Powering POS Solutions Through A Consumer Focus

NCR designs its POS solutions around the entire consumer transaction process, helping restaurant operators control their costs, drive additional revenue and increase customer satisfaction.

When asked what makes NCR a leading point-of-sale (POS) solutions provider for Australian QSRs, the company will likely point to its unmatched knowhow of the restaurant industry and consumer transaction technology.

NCR’s mission is to help the restaurant industry respond to the demand for fast, easy and convenient transactions and turn everyday interactions with restaurants into exceptional experiences. This starts by building a deep understanding of consumer transactions and the technology needed to enable QSRs to operate efficiently, manage a profitable business and engage consumers in a variety of ways. As a result, one of its industry-leading strengths is its ability to provide restaurants with technology and operations strategy and implementation across the entire transaction process, says Shane Bedford, director of sales for Australia and New Zealand at NCR.

Shane Bedford says, at the core of the NCR solution is its POS platform that not only performs essential store operations, but also captures valuable customer and business data that ultimately leads to more efficient operations, increased sales and tighter cost control.
Restaurants that install NCR’s POS platform can also choose to implement a basic POS system or one with added functionality – like kitchen production, employee theft detection or inventory management - to suit their specific needs, depending on their store type, operation model and customer profile.

Additionally, consumer engagement and mobile presence are of particular importance to every QSR these days due to the stronger competition in the field. “As more transactions move away from the in-store POS systems to consumer-driven digital platforms, QSRs are rethinking the technology and operational infrastructure needed to support this growing trend. Consumers don’t want to wait in a long line, they want to be rewarded for their loyalty and they want it to be easy to place an order from anywhere,” says Bedford.

The NCR POS platform can handle multi-channel ordering, whether it is done in-store, mobile, or online through a Web site. The platform accommodates how modern customers want to transact with a restaurant and how multi-channel orders are integrated in the platform in an easily managed system. This includes the ability to offer a consumer-facing mobile app that delivers the entire consumer engagement experience from ordering, loyalty, payment to feedback with a touch of a few smartphone buttons.

For restaurants that are focused on building a core group of loyal customers, NCR also offers loyalty functionality that provides loyalty program services and marketing intelligence to QSR operators, allowing them to understand guest behaviour within the restaurant.

Once the restaurant puts together a loyalty strategy with programs in place, customers receive rewards or discounts for their continued patronage of the restaurant. Every additional visit from a customer improves a restaurant’s insight into the customer’s dining choices and behaviour and enables the restaurant to serve more targeted rewards or discounts.

The NCR POS solution alerts managers on the frequency of visits, average cheque size and other behaviours so they can implement the most cost-effective strategy to keep customers coming back. Even staff personnel benefit from the NCR POS solution because they begin to get feedback on what kind of personalised service will result in higher customer satisfaction.

Restaurants that leverage NCR’s customer loyalty functionality partnered with their NCR POS platform can issue flexible, customisable reward and gift card programs. Speed is also one of the biggest strengths of the service. Restaurants can quickly design these loyalty programs and roll them out to attract new customers and keep regulars satisfied, and tweak them based on fast-changing behaviours and preferences.

With nearly 550 million transactions flowing through NCR systems every day around the world, NCR is continually learning about–and pioneering–how the world interacts and transacts, ultimately making everyday easier for its customers and consumers.