What pain points were you trying to alleviate by installing a point of sale system at your pizzeria?

I ran my business with a cash register and payment card terminal. Besides slowing down service and not providing any reporting or insight, the staff had to write down each order and manually calculate totals, leaving a lot of room for error. I was looking for a POS system that would improve processes and offer operational efficiencies.

Were there certain features you were looking for in a restaurant POS?

I wanted to gain business insights and monitor employee activity. For example, if I leave the restaurant after the lunch rush, when I come back to close late in the evening, I want to see my sales and ensure the money from those sales is there. Additionally, I like the fact that a POS works as an employee timeclock. I can see at a glance how many hours any staff member worked to ensure I’m not overpaying for labor.

For the restaurant, I needed a counter service POS for patrons who pick up their orders, as well as a system that enabled table service for my dine-in customers. And being a pizzeria, we do a lot of delivery orders, too. I chose Exatouch POS in part because it helps me and my staff easily identify all the different types of orders and keep them organized. In terms of delivery orders specifically, I wanted a solution that would allow the staff to see customer information on the POS screen when someone calls in for a delivery. That way the address pops up on the screen, the staff can confirm it, and the calls and deliveries are much faster and smoother. Exatouch’s Caller ID integration is exactly what we needed!

Learn more about Extouch’s Caller ID feature. →

What business improvements have you seen since installing Exatouch POS?

Now that we have employee access cards for the staff, they must swipe in every time they enter an order and select the order type. There’s no more asking who took an order and if it’s for pickup, delivery, or dine-in. All that information is easily accessible in the POS. On a Friday night when we’re extremely busy, we used to have issues with not knowing who put in an order with the kitchen and having to ask every staff member in the middle of a rush. It was painful and time consuming, and there were orders no one claimed so we didn’t know what modifiers we’re needed if they weren’t written down, or if the orders should be packed for pickup or delivery, or plated for in-house service. I’m happy that we no longer have these problems. Overall customer service is better, orders are accurate, and I have insight into which staff members are ringing in the most sales.

With Exatouch’s customer database, I now also have the ability to see a customer’s purchase history. If they’re a frequent customer ordering several times a month, I’ll be sure to offer them a small discount or a free dessert as a token of our appreciation. Having this type of information at my fingertips allows me to provide great customer service and encourage repeat business.

“Having the type of information Exatouch offers at my fingertips allows me to provide great customer service and encourage repeat business.”

— Anibal, Owner of Frank’s Trattoria

Is managing your restaurant easier with Exatouch?

Yes, we have two stations—one in the front of the house and one in the back office. The back-office system enables me to keep an eye on sales and employee activity. I appreciate having accurate and concise reports available whenever I need them to get a full picture of what’s going on at the business, whether I’m onsite or not.

Plus, now that we have a POS, the team can serve customers faster and more accurately. On the phone, customers would place their orders and ask for the totals. Previously, we had to manually add up the totals, which takes time. Now, prices of all the inventory items are automatically built into the POS system, increasing accuracy, and staff members can give customers order totals instantly.

What was training like for Exatouch?

I appreciate that I can call Jim or Electronic Payments’ 24/7 technical support for help whenever I need it. At first, learning something new can be challenging, but we picked up the system pretty quickly. I also look forward to learning some of the more advanced features Exatouch offers like marketing to a customer database and pulling more of the automatic reports that are available to gain additional insights.

I’m also interested in learning more about tableside ordering and the pay-at-table feature. I think those could be really good at the restaurant and help the staff delight our customers.

Discover how a POS can help your staff delight customers and encourage repeat business. →

How has the team adapted to Exatouch?

They love having Exatouch! The system makes everything more clear—and it’s easy to build orders and the pricing is automatic. They used to have to remember to change prices of menu items between lunch and dinner service, but now everything is in the system. The staff doesn’t need to recall pricing, check the time to see when prices change, or add up totals. Also, any required modifiers are built into the system so servers can’t enter incomplete orders. With Exatouch, the accuracy of our orders and pricing has been a huge improvement.

“With Exatouch, the accuracy of our orders and pricing has been a huge improvement.”

— Anibal, Owner of Frank’s Trattoria