Thinking about investing or switching your restaurant’s POS system? We get it – the process can feel daunting, but getting started with TouchBistro is easier than you might expect. In fact, 84%* of customers tell us they are satisfied or extremely satisfied with their onboarding experience, so you can feel confident you’re in good hands.
Built specifically for restaurants, TouchBistro combines intuitive technology with a team of industry pros who help set you up for success. To give you a firsthand view, we spoke with two operators who have been through the onboarding process and shared their experiences.
- What to expect at each step of the onboarding process
- 4 tips for a smooth POS system setup
The Onboarding Process
Whether this is your first POS system onboarding experience or your third, our team of TouchBistro experts will guide you throughout the entire journey. You’ll receive a hands-on and high touch onboarding experience every step of the way so depending on how quickly you’d like to move to get the process completed, we’ll be right there with you.
Here’s how we help restaurants like yours get set up quickly, confidently, and stress-free.
1. Kick Off
Before diving into your POS setup, you will start off by creating a TouchBistro account and have a kick off call with a dedicated TouchBistro Onboarding Specialist. This individual is assigned to you as a guide to manage project timelines, answer questions about functionality and workflows, and more. During this kick off call, you’ll be asked general questions related to your venue in order to create a plan moving forward as well as be introduced to key stakeholders.
2. Menu Setup
Next up, our menu team will upload your menu to the cloud so it’s ready for your POS. Sharing all of your menu details (don’t forget those kids menus, seasonal specials, and liquor lists!) with us up front helps ensure we build it exactly the way you need.
3. Installation & Site Inspection
Once your menu is ready to go, all of your hardware (i.e. iPads, printers, routers, etc) needs to be installed. Our committed team will guide you through the installation process and confirm with you that everything is working as it’s supposed to and help you troubleshoot where needed.
4. Training Sessions
Lastly, we’ll walk through your restaurant POS system training to best prepare you and your team to use TouchBistro. During your POS training, you’ll learn how to use your back-end in the cloud, such as reviewing menus, hours of operations, sales, and labor reports. You’ll also learn how to use your front-end tech, like how to take orders, discounts, cash flows, and ins and outs of how everything works regardless of your venue type.
Anything you learn can be then added to your restaurant training manual to ensure each of your current and new employees understand how to use the POS system.
4 Tips for an Easy Onboarding Experience
Now that you know more about what to expect during the process, here are four tips to make your onboarding journey smoother straight from our team and TouchBistro customers.
1. Know Your Space
Take the time to fully understand and learn your venue. This can go a long way in helping make the overall onboarding journey much smoother when working with our teams. Things like knowing your venue’s square footage, layout, power sources, etc. can help our team hit the ground running and do their best work from day one.
2. Menu Matters
Having an updated menu matters – it’s the key to a smooth onboarding process and getting your restaurant up and running efficiently. When our menu team has the most updated version of your menu this can help eliminate back and forth and speed up the process of getting your venue up and running as quickly as you need to.
3. Bring Your Team Along
Your staff are the ones using the system day in and day out, so get them involved early. As Amanda Arnett from Spring Creek Tavern shared, “During onboarding, I let the team explore the POS on their own first – opening tables, testing features – before we dive in together. That hands-on time was invaluable and gave us great input to bring to the training sessions.” By bringing your team along for the journey gives you the opportunity to work with our team to swiftly make changes ensuring the system is tailored for your needs.
Beyond initial process feedback from your team, having hands-on sessions is key to ensure everyone feels comfortable with the POS setup. As David Stith, founder of Donuts N’ Coffee, shared from his own experience, “The TouchBistro team recorded our training session so I could share it with the staff. They watched it several times and picked it up quickly. That was probably the part I was worried about the most – how hard it was going to be to train my people, it was far easier than I expected.”
4. Take a Breath
Our TouchBistro onboarding process is designed to help you build confidence from the start in yourself and in our team. As Arnett puts it, “My advice to new TouchBistro customers is to be patient. Every restaurant operates differently and it takes a little time to get everything set up just right. Once you get the hang of the system, it’s easy to tweak it so it fits your team and your way of running things.” Take it one step at a time – you’ve got this!
If you have any questions about TouchBistro’s onboarding experience or our restaurant technology, feel free to connect with our team.
*Statistics come from a survey of a group of our recently onboarded customers. They highlight the experiences of those who responded and may not represent every customer’s experience.
Megan is the Content Marketing Specialist at TouchBistro, where she uses her passion for food to write about the restaurant industry. She’s a big “foodie” at heart, and you can always find her enjoying a delicious meal at a restaurant with friends and family, or cooking one up at home. She also loves relaxing with a good book and making progress at the gym.
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