Need Your Opinion on POS Systems

I’m putting together an article about POS Systems for our March issue, and I’m hoping to include lots of reader feedback in the piece to show the real pros and cons of owning a POS. However, I can’t do this without your help!

If you use a POS, can you please answer one or more of the following questions and include your name, pizzeria name, location and website for proper credit:

  1. What do you see as the biggest benefits to owning a POS system?
  2. What are the negatives, if any, to owning a POS system?
  3. How long have you owned your POS?
  4. What special functions/tasks does your POS allow you to perform?
  5. What is your favorite part about your POS system?
  6. What advice do you have for the pizzeria operator considering purchasing a POS system?

Thanks in advance for your help! Please submit your responses to liz@pmq.com or via private message by Saturday, January 24th.

Liz Barrett, editor-in-chief
PMQ’s Pizza Magazine
www.pmq.com

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

Man I wish I didn’t have diamondtouch so I can answer those questions with confidence.

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

You should make a point in your article that no matter which system they own, readers should use the marketing features. I am shocked that so few pizzerias use marketing features in their POS. All pizzeria-oriented POS systems include tools to help sell more into a restaurant’s existing customer base - Using them can make a huge difference in the current less-than-favorable economic climate.

I would be happy to point you to some marketing related information that has nothing to do with any POS vendor if you are interested. PM or email if I can help.

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

I second that! I plan on telling every person I see at the Vegas show to stay away from DT. I am actually thinking about getting a shirt that says " Ask me what I think about DiamondTouch"

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

I would pay for it lol. Do both sides too (better exposure)! But you might wanna change the wording, people might just think you’re a seller and not even bother asking.

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

I’m shopping for POS systems right now. I know there is a separate forum for this, but if you guys would post what your responses are here too, that would be awesome. Looks like I should skip over Diamond Touch :slight_smile: .

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

You lucky, lucky man!

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

What’s so bad about DT?

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

Since you asked…

I wont go into details but lets see:

  1. Order taking has TONS of really stupid thinks that make you scratch your head and wonder what they were thinking
  2. Errors/glitches can be upsetting and frustrating
  3. Reporting features is a pain
  4. Tickets are HORRIBLE
  5. Receipts are pretty bad too for carry out - not detailed at all. Doesn’t show what customers actually purchased.
  6. Drawer close outs aren’t always accurate
  7. Driver close outs are annoying
    8 ) The database is Microsoft Access based (which stinks cause once its sent thru its automatically embedded without any chance of changing it i.e. mistakes)
  8. Driver dispatch tickets are a joke, too many tickets
  9. Can’t edit credit card orders after order taken
  10. The caller ID function is ridiculious
  11. Wastes LITERALLY TONS of printer paper
  12. They take lots of shortcuts in their programming
  13. Adding comments is a real pain
  14. Discounting employee meals, discounts are over protected making it quite tedious and annoying
  15. Apparently they don’t do card swipes meaning you have to change your manager password everytime you use it b/c staff can easily see you typing it in…
  16. No 1/4 toppings (which yea is probably difficult, but you would think for the kind of money they could think of something)
    18 ) Ticket format is really dumb i.e. doesn’t prioritize or group similar items together. Its prints exactly as you type it up…
  17. Splitting tickets can be very confusing…
  18. Oh and DT customer service and their outside sales reps

I could keep going but I think this is sufficient for now.

  1. What do you see as the biggest benefits to owning a POS system?

They are uncountable in volume. With Pizza 2.0 information is your key, database marketing, web ordering, text messaging, and tracking will be what makes or breaks a pizza shop over the next 4-5 years.

  1. What are the negatives, if any, to owning a POS system?

None

  1. How long have you owned your POS?

I bought my first system in 2002.

  1. What special functions/tasks does your POS allow you to perform?

Everything necessary to completely break down my customer database, and makes that data available in any format. Any POS should do this.

  1. What is your favorite part about your POS system?

My first printer. It is gone now, but to save money, I picked up a $2 one out of the junk bin at a local PC shop. Turns out there was a pen stuck in it. I pried that out and the printer lasted for another 2 years.

  1. What advice do you have for the pizzeria operator considering purchasing a POS system?

Get an education. Any POS you look at today will have the features you need. 99% of the complaints that people make about POS systems are clearly operator error. Other advice, is to learn and take advantage of your POS functions. Inventory, pricing, payroll…How many shops have a completely integrated payroll function in their POS yet still use time cards? Jeff hit on it as well. Underutilized POS systems are the norm here.

That is the most untrue statement I ever heard in my life.

So I suppose when Diamontouch uses the same screen that they use for phone numbers (10 digits) for credit cards (16 digits) and its cuts off the rest of the numbers when typing in a cc, thats my fault right? Wow.

Or when every night the printer prints (and wastes) out a detailed, long drawer close out for $0 to settle the credit card batches, thats my fault right?

I am glad I bought an eprom based POS, much more reliable and easy to fix little bugs in the programming.

I use POS pizza. I like it. If I had to do it all over again they would be in the running BUT I would take a STRONG look at point of success and I like the looks of shelbysoft.
INDIE I really would start there. I am sure Jeff can tell you there is a big difference in there pos and some of the others…like 6-8 THOUSAND dollars.

I had pretty good luck with the “Prism” POS system that we used at WingZone. It was intuitive, fairly simple, and it kept track of all of the relevant information. It was also very customizable and modular, so it was pretty easy to get it to do when you want. Also, when it did crash (usually after an update), their support people were really good about remotely fixing it quickly, a very reassuring thing when it breaks on a Friday afternoon.

My experience with “Firefly” wasn’t nearly so good. It was difficult to use, the slips it printed were confusing, nothing was intuitive, etc etc. The shop that I worked at that used Firefly, probably 80-90% of messed up orders were a direct result of how the POS system printed tickets, even experienced employees still had trouble with them. Needless to say, in house the joke was that POS did NOT stand for Point of Sale…

This is not the “proper” forum, but…I can’t access the classifieds w/Firefox browser…

I’m a happy user of Point of Success, but I inhiereted an Amigo POS, set-up 4 pizza…anyone interested?

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

I also use Diamond Touch… have had a couple minor problems that were takin care of over the phone over the past 3 years but no major problems. Then again I do go into the system and program all my own stuff which the majority of people I know do not, and will not, do.

i’ll put my comments next to your below…

[/b]

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

I use Speedline and love it

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

This should be fun… Now mind you, I’m 25 years young, I LOVE computers, I’m obsessed with computers and programs and such. I consider myself VERY literate and even with all these problems, I have this system mastered. I spent a lot of down time just playing around with it, even when I was off work.

  1. Order taking has TONS of really stupid thinks that make you scratch your head and wonder what they were thinking
    i see this as more of a programming error on the part of your installer… in my experiece with them they sell their software to regular PC places and thats who installs and programs your menu and setup, not Diamond Touch them selves. And yes, my installers were also idiots and screwed up pretty much everything you can think of. Thats why i decided to just do it all myself.

1a) Yeah its definitely a program error. Like if you’re taking a 16" pizza with sausage, green pepper, oh wait, they don’t want green pepper they want to change it to onion, so you select it and replace it with onion, it goes back to the main screen instead of staying in the toppings screen to keep going. Thats just 1 thing. I could go on but I want to make this short.

  1. Errors/glitches can be upsetting and frustrating
    i’ve only had a couple minor things which i called DT directly to help me with… not to much of a problem, but still a needless problem none the less.

2a) I get errors when I check out drivers at least once a week. Also, I get errors that the credit cards are ‘batched’. And I have to go into the dt files and delete the current.ccr file.

3) Reporting features is a pain
i’ve never really had any problems with the reports.

3a) I say they’re a pain, cause no matter what you do it always goes back to the main reporting screen. Its really hard to compare dates. I also don’t like how you have to go to custom, select dates, save, then go back to and do period report. I also say this because before this, I used aloha and their reporting features were SWEET and super easy to use without all the extra steps. I’d have to play around with it and takes notes, but there a couple things I don’t like.

  1. Tickets are HORRIBLE
    again, i think this is the installers fault for setting it up like that

4a) I’ve had them look it over and over and over again. Its def a DT thing.

  1. Receipts are pretty bad too for carry out - not detailed at all. Doesn’t show what customers actually purchased.
    this is another setting also, you can set it to print every single thing or a summary (which is what your getting)

5a) again, I’ve had them look it over and they seem to think different. I’d like to know where the settings are for that.

  1. Drawer close outs aren’t always accurate
    i’ve never had a problem with this, mine are always spot on… and when their not, the cashier is at fault… which is where a camera system over the register comes in handy Smile

6a) I don’t have a phone girl during the week at all and I’m the only one using it. 2 days ago for example, It said on the drawer close out I had 3 cash tickets totaling a whopping 9 something. When indeed I had 5 for well over 30. I called about this and they should be reviewing it tomorrow to see. Also, sometime the credit card totals are off a little.

  1. Driver close outs are annoying
    what is the problem? with the close outs?

7a) The last place I worked at had a close out that listed Cash - Credit Cards - Tips - Reimbursements = Cash Owed. That was simple, and thats what I expected. Instead here, they have to cash out each order in the front (which I don’t want any drivers in the front. On top of that, the drawer opens once for EACH credit card tip, 1 for the cash out of all the cash tickets, and AGAIN for when you close them out and it tells you the reimbursement totals. That just boggles my mind. Cause instead of giving them their reimbursements + tips which could equal 20 even for example, its 3, 5, 4, 6, then 5.95 for reimbursements. The whole thing is really stupid.

8 ) The database is Microsoft Access based (which stinks cause once its sent thru its automatically embedded without any chance of changing it i.e. mistakes)
true… but when you close the end of day and it’s sent through, why would you want to go in and change something anyway?

8a) I’m super @n@l about things being perfect. But sometimes I do make mistakes, like spaces, or wrong addresses, or names etc. So when you go to correct them on the terminals, it doesn’t rewrite in the database b/c its already a burned image in the back… When you to your database features, it shows up the original one even though you corrected it.

  1. Driver dispatch tickets are a joke, too many tickets
    i’m not sure what you mean here…

    9a) I really don’t like the dispatch ticket. I think there should be only 1 ticket stapled to the box… Just another step the driver has to take. Theres more to it to explain but I’m lazy right now lol… Also, when making sets for deliveries, the address on the ticket is on the top making it hard to read when the tickets hang off the side.

  2. Can’t edit credit card orders after order taken
    yes, this does piss me off too

    10a) yes yes it does.

  3. The caller ID function is ridiculious
    what is the problem with it? I do know the “color code” dosent work

11a) You know how many times when someone calls I go to the caller ID screen and it shows the number they’re calling from but when I ask them their phone number to confirm its different? Meaning I have to quickly skip the screen entirely, and try to remember what they said or have to ask them all over again.

  1. Wastes LITERALLY TONS of printer paper
    they only time I see mine waste paper is when the 2 main thermal printers are down and it has to print on the regular paper printer… it feeds out about 2 ft. of paper before it prints the order… but again i’m sure thats a printer programming error which I haven’t found to correct yet…

12a) You don’t have to close out virtual drawers? At the end of the day, to settle credit card batches, you have to open the drawer. And the only way to close the day is to close the ‘virtual’ drawer causing it to print a detailed drawer close out for 0 dollars. Waste of paper every single night. Not just for the close out in the office, but if I take an order at the kitchen terminal, I have to open up a ‘virtual’ drawer to do a credit card, then have to close it out at the end of the night to close the day, which prints out another long detailed report for 0 dollars.

  1. They take lots of shortcuts in their programming
    how so?

13a) When you manually key in a credit card, does the same exact screen show up for the phone number? The phone number screen holds 10 numbers, and when you manually type in a number it only shows 10 numbers which means 6 digits get visually cut off. Thats just one thing that bothers me that I can think of right now.

  1. Adding comments is a real pain
    i dont see it as a pain… in fact I’m trying to make buttons for every possible senario so that no comments are used…

14a) Ok, lets say someone orders a 16" Cheese and Pepperoni with Green pepper. But then says they want the pepperoni fried. Instead of selecting pepperoni (which obviously makes sense) you have to select green pepper because it adds the comment above the item instead of under. Wow.

  1. Discounting employee meals, discounts are over protected making it quite tedious and annoying
    i actually like this feature so only managers or someone of a certian security level has access to any discounts/comps/employee meals

15a) I don’t like this because lets say a girl in the front orders food to take home after her shift. Instead of going to discounts and selecting the discount THEN asking me for MY password… you have to log her off, log me on, do the discount, pay, then log me off, log her on to finish up or check out etc.

  1. Apparently they don’t do card swipes meaning you have to change your manager password everytime you use it b/c staff can easily see you typing it in…
    i’m not sure about this… we have fingerprint scanners so no one can get into anyone elses machines

16a) We decided not to go with the fingerprints b/c of the money issue. I was hoping to get card swipes but they don’t do that… Or thats what I was told.

  1. No 1/4 toppings (which yea is probably difficult, but you would think for the kind of money they could think of something)
    i agree… but i don’t do 1/4 toppings anyway. lol

18 ) Ticket format is really dumb i.e. doesn’t prioritize or group similar items together. Its prints exactly as you type it up…
this is another setting you can fix… it will prioritize if you want it to

18a) You know, I fooled around with this FOREVER. I know it says it does, but it doesn’t work. If you ring up a pizza, salad, pizza, pizza, app, salad. It will print that way instead of printing all pizzas first, all salads 2nd etc etc.

  1. Splitting tickets can be very confusing…
    agreed… and good luck having 1 person pay with a credit card on a split ticket… it’s all f’ed up

19a) lol

  1. Oh and DT customer service and their outside sales reps
    yeah

20a) lol

edit- I’d like to note, even though I’m not very satisfied with it, it still gets us by with everything it “needs” to do and its still an “ok” system. I recommend a good pos to anyone in business.

Re: Need Your Opionion on POS Systems

I would like a shirt too! I also have the DT blues! Not one of my best decisions. I think I fell for the pretty colors and pictures… :roll: