Today's cafe customers expect prompt efficient service and to do this you need an effective touchscreen cafe system

What touchscreen hardware should I use with my touch screen POS system?

For a cafe I recommend a touchscreen terminal which as the touch screen and the PC as one unit. These terminals are usually fanless, quiet and are resistant to spills

How many touchscreen do I need?

This depends on the volume of your cafe and how you want to manage your preparation areas. First if you have a high volume even if this is just over the lunch period then you may require 2 or more touch screen terminals.

The next questions is how you want to manage your orders.

The order docket approach
With this approach when an order is placed you have various thermal printer located at your preparation aras which print out the order. Your staff place these dockets in order and go about fulfilling the orders. This model has been in use well before touchscreen hardware and touch screen POS systems have been around and people manually wrote orders on a docket or pad.

The order screen approach
Rather than print out a order no a thermal print the orders are shown on a screen in your preparation araas and you store view this and fulfil the order. The benefit of this second approach is that the system can provide alert based on the time the order was placed, it can flash if the order has been waiting for certain perid of time, eveyone including the manager can see what is taking place. Basically this approach although it requires more touchscreen units can make you cafe process more efficient.

If you are a store that gets a rush of morning coffee orders and lunch orders then you need systems to ensure your staff have as much support to ensure they are efficient in their order preparation and management. Customers who have to wait will go down the road or around he corner. SO again the cost may be higher but the benefits may result in happy customers and a happy business owner who is making more money.

So lets exaplin the setup in more details to make you cafe more efficient with a touchscreen.

On the front counter you wil lhave 2 touchscreen terminals with your touch screen POS system.
At your coffee preparation areas you will have another touchscreen where you staff will prepare the orders
At your food preparation areas (1 or mroe loations) you will have another touchscreen.

As the orders are placed they will appear on these other touch screen with informaton on when the order was placed and the priority. YOur staff will be directed by the touch screen system on where to focus their energy. It is the intelligence of the system to direct you staff that will make your cafe more efficient.

For more information on running a cafe and touchscreen POS system stay tuned.

If you do not know what touch screen hardware to choose read on to find out more

When it comes to touch screen hardware the decision involves looking at

1. The usage and the environment for the touch screen

2. The type of warranty service you want 

3. Your budget

Number 1 what sort of evnironment will you be operating in. Does your retail encironment involve dust, dirt, liquids, food preparation or other preparation. The reason this is important as this determines your requirements in terms of the touch screen.

If the environment is harsh or their is a high proberbility of liquid spills or dirty fingers then you really need a robust, fanless touch screen unit. Most of these units also have different levels of spill resistant screens. Some screens with the correct seals can even take the can of coke or class of water poured directly over the touch screen. Now these units cost more but if you are running a restaruant kitchen, fast food outles or some industrial environment then you really have no other option.

If your environment is not as harsh you can consider less resistant touch screens which are lower in cost.

The other choice you have is if you want the touch screen and the PC as one unit or you want them seperated. The advantage of it being the one unit is that the space usage is very efficient. However a PC seperate from the touch screen unit can save on bench space as the screen is thinner than the touch and terminal combined and you can tuck the PC in under the counter.

What about warranty service?

Again this is where you get what you pay for. If you want good onsite warranty then you are going to pay more than for back to base. The length of the touch screen warranty will also affect the cost as well.

What is your budget for your touch screen?

Your budget is going to determine what you can actually purcahse when is comes to touch screens. If you are looking at saving the most you will go for a less well known brand name, with a back to base warranty. For example the Posiflex 6815 comes with 1GB of Ram and XP pro and this is around 2K.

Now if your budget allows for more you may go for the IBM Sure pos which is around 4+K but comes with 12 months onsite warranty. NCR is also a good option and includes a good onstie warranty.

Lots of things to think about, I hope you got value out of this blog and touchscreen hardware choices

PBSA POS launches new blog. We plan on keepnig our customers and potential customers up to date on everything that is happening in the world of point of sale, pos systems, touch screen hardware and touchscreen systems.