceed 8% through 2024, it’s safe to say self-checkout point of sale systems aren’t going anywhere.
But what are the true benefits your customers receive by using your restaurant POS system instead of having the waitress run the bill?
Let’s take a look.
1. Shorter Lines
If you have a self-checkout POS system in the grocery store you manage, it’s almost guaranteed those with small amounts of items will give in and check themselves out in order to avoid long lines filled with people who have carts full of groceries.
People may not always like to check their own groceries, but they definitely hate waiting in line more.
2. Increased Privacy
When McDonalds introduced the self-service POS systems in their stores in 2004 as an experiment, they noticed people upsized their meals a whopping 30 percent more on average. And, they came to the conclusion that it was because people ordering their own food, and subsequently paying for it without a cashier helping them, led to less shame when it came to ordering large amounts of food.
Having self-checkout POS systems give people the privacy to buy items that are personal, order the food they want, and pay the money they wish to waste, without feeling judged.
3. Ease of Use
Most people find that using self-service POS systems at places like Chilis or Walmart are easy to use. Not to mention, many people like not having to interact with sometimes cranky (and often underpaid) cashiers, even if they run into a few issues every now and then checking themselves out.
And, while some people feel that having to do the work a paid employee should be doing (such as running a credit card or bagging groceries) they are still more apt to use the simple self-checkout POS systems because they’re easy to use, quick, and efficient.
In the end, the cost effectiveness businesses are seeing with these unique POS strategies, as well as the fact that people are seemingly okay with using self-service POS systems, means that they’re likely here to stay.
With lower overhead costs, less manpower to employ, and more satisfied customers happy to check themselves out at the theater, restaurant, or even the grocery store, it just means that technology once again wins.
And what does this mean for you?
As a business owner in an industry that has the opportunity to introduce self-checkout POS systems, this means more chances to save money, lower costs, and make the customer do the work for you.