Ever wonder what all the buzz was about surrounding all these newfangled payment types like Apple Pay, EMV, Door Dash, and others? Are you confused about what that means for your business and what you need to do about it?

If you’ve ordered anything at your local coffee shop, you’ll notice people in line paying so many different ways. Credit card, gift card, mobile payments, apps, cash and on and on! There are so many options out there today, it can be overwhelming for restaurateurs. We’re going to take a moment today to break down the high-level payment security options that funnel into the heartbeat of your brand. Security needs to be number one.  Making a small investment in technology can often make a big difference in net profits.

Point of Sale is, PCI (payment security standards), and the way people are paying is changing. Mobile payments have exploded because of the dependency on our phones, tablets and watches. Technology has lent itself to the emergence of these point of sale payments. We’re going to cover the changing landscape and how your business can adapt to thrive in the climate.

Point of Sale

There is exponential change in consumer behavior and in the technology that consumers use, demanding technology adaptation from retailers and restaurateurs over the past decade. Nowadays buzz words like cloud-based point of sale and guest-facing tablets permeate restaurant discussions and become the way of the world and there is a technology solution to aid with every task.

Cloud based payments

There are a few different types of mobile payment solutions. First, there are standalone type apps like Level Up, Tabbed Out and My Check – these integrate with your existing POS system. For larger restaurants, your will often see totally integrated payment within their own app (such as Chickfila, McDonalds and Taco Bell). For smaller restaurateurs, integrating a third party payment application can help you save costs and still offer secure alternate payment options.

What are the benefits of mobile payment?

With mobile payments where a customer has downloaded your app, the benefits are huge. For starters, you know this customer is a repeat customer and will be back, having loyalty programs allows you to have access to a wealth of information about them.

Security of their data – you know who this person is, they are a regular.

You’ve got them logged in via their phone, and you know they were there via GPS signal. The chargebacks with these types of mobile payments are next to nothing, so the financial benefit is huge.

Customers can control their own experience, pay when they want to, and leave when they want to – they don’t have to wait on busy servers or tabs to be compiled.

Applications: Door-Dash, UberEATS and Others

App based applications such as Door Dash, Uber Eats, or any of these different caviar solutions based payment applications are continuing to make their way to market. These solutions can allow you to build your business relationship offline, with delivery services.

With the implementation of these solutions, restaurateurs are seeing increased revenue, guests are ordering more and owners are seeing higher margins, increased sales, and more open tables in their restaurants.

PayPal, Apple Pay, Bit coin, Google Wallet

Take a look at your restaurant brand differentiators. What kind of payments fit your customers? Is your brand offering multiple payment options, in ways your customers want to pay? Ask the right questions of your customers, and find the way to the most successful payment options for your brand.

Road Map

Start with the fundamentals: become PCI compliant, educate yourself. Figure out from your bank what options you have for EMV transactions and become EMV Compliant. Then look at brand differentiators that you can implement within your solutions.

Do you know what your customers’ needs and wants are? Are you able to deliver on your consumer’s needs?

Once you select the right solution(s) for your brand it’s a matter of training of your team, and educating them with the why and the how. Giving your staff the tools so they need is imperative to both their success and your success. This is an ever-changing process, but those safeguards from the external threats need to be addressed first. New integrations need to be safeguarded and systems put in place for fraud prevention. We recommend PCISecurityStadard.org to better help you equip your business to deal with compliance and security.

You can check out their podcast here.