Square has officially announced the launch of new hardware and software innovations, with each one designed to aid the operations of present-day restaurants.
According to certain development, the stated development brings forth Square’s most powerful, portable point-of-sale device ever, along with several restaurant-specific features and upgrades.
More on the former would reveal how it is essentially a Square Handheld device, translating to one powerful and pocketable point of sale for all restaurant businesses. You see, for full-service restaurants, the device can seamlessly take orders tableside or from across the bar. On the other hand, for quick-service restaurants, it can come in handy to cut down on lines during a busy rush.
All in all, by eliminating unnecessary trips between tables and the counter, Square Handheld makes it possible for servers to provide more attentive service and turn tables more efficiently during peak hours, thus achieving improved customer satisfaction and increased revenue.
Talk about some of Square Handheld’s features, they include a spill- and splash-resistant 6.2″ Gorilla Glass touchscreen and an IP54 rating, meaning it can survive accidental drops, water, and dust. Furthermore, there is a long-lasting battery designed to power through a whole day, a barcode scanner to quickly scan retail offerings like merch or bottles of wine; as well as a camera for capturing photos of new menu or retail items.
“Square Handheld is powerful, profitable, and predictable. It’s sleek and slim, and it gives us 10x the power in the palms of our hands (and our pockets) and helps us to elevate our hospitality in the front of house,” said Chad Sykora, CEO at Krootz Brewing Company in Gainesville, TX. “It’s easy to be hands-free as staff members round corners. Now, they can focus on keeping food steady.”
Joining the stated device would be a Square Point of Sale app, geared towards helping restaurants get started even faster with Square, while simultaneously allowing for greater flexibility selling across different revenue streams. The app’s design deliver unprecedented growth prospects using an option to easily add entirely new modes, such as retail, and expand their sales capabilities.
Turning our attention some of the new features and upgrades introduced by Square, we begin from the new Square Online Ordering page. Empowering sellers to go online effortlessly, this particular page should help them save up to 30% on every online order with built-in, commission-free pickup and delivery.
Next up, we have the new Square Dashboard App, which now delivers a more straightforward mechanism for food and beverage teams to manage back-office operations from their pocket. As operators and managers are not always by their computers, this Dashboard app enables them to get real-time alerts, see cash flow, manage payroll, update timecards and schedules, send out announcements, and more, all of achievable using a mobile device.
Another detail worth a mention is rooted in the feature named Combos. Like the name might suggest, Combos will let sellers bundle multiple items at a discount, making it easier for staff to upsell and increase check amounts.
Then, there is the Item Splits feature that sellers can tap into for splitting individual items across multiple checks. As a result, staff can easily and quickly handle checkout for larger groups, reducing the time they may typically spend over calculating totals and waiting on guests to work out shared costs.
Square also took the given opportunity to streamline Uber Eats and DoorDash integrations. This means sellers can now manage menus, pricing, and orders, all within Square. They can further expect seamless real-time syncing to keep everything running smoothly. With these integrations, these sellers can also simplify their cash flow management, and at the same time, access their DoorDash and Uber Eats earnings same-day via Instant Payouts through Square Checking.
Beyond that, Square has even strengthened its partnership with Sysco to offer new restaurants, who switch to Square’s platform, the opportunity to earn up to $1,000 per month in grocery subsidies.
“With this latest release, we’re giving single unit and multi-unit restaurants the tools they need to operate efficiently and to thrive in today’s dynamic marketplace,” said Ming-Tai Huh, Head of Food and Beverage at Square.
