With tremendous Aloha sales, the NCR Aloha POS system is now used by more than 75,000 stores all over the country. Your restaurant may use it too – but are you getting as much out of it as you could be?
Combining the NCR Aloha POS system with digital signage can help you take your restaurant’s performance to the next level. We’ve put together this article to tell you how.
Keep reading to learn more.
Why it’s worth pairing the NCR Aloha Operating System with digital signage
Combining the NCR Aloha POS system with digital signage can help your restaurant make more efficient progress towards its goals in several ways.
Here are five reasons you should consider integrating these two technologies.
Display targeted ads on your Aloha POS systems based on real-time inventory information
One of the most crucial NCR Aloha restaurant benefits is that it makes tracking inventory super easy.
But what if you could also use that information in real-time to serve your customers with targeted ads?
That’s exactly what’s possible when you integrate NCR Aloha with digital signage. For example, imagine that your restaurant is running low on beef but it has an excess of chicken. If you’ve integrated your NCR Aloha with digital signage, you would be able to use this information to automatically start showing customers more ads for chicken-based meals.
You could use a feature like this to optimize your inventory so that you’re wasting less food and increasing your profits.
Engage customers at the Aloha POS screen
POS systems with restaurant digital signage also offer a ton of exciting ways to engage customers while they pay. You could use this feature to automatically cross-sell and up-sell to customers based on what they’re going to purchase.
For example, let’s imagine that a customer is getting ready to pay for their food. While they’re interacting with your POS system, you could display an advertisement for a drink pairing that could go perfectly with that meal. Or you could show an ad that highlights side orders that people tend to purchase when they order the items that have already been selected.
The potential for this is almost unlimited. Since the recommendations are based on data, you’ll know that you’re always offering the perfect up-sell or cross-selling no matter what the customer orders.
Bring your contactless ordering to life
Research shows that 77% of restaurant customers still would prefer using contactless ordering after the pandemic ends.
However, if your team members don’t get to interact with guests before they buy, it reduces the possibility of boosting the value of each order.
This is another reason why a POS system that’s integrated with digital signage can be so effective. You can use the technology to highlight the best items on your menu while a customer is ordering.
You could:
- Show high-resolution pictures of popular dishes
- Provide customers with additional information about ingredients
- Offer detailed nutritional data
Features like these can serve to make your dishes more appealing to customers, which can be extremely profitable for you – especially since this is all happening while a guest is submitting their order.
Create efficiencies in the back-of-house with Aloha systems
Combining your POS system with digital signage can also help you get more out of your deskless workers.
You can use Aloha’s ability to provide real-time inventory updates to influence the tasks that you assign to your hourly workers and when you assign them.
For example, let’s imagine that it’s dinner time and your cooks are starting to run out of prepared ingredients. As soon as that happens, your back-of-house workers could get a notification that tells them to prioritize preparing more of these types of ingredients.
That would save you or a team member from having to step away from what you’re doing to communicate that information. It would also keep the alert displayed in the back-of-house area until it’s taken care of. That way, it’s much less likely to get lost in the shuffle.
Choosing the right digital signage software will make this much easier to achieve.
Engage your back-of-house staff
Your workers impact your business’s bottom line. Using your screens to improve their experience will both, directly and indirectly, impact your revenue.
Screens can be used to highlight sales goals. The right digital signage software can integrate with your Aloha software to power sales leaderboards. Workers can see how their sales directly contribute to the bottom line either in terms of revenue or unit sales.
Friendly team competitions with rewards or incentives can help motivate team members to pay attention to leaderboards and check their progress toward sales goals.
Implement cross-restaurant NCR POS terminal displays with a single solution
NCR Aloha can scale to cover as many restaurants as you want. Digital signage from UPshow can do the same. That means, together, you can use these two tools to create uniform displays across your entire chain of restaurants.
You won’t have to worry about adding, subtracting and editing displays on every screen in each of your locations.
Instead, making a change to your POS system or digital signage will be something that you only have to do once and it will auto-populate everywhere it needs to go instantly.
Here’s what you need to get started combine digital signage with Aloha restaurant POS systems
Are you ready to get more out of your Aloha POS system by integrating it with digital signage? If so, this is what you’ll need to get started:
Screens and Tablets
Both POS and digital signage require screens to function. And if you’re going to combine these two technologies, you may need both tablets and television screens in strategic locations throughout your restaurant.
You could need tablets to double up as Aloha cash registers for your staff to input order information and manage your inventory. If you plan on offering contactless checkout, then you’ll also need tablets for front-facing Aloha cash registers that your customers can use independently. These should go where you anticipate they’ll be the easiest to use.
Television screens are what you’ll use to display on-premise ads to your guests and important information to your workers. They should be set up in locations that receive the most traffic.
Aloha Computer System Compatible Software
If you’re already using the NCR Aloha operating system, then you’ll just need to focus on securing digital signage software that can integrate with it.
On top of that, it can be helpful to find software that:
- Gives you access to both pre-made ad templates and tools for creating your own ads from scratch
- Can entertain your customers with a multitude of channels options
- Can be managed from a single internet-enabled device
- Includes analytics features so that you can track your ads’ performance over time
UPshow makes digital signage software that offers all of these features and more. It could be just what you need to get the most out of integrating digital signage with your NCR POS terminals and system.
Media players
You may also need media players to connect your screens to the internet so that they integrate with your digital signage software. But you only need these if the screens that you choose don’t have built-in internet connectivity.
Integration Challenges with Restaurant POS Systems from Aloha
Digital signage and NCR Aloha’s POS system fit together like a hand in a glove. However, that doesn’t mean your integration is guaranteed to be successful.
Here are a few potential problem areas that you’ll need to avoid to get as much out of this pairing as possible:
Poor screen placement
Poor on-premise Aloha terminal screen location can derail what you get from integrating your POS system with digital signage.
You need your screens to be in locations where they’re easily viewable by your staff and customers.
If you place your screens at awkward angles or in spots that don’t receive a lot of traffic, then you’re creating an artificial limit on how effective they can be for you since not as many people will see them.
Limited digital signage software
The NCR Aloha restaurant POS system is a powerful solution that can help you manage many different parts of your restaurant.
You’ll need powerful digital signage software that can match it if you want to get as much out of this integration as possible.
Failing to train your staff on restaurant Aloha POS systems
Combining your POS system with digital signage can help your staff become much more effective at their jobs. But an Aloha manager is not going to take full advantage of this new technology if you don’t show them how to do so.
That’s why it’s a good idea to offer your entire staff some basic training on how to use these tools together when you add them to your restaurant. That way, everyone knows what they need to do to give you an optimal return on your investment.
UPshow can help you get the most out of your restaurant NCR Aloha POS system with digital signage
The digital signage software that you choose will have a big impact on the efficacy of your NCR Aloha computer system's integration with multiple features. That’s why you should select UPshow. It includes all of the features that you need to unlock the full potential of this powerful technological duo in your restaurant.
