Over pouring can be a huge source of lost profits for a bar. Just an extra 10 to 30% alcohol in a pour could lead to thousands of dollars in lost profits per drink type per month. Unfortunately for bar owners, correcting this problem isn’t simply a matter of training employees. Often, the problem arises when bartenders intentionally make drinks stronger in an effort to earn better tips from employees. Luckily, this problem is fixable by upgrading your point of sale system.

Using Your POS System to Stop Over Pouring in Your Bar

One of the biggest challenges in stopping over pouring is doing it without taking away from your customers’ experience. Devices like spill stops and automatic alcohol dispensers can dramatically decrease over pouring, but when they are used in view of customers, they can give your bar the image of being cheap and possibly make customers feel as if they are being shortchanged. These systems are also not flawless since bartenders are able to circumvent them by pouring directly from the bottle or by making a double pour.

The biggest flaw, other than customer perception, of these systems is that they don’t track total alcohol usage. This is where point of sale systems comes in. A good point of sale system provides easy touch screen options so bartenders can quickly enter each drink type as they make it. This allows you to track not only total revenue, but also gives you a drink by drink break down. There is also little risk of offending customers because they expect to pay for their drinks and won’t think twice about seeing the bartender add them to their tab.

The key is to set clear guidelines for the use of the POS system and enforce them. Bartenders will need to immediately and accurately enter every drink sold. The practice of entering them into the POS system only upon closing the tab should be discouraged because it leads to errors. These records will then allow you to compare the drinks sold against your inventory. If your inventory is diminishing faster than expected, you can then take corrective action.

Stopping Over Pouring in Other Settings

This practice can be extended to hotels, bars, concessions, and virtually any other business. In settings where customer experience is less important, either because drinks aren’t prepared in front of customers or due to a mass production situation like a sports arena, a POS system can be combined with an automatic dispenser. No matter how drinks are served, the same principles of accurate record keeping and inventory tracking can be applied. The location and business setup are also irrelevant because even advanced POS systems are extremely mobile and can be operated from tablet-sized devices. Because of this, no business owner should need to worry about over pouring if they use an advanced POS system.

Point of sale software, or POS, is a useful way to keep track of customer information and sales to a particular member of a store. When it is time for a store promotion, the software can help improve the final end-of-sale figures by offering leveraging options.

Encouraging Store Membership

Promotions are effective when the right tools are available to help reach customers and ensure they are aware of the upcoming promotional or sale items. Offering store membership is only one way to obtain additional leverage to ensure that a promotion goes as smoothly as possible.

The software comes into the picture by offering opportunities to print store membership cards, detail customer data that is provided to the store and keep track of customer purchases so that it is possible to identify when a particular promotion may be appealing to specific clients of the store.

Encouraging customers to join as a member can take a few different paths. A store can offer different membership cards, such as gold and silver card holders, or it can offer a general membership that applies to every individual.

The benefit of using POS software to set up customer membership include:

• Gathering information about the customer
• Setting up an account, which details purchase history and customer activity
• Sending out details regarding promotions, particularly when clients have purchased the item in the past or have an interest in similar products
• Providing reduced prices on promotional items
• Improving marketing strategies based on client activity in the store

Point of sale software is not limited to the applications at the register and end-of-sale data. It is also used to set up customer touch points, which can then be used in marketing and promotions.

Making Customers Aware of Promotions

A store promotion is only effective if customers are aware of the upcoming sale and can come to the store to purchase the items. If they do not know about the promotion, then it is less likely to gain the expected results.

POS software provides a solution to help improve awareness because it gathers customer data. Business owners or managers can send out emails newsletters, advertisements and flyers to appropriate customers based on membership or purchase history. The POS software tracks the data so that it is accessible when it is needed.

Final Tally

Along with the applications in gathering information, setting up memberships and marketing, POS software is still useful in the management of promotions by offering a final tally of the sales that occurred. The software is used to add sale items, reduce prices according to the promotion and give the final prices to customers. Ultimately, it can also track the total sales that occurred during the promotion and update customer account data for future references.

Point of sale software has a variety of applications. It can be used to track data, discover new information, market to customers and improve promotional events. When it comes to an upcoming promotion, stores can market to specific customers or every member based on the type of promotion that is running.