Most hospitality operators spend thousands on a point of sale system and then use it purely as a cash register. The data it generates every single service is one of the most valuable and underused assets in the business.
What your POS data can tell you
At a minimum your POS should be telling you your revenue by hour, your covers by day, your best and worst selling dishes, your average spend per cover and your table turn time. If you are not looking at all of these numbers at least weekly, you are making decisions without the information you have already paid for.
Use hourly data to build a better roster
Your POS data shows you exactly when your customers come in and how long they stay. Build your roster around that data rather than habit. If your covers drop off sharply at 2pm, your afternoon team should reflect that. If Friday dinner is consistently your biggest service, make sure you are not understaffed for it.
Use dish sales data for menu engineering
Your POS tells you exactly how many times every dish sold in any given period. Combine that with your recipe costing and you have everything you need to run a proper menu engineering analysis. The dishes selling most often are not always the ones making you the most money.
Track average spend per cover over time
This single number tells you whether your menu and service model are improving. If average spend is trending down, something has changed — your mix of customers, your upselling, your menu or your pricing. Your POS data will help you figure out which.
Set up weekly reporting
Most POS systems can generate a weekly summary report automatically. If yours can, set it up and block 30 minutes every Monday to review it. That habit alone will improve the decisions you make every week of the year.
If you want help setting up your POS data properly and using it to drive better decisions, talk to Pestle and Mortar.
About the Author
Wayne Farmer is the founder and chief consultant at Pestle and Mortar, Australia’s hands-on hospitality consultancy. With experience running hotel kitchens, boutique dining venues, and a successful catering business, Wayne has spent his career helping Australian restaurant, cafe, and catering operators build more profitable, better-run businesses. Learn more about Wayne and how Pestle and Mortar works.