1. Who prepares your menu? Preparing a menu for a restaurant POS system can be the most frustrating part installing a system. There is no easy way especially if you have never done it before. It involves menu items, prices, optional and forced descriptors, happy hour, etc. for the first time can be a long and frustrating task. It involves a lot more than just entering the menu item and price. Some sellers will prepare your menu. To use a gauge, ask how much it would cost to prepare a menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner that contains about 700 drink and food items with forced and optional descriptors. Estimates will run from $300.00 to $500.00. See if you can find a vendor that prepares the menu as part of the advertized price.
2. Who answers the phone when you have a problem? Is the company so big that you get a different person every time to answer technical questions? There is nothing more irritating then having to repeat your problem over and over to different technical people. Do they assign a tech person to you so you talk to the same person each time?
3. Does the seller do any pre-shipment personalized services for the buyer?
This is a tricky area because there can be so many Levels-Of-Service (LOF). It is important when attempting to compare prices among POS systems.
Some vendors will install your menu and it can be included in the advertised price or cost an extra $300.00 to $500.00 Make sure they are going to do your entire menu including forced and optional descriptors and not just an outline of your menu and then you need to fill in the blanks.
Some sellers install the POS software into the computers.Some sellers open the printer boxes, configure the printers, set the dip switches, install the printer drivers, and connect the printers to the computer and test the system.
Some sellers provide free technical support and other charge a monthly fee or a per minute charge which can cost up to $120.00 per hour.
Some sellers provide a pre-ship program which customizes the software according to your restaurant's environment.
William J. Miller is president of Ursa Major which designs and sells restaurant point of sales (POS) on the internet. His website is http://www.poscheap.com/ and phone number is 585 872 3451
Prices range from $649 to $35199,00 for a 3 terminal systems for equipment, software, training. We even install your menu and provide free lifetime support.
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