A POS system is the backbone of a venue's operation. The right POS shouldn’t just handle transactions—it should connect operations, surface data and insights, and easily integrate with and extend to any digital ordering modality. 

Operators who are acing the hospo game are the ones who ask even more of their POS. Here are 13 essential questions they ask themselves to evaluate their existing system or when looking to expand, refresh or upgrade their POS.

Seamless POS Setup: Onboarding, Compatibility & Integration up

1. How quickly can I set up my POS and get my team on board?

Most POS solutions take weeks to set up, but what if it took hours and were managed for you? Then, through a simple and easy-to-use interface, staff would be up and operating quickly. These two factors should be the primary asks of any POS - simple and speedy set-up (ask about white-glove installation) and so easy-to-use staff are up and running in an instant.

Operators using Abacus have described it as “the most intuitive and user-friendly software on the market” because it is easy for staff to use. And if you’re wondering just how quick it is to set up, the experience Roll’d had while participating in a world-class event is a great example.

2. Can my POS work with the hardware I already have?

Switching hardware can be costly, so you must ensure POS software can adapt to your existing investment and budget. Look for cross-platform compatibility—a POS that can work on Android and iOS and extend support for your KDS or other systems that operate on Windows OS. While leading vendors like Liven will provide all the hardware and software you need directly, we will also let you buy your own or reuse existing compatible hardware.

Many of the operators choosing Liven Abacus POS could instantly integrate their back-of-house operations, and POS system through Liven's cross-platform and unified ecosystem. Since adopting Liven, they’ve been able to reduce costs by up to 75% and have experienced smoother operations.

3. Is it just a POS I need?

On average, there are ~30 different pieces of technology that a venue uses. They need to manage 30 different vendors, billing cycles and support teams. Not to mention multiple dashboards to switch between and the data gaps that follow. The best operators are the ones who moved away from fragmented and disconnected ways of working. They asked themselves how they could bring everything together. And whether their POS could expand into a solution that would unify business operations - bringing together ordering, delivery, loyalty, marketing, inventory and business intelligence and much more. 

Liven One includes Abacus POS. Liven One lets you manage multiple ordering channels, keeps your loyalty engine running, connects procurement & inventory to your sales in real time, raises your upselling and marketing game, and unifies your data. This has led to 8X increase in monthly customer spending and 10X increase in actionable data for venues powered by Liven One. With Liven One, you can also instantly benefit from a 70% reduction in technology costs.

Optimizing Operations: Flexibility & Efficiency with Your POS

4. How easy is managing and updating my menus and pricing using my POS?

Updating menus and pricing poses significant challenges, especially if you have dine-in, direct delivery, marketplaces, and multi-venue operations. Imagine trying to keep your menus across all your sales channels up to date with price changes, specials of the day, stockouts, or promotions you’re running. It’s a lot of wasted hours, different backends, and possible inaccuracies due to manual errors. 

You need a POS that acts as the one source of truth. One change you make gets reflected everywhere you want (whether that’s your menu on Uber Eats or at your Kiosk at a different location) and however you want (e.g., the ability to quickly turn channels off and on, having different menus for different service types or times of day, or different prices on menus for different service types).

Operators using the Liven Abacus POS have found that the answer to that question is “very easy and quick.” Using features like write once, publish everywhere and timed menus, which are part of the Abacus Enterprise Management Solution, they can reduce their menu update time from hours to minutes. Whether online, in-venue, on their Magic App, or on delivery platforms, their menus, pricing and product availability is up to date.

5. Do I have the freedom to choose payment options that work best for me?

Your POS should not penalize you for choosing payment options that work best for you—in terms of increased costs, vendor lock-ins, poor experience, or data gaps. Check for compatibility, transaction fees, payout terms, offline capabilities, and support for various payment methods.

While Liven offers world-class, lowest-cost payment options that come deeply integrated with Liven’s Abacus POS system, we don’t penalize venues for continuing with their existing provider. In fact, we work with you to ensure seamless functionality. If you choose Liven Payments, we also offer same-day settlement, offline capabilities, and support for every possible payment option you want - Card, Cash, Apple/Google Pay, Wallet, and much more - even your brand currency powered by Liven.

6. How seamlessly does my POS connect with my back-of-house operations?

A POS system should act as a bridge between the front of the house (FOH) and the back of the house (BOH). If your POS doesn’t have a deep connection between the kitchen, inventory, and delivery, it will only lead to productivity drops and poor customer service, such as confusion due to missed orders or orders showing up incorrectly, sold-out items showing up for sale, wastage due to incorrect stocking, etc. 

When a Michelin-starred brand adopted Liven Abacus POS and Kiosks connected to the KDS for kitchen orchestration, it found that it could reduce queues, reduce staffing costs, and increase upsells. Customers have also saved up to 30% on manpower costs and reduced procurement spending by 20% by using Liven’s Abacus POS with Liven Zeemart’s procurement, inventory management, and ordering capabilities.

7. Can my POS support complex workflows and customer preferences?

Do you require different Standard Operating Processes (SOPs) for different orders, such as a separate set of rules for the delivery pass to double-check items for your delivery orders? Do you need custom templates printed for various stations, or does your KDS system display summaries and ingredient-specific or course-specific breakups? You may also need to offer your customers different payment options, such as creating a tab or splitting the bill.  Whether managing split bills or tabs or configuring custom workflows to make life easier for your kitchen staff, your POS should adapt to you and not the other way around. 

The team at Natural Born Grillers moved to Liven to use the advanced rules and templates to customize the POS workflows for their kitchen and printing processes. “The customization of colors and fonts for the kitchen dockets has made a tremendous impact on our kitchen team,” they say. Liven also helped centralize and automate the processes of a Melbourne-based Thai food pioneer and unified their multi-venue operations and insights. Since then, they have opened five additional stores powered by Liven and significantly reduced inefficiencies and costs.

Scaling Your Business: How the Right POS Fuels Growth

8. Can my POS help me handle multiple venues or franchises as I grow?

Many POS solutions are built primarily for solo venues, and that usually means you’ll have to login to different dashboards to piece things together. Unified menu management across venues is just one benefit of a POS connected to an Enterprise Management System. Also ask if your POS can give you real-time business insights from across your operations together in one view? Does it have a single login, which can give different access levels for different stakeholders? Will it adapt to your existing workflows, processes, and hardware, and can it help you streamline all these from anywhere?

One of Australia’s Vietnamese street food favorites, Roll’d, adopted Liven’s Abacus POS with Enterprise Management capabilities precisely because it answered these questions with a resounding yes. Its centralized control and overview, combined with local flexibility, has enabled Roll’d to scale its operations while reducing complexity and cost, driving double-digit growth.

9. Does my POS help boost my AOV and create ‘Superfans’?

How can a POS help you increase average order values (AOV) or create ‘Superfans’? By creating efficient ordering pathways that tie-in deeply with your loyalty & rewards program. The right POS will encourage your patrons to become ‘fans’ by creating paths to loyalty at every ordering touchpoint - online or in-venue. It will also make these rewards easy to redeem. Additionally, a smart POS system will help your team personalize service and upsell, by being able to view your customers’ preferences at any point of purchase, including at the counter, kiosks, table ordering, via app, or online ordering. 

A 30+ location gelato power brand saw 63% increase in AOV and 400% YoY growth in user spending with Liven’s integrated POS and loyalty & rewards solution. By selling their currency, a Melbourne-based new school Asian restaurant and bar increased their number of new diners by 18% and saw a 44% increase in repeat diners. 

10. Will my POS help me understand my customers and engage with them?

Operators who are nailing their engagement understand the importance of having customer activity tie-in to their marketing and communications. Engagement becomes much easier when you have data gathered by your POS - such as a customers’ ordering history, contact details, birthday, reward data - flow into your CRM. Using this data, you can create sharper segments and target your customers with relevant offers and relevant messages. This helps you send your vegetarian customer an offer on ‘Veggie Wednesdays’ instead of a ‘Meaty Monday’ offer! Check to see if your POS helps you do this. 

Liven Abacus POS’ integration with Liven Engage automagically connects POS data to your CRM, it helps to take action with pre-built templates and automations you can start using immediately. These templates have been purpose-built for the hospitality industry. For Roll’d this enabled enriched targeting and personalised customer engagement through email & SMS.

Vendor Support & Future-Proofing: Choosing a POS for Long-Term Success

11. How dedicated is the vendor to my success?

A POS system is critical to the operation of your business. Malfunctions, lags or downtime can cause you not just to lose revenue, but also incur negative reviews and loss of customer trust. It’s important to check the support level offered by your chosen vendor. 

At Liven, we are committed to the success of our venues. You won’t have to struggle to speak to a real person. Our account managers, who act as a single point of contact, aren’t just there to help you resolve issues quickly; they’re also your trusted advisors who share strategies for your growth. 

12. Will my POS help me keep up with consumer trends?

Not adapting to changing customer trends has been the downfall of many restaurant businesses. Your POS system should allow you to adapt to these changes with ease. Pop-ups becoming the rage? Your POS partner should offer mobile solutions! Need to set up a new vegan menu because your patrons are asking for more plant-based food? Your POS should accommodate a new type of workflow or station.

Liven constantly innovates to help you win by offering new features and capabilities that help you adapt to the market. Whether it is our mobile POS solution, Abacus Go, or an advanced KDS to turn complex workflows into easy views that help your teams, we’ve got our innovation gears turning all the time. Check out our latest releases here.

13. Can my POS turn data into intelligence?

The best operators use POS data to fuel growth and guide day-to-day operations. How does your POS help you study and consume this crucial data?

Liven’s Abacus POS offers advanced and customisable business intelligence reporting, with dashboards summarizing and analysing your sales activity, customer activity & buying behavior, payments, product popularity and much more. 

If you are a multi-venue business, you also get access to venue comparisons and breakdowns by groups. What’s more is that it brings all the important day-to-day reports and snapshots into your pocket - through the Pocket BI app - making it easy and on-the-go for you to stay on top of your business. And if you want even more, Liven Insights ties all of your sales and business data together with customer loyalty and engagement to give you interactive, in-depth reports.

These questions are a great way for you to pick out the POS option that doesn’t just help you operate, but actually helps you grow your business and stay future-proof!