by Grace Barone
Bars are a pivotal part of our society. Whether you're grabbing a drink after a long day at work, watching a sports game with friends, or trying to score a date. Bars bring people together. Bartenders are the unsung heros in many communities. It's important that they work on a bar POS system that were made for them in mind.
They provide a setting where people can gather and engage over beverages, bartenders play a crucial role in our culture. They are experts who not only provide drinks but also make their customers feel welcome. Bartenders have a special talent for making people feel relaxed and at ease. They frequently serve as confidants and supportive listeners to people who need to vent. Bartenders also make sure that their guests are safe by keeping an eye on alcohol intake and making sure no one gets too intoxicated. By creating relationships and bringing people together, bartenders genuinely improve the lives of their customers.
With everything bars provide to us, they need to have a POS system that meets their specific needs. Not every POS system has what it takes to make in a bar setting. If you're a business owner looking for a bar POS system, look no further. Clover has the all-in-one POS system that will keep up with your busy bartenders. As well as help maintain an environment that will keep patrons visiting time and time again.
Best Bar POS System
There are quite a few things that a POS system needs to be able to do for it to fit well within a bar. It needs to be able to manage bar tabs and have an option to split the tab among multiple people, track inventory, integrate a loyalty program, be able to offer drink and food specials, pre authorize payments and be easy for servers and bartenders to use.
The Clover devices perform all of these requirements and more.
Clover Station
The Clover Duo functions great as a bar POS system. It has a large screen that faces the employee, making it easy to put in orders. It also has a Clover Mini which is a smaller screen that faces the customer for easy payments. If you're looking for a traditional looking POS system with updated features and capabilities, the Clover Duo is a great option. If you don't need the customer facing screen, the Clover Solo has all the same features as the Duo. Just without the extra screen. Clover offers a large lists of apps that you can download to customize your POS, to better fit the needs of your business. Employee management apps are also very useful. The HomeBase app is a fan favorite. Your employees are able to clock in behind the bar and get right to work.
Clover Flex
Another great device by Clover is the Flex, this can be useful to businesses that have intense rushes or are very large. The Clover Flex is a hand held POS system. It functions great in settings where waiting for your servers to go back and fourth with a customers card is inconvenient. Or, where customers have to wait in long lines to pay. With the Clover Flex, the device is brought to the customers and they can pay on the spot. This is also great for restaurants that have bars within them. If you have a printer set up at the bar, drink orders are sent in real time over to the bar printer. This maximizes efficiency for servers and bartenders. No more running drink orders over to the bar in the middle of a busy dinner rush.
Clover devices have built in business reporting capabilities and inventory tracking. Business reporting and tracking inventory is a must while running a bar. Its not a good look when a busy Friday night rolls around and you find out you're out of the most popular beer. Inventory tracking not only helps you stay stocked at all times, but it also helps owners monitor how much alcohol is being served. If your sales numbers don't line up with your inventory, that can be an indication that your bartenders may be over pouring or giving away free product.
Apps for Bar POS Systems
Clover Dining App
If you're a bar owner, the one app that is a must have is the Clover Dining app. This app transforms your Clover device into the ultimate bar POS system. The app allows you to create your entire floor plan including bar stools. This is not only helpful for hosting and keeping track of sections, but it also helps organize bar seating. Usually floor plans combine the entire bar area into one section. The Clover Dining app makes it easy to break up each seat, this is helpful if you have multiple bartenders or have multiple people sitting together but paying separately.
Another helpful feature within the floor plan, is the option to have a section where people can order even if they are not assigned to a table. For example, a customer can order a drink while they are waiting for a table. With the bar and more section, these orders stay organized without you having to shift your whole floor plan. These orders can either be paid on the spot, or be transferred over to another table.
Bill Splitting and Pre-Authorization
The Clover Dining app also makes splitting tabs super easy as well. When you click on a table you can have multiple customers orders within that one table. When they are ready to pay, you have the option to have the tab paid in full, split evenly between everyone, or split based on the customers orders. If a group has one tab open but are paying separately, it makes the process much easier.
The last feature that is helpful in a bar setting, is payment pre authorization. One of the worst things to happen is a customer putting their card down to start a tab, and at the end of the night the card gets declined. With pre authorization you can make sure the card has sufficient funds before starting a tab and serving them.
BarPro with Age Verify
This app is every bartenders saving grace. Usually bars have their own specialty drinks. If you're a bartender that is used to just pouring beers from a tap, or regular ol' shots. Having a menu full of mixed drinks is intimidating. With the BarPro app your bartenders now have access to more than 16,000 beverages. This app organizes all of your drinks and shows the ingredients and instructions on how to make them. You can print, search, revise, or add your own recipes.
Bartenders multitask like no other, but they can only do so much. Keeping track of all the customers and their tabs, while still chatting with everyone, on top of remembering every drink on the menu and how to make them is a lot to manage at once. With this app the bartenders can focus on customer service and not stressing about drink recipes. Most bars usually do have some sort of booklet behind the bar with recipes. Flipping through pages that more than likely have had years of drinks spilt on them is not ideal during a busy night.
Prioritizing Age Verification
With BarPro with Age Verify all the bartender needs to do is find the drink and tap on it. This not only helps the bartenders, but it also ensures that each drink is consistent. This can help the bar save money as well. No more heavy handed bartenders over pouring and wasting product. With having consistent drinks, this guarantees no one is being over served.
The age verification function also makes sure minors aren't accidently getting served.
Your bartenders can quickly verify a customers age by entering the birthdate on the ID to give them the crucial "It's OK to serve" signal. This is incredibly important, no bar wants to get caught in a situation where age is not being verified. This can result in a business loosing their liquor license, which is a death sentence for a bar.
Happy Hour
The Happy Hour app is another great app to have on your bar POS system. Almost every bar offers some version of a happy hour. With the Happy Hour app by Clover, applying discounts has never been easier. All you need to do is load all of the different discounts you offer on the app. If you offer a traditional happy hour like 15% off all drinks weekdays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. all you need to do is create the discount on the app. After its created it will automatically be apply when your happy hour starts.
You can also create discounts months in advance. To make things easier for yourself as a business owner, at the beginning of every year you can organize all of your discounts and promotions you plan on having for the year. Just set when you want the discounts to start and stop. Choose the day it begins and ends, what time you want it to start and stop, and the discount amount. You can title each discount so you remember what promotion is happening when. After you load up all the information, you don't need to touch it again. This makes creating discounts and applying them to customers bills completely hassle free.
Offering promotions and deals like this is a great way to keep customers coming back.
Maximize Success at your Bar with the Best Bar POS System
Bars are something important in our culture. Because they are an integral part of society, bars are a dime a dozen. There is massive competition in the bar industry. Making sure your bar stands out is incredibly important if you want to see success.
Having a POS system in your bar that is personalized to your business will increase efficiency among your bartenders, meaning more focus is now on your customers. Serving your customers great drinks as well as excellent customer service will help your bar skyrocket.
If you'd like to learn more on how you can get yourself a Clover device to have in your bar, or more information on the apps that can be downloaded to transform your POS system into the ultimate bar tool, fill out the form below or visit us at getvms.com.