A few of the best practices in restaurant POS systems - boosting sales and reducing chargebacks

Sept. 1, 2009 - PRLog -- A few of the best practices in restaurant point of sale systems - boosting sales and eliminating chargebacks

Increasing Profits

As of today, every cent counts and adding them to your bottom line is possible in the middle of economic crisis. Here are a few steps that will increase your profits, by boosting your sales, reducing debit card fees and expenses, and most of all block theft.

In the food service industry, if you're running a restaurant point of sale system then this tips can greatly help you grow your business!

Checks

Checks may not may not seem appealing to younger customers, but their still widely used especially among older customers. So if you have not been accepting checks, start soon. There’s equipment that will scan the check as quickly as a credit card, measure them against a nationwide database of bad check writers, transfers the money to your account electronically, and guarantee you receive your funds within a few days. In addition, the cost is typically lower than for credit cards and could add 10-15 percent to sales—and could even be more if seniors make up the majority of your customers.

Accept all Cards

Already accepting Visa and MasterCards?Consider accepting other credit cards besides Visa and MasterCard. What about Discover and American Express? Particularly, the latter accompanies larger transactions in general. You might have felt hesitated because of the fee, but reconsider—a 1% difference may not look worthy of consideration for you, and because American Express transactions are often larger than those of other cards, you’ll make it up in gross profit. Furthermore, if you’re known for accepting all forms of credit and debit cards, customers would probably be more likely to come back and shop some more.

Do Your Research

Many vendors think their fees are 1.69% plus an additional $.19 because that’s their qualified rate on a tiered pricing program. Though fewer than 20 of 100 transactions receives low qualified rate and all the rest downgrade and cost one, two, or even three percent. By researching for alternate programs that offer different interchange rates might just help you out in saving more.

Insist on Understandable Statements

You and your bookkeeper don't have to scratch your heads over a complex credit card statement that just doesn’t fit. A few companies have made extraordinary efforts to simplify these reports. You should be able to come into terms with your statement and rates without exceeding 15 minutes.

Get Reports Over The Internet

The post office is slow, don't wait any longer for them to deliver you a letter of disputing a charge. Using the internet, you will know within 24 hours, allowing you to aggressively defend against chargebacks. This type of quick action will increase your success rates and reduce your losses.

No need to scratch your head over complex credit card statements and for your bookkeeper as well.

Use the Card Validation Value and Address Verification System. They are highly effective fraud screens proven to reduce losses, and by using them correctly, you obtain the lowest possible rate for discounts.

One more thing, you need to avoid hackers by being PCI compliant. Hackers can cause merchants mammoth of fines, and drive them out of business. It's always a good time, so you don’t get caught napping.

How To Lessen Chargebacks

If you run an online or phone ordering business, it's always a great idea to implement the “Verified by Visa” or “MasterCard Secure Code” plug-in on your web site. This helps eliminate cardholder nonauthorization chargebacks. Liability for these chargebacks will be shifted away from you to the issuing card bank, and you qualify for the lowest discount rate available. By this simple step, you could possibly eliminate up to 80% of all chargebacks and increase your profits.

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With over 20 years of restaurant point of sale experience and helping businesses in the food-service industry nationwide increase their efficiency and bottom-line profits, the author of this article is the VP of Customer Relations at POS-For-Restaurants.com.

You may visit http://www.pos-for-restaurants.com for further understanding of how our national network of restaurant point of sale professionals can help your business achieve greater success in these difficult economic times.

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