Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square for Restaurants

[katieand]

Hi Sellers,

On Friday, June 8th at 11am PST, we hosted a Live Q&A on using the recently launched Square for Restaurants solution. We had Restaurants Product Manager, Kevin Yien, here to help answer your questions about this brand new Square product. 

@kevinyien is a Product Manager at Square solely focused on helping restaurants grow their businesses and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Every week he speaks with restaurateurs from around the country to learn about what’s making them successful, what’s causing the most pain, and how hospitality is evolving.

A couple example questions:

• Why did Square build a new point of sale for restaurants?
• I own both a QSR and FSR. Can I use the Restaurants POS at both restaurants?
• How are delivery/pickup services changing the way restaurants operate? What is Square doing about it?

[arcadiafarms]

SERVER REAL-TIME SALES: In the POS app, we're able to see real-time sales stats BUT in the Restaurant App, we cannot see accurate sales stats until all tickets have been closed and tips have been adjusted/settled. Is there a way to see current sales with all closed tickets (minus pending card tips). Ideas?? Thanks!

[kevinyien]

Definitely, @arcadiafarms! Checking on sales is incredibly important to keep a pulse on service and how you’re tracking for the day. You can either use the Run Shift Report or Run Close of Day features to preview reports that will show all your sales (including those with unsettled tips). 📈

[arcadiafarms]

We can adjust the modifier's ranking within a group, but can't seem to adjust the group order when applied to a specific item (they list in alpha order)? We've found a workaround by numbering modifier groups, but is there another way to apply modifiers group in a specific order? Thanks! 🙂

[kevinyien]

Numbers and letters at the beginning are the best way to manually arrange them today (as you’ve discovered). If any modifier sets are required, then you can set minimums on each that will force them to be first in the ordering flow as well to help with efficiency and accuracy. We’re thinking about how to make this better, so let me know if you have ideas and I’d love to chat! 🙂

[arcadiafarms]

EMPLOYEE ROLES: Is there a way to assign multiple roles to an individual and be able to select at clock-in. We have employees that rotate roles occasionally (server, food runner, host, etc.).

[kevinyien]

Can you clarify what else changes between roles? Are employees given different pay rates based on different roles? Do they have different permissions based on different roles? I can have one of our employee management experts weigh in if you’d like too, @arcadiafarms. 👨‍🍳👩‍🍳

[ajsoldo]

Hey Kevin, 

The reason we would like to have employees assigned to different roles at different times is because we would like to differentiate labor costs between different departments. In our business we have employees rotate between FOH and BOH and we would like to be able to designate their labor costs between one or the other since these are both typically tracked differently. Also, yes, sometimes employees will have different permissions for different roles they are in. 

[azcomps]

We need this feature as well. I've spoke to Square Restaurant support a few times about it and supposedly it's a highly requested feature and in the pipeline for a future update.

[lovemychaos]

Discounts

1.  Can you walk through applying discounts to tickets during checkout?  We had it figured out in the POS app, but when we go to the actions menu in the restaurant POS app to try and apply a discount to tickets, the discount option is grayed out.  

Examples:  We have a $4.95 coupon.  We want to apply at checkout.  OR  We have a military percentage discount and want to apply at checkout.

And is it possible to do two discounts at checkout?  One for a dollar amount and another that is a percentage? 

2.  In your "front of house" features you advertise a way to have happy hour or friends & family discounts.  How would I apply a happy hour discount during that time frame?

Repeat Orders

How does this feature work?  In your features list,  it says repeat a single drink, menu item, etc. for faster order entry.

Employee Management

Is there a fee per employee like there is in the regular Square POS app?  Or is this included in the cost of Square for Restaurants?  

Example:  We're not using Square payroll, but would like to use the time clock feature.  

Thank you!

[kevinyien]

Awesome to see you getting deep into the workflow, @lovemychaos!

1. Can you walk through applying discounts to tickets during checkout?

There are a few different ways, and the best will depend on what is best for your restaurant.

The most common way we see restaurants applying discounts is by adding their most common discounts as Function tiles to their grid layout. You can do this by logging in to your Square Dashboard, then going to Menus > Grid Layout > Tap empty space > Function > Select discount. Alternatively, you can always search for any discounts using the search bar at the top of the grid in the Restaurants app.

You can apply as many discounts as your heart desires to a single check, so be as generous as you want!

2. Happy hours

Restaurants and bars that offer happy hours set up separate menus with special items that have their happy hour prices. This allows them to also have different layouts for each menu since folks often order different items during peak happy hour times for faster order entry.

We’re also thinking about how to make this better and be a little more automatic like you’re alluding to, so let us know if you’d be interested in hearing more and we can reach out.

3. Repeats

To repeat items, you can either swipe right in the right side view or tap it to reveal the “Repeat” action. An incredible time saver for really complex cocktails.🍸

To repeat entire courses, you can tap on the header after sending it to the kitchen to reveal the “Repeat” action. Great for ordering “another round”!

4. Employees

It’s included! Understanding your labor—from performance to cost—is fundamental for any restaurant and we wanted to ensure it was one less thing to worry about.

(Quick shoutout to checking out Square Payroll since you aren’t using it. The way timecards automatically feed into it save a lot of administrative headache.)

[geauxbrewing]

After using Restaurants for about 3 weeks (we signed up the day it was available), my servers are about to revolt and force me back to POS. (Which, actually, was working for us just fine.)

Is there a a workflow guide or something that can help my servers understand proper process? Understanding how Restaurants expects them to work vs. what they think is the right way is what I believe is getting in the way right now. The current user guide is more like a quick reference than a user guide.

For instance, I have one server who simply cannot understand how to run a table with a large group and then split the checks at the end. It takes her 10-15 minutes to split checks now vs. when she used POS. 

Another server is completely confused by looking at a Transaction report vs. Adjust Tips regarding who the ticket is owned by because if she is the Owner and another server closes out the table, that other server is listed in the Adjust Tips list. You have to dig down into the transaction list to see who actually owns it (and will receive the tips). This is freaking out some people who think their tips are off. 

From a UI/UX standpoint, it feels like there's more hunting and pecking around to get to a simple feature (naming a check?). In some cases there's no more taps than POS, but when you tap in Restaurants and you're taken to another screen, it "feels" like more steps.

I realize that Restaurants is a new app and, like POS, will receive updates as time goes on, but it's hard to want to pay for this product when it doesn't feel like a good fit for us—especially since we managed with POS for so many years.

Any guidance on how I can talk my servers off the ledge with proper training materials/user guide would be great. 

Thanks.

[kevinyien]

Amazing that you signed up on the first day, @geauxbrewing! Thank you! While any change is always hard, we definitely want to make it as painless as possible.

Are you referring to the Square for Restaurants Quick Tips: Printable POS Guides?

If so, those in conjunction with the rest of the Square for Restaurants articles are what we currently offer in terms of guides and support content.

There is always room to improve, and we plan on adding more over time. You’ve already provided some areas to dig deeper (e.g. splitting checks). Where else would you recommend we get into more detail to help new employees?

Additionally, this sounds like the perfect time to reach to our restaurant specialists about Square Implementation Services, which include remote or onsite staff trainings. There is an additional cost for these services (starting at $600, depending on what you need), but can pay off in the long term.

[katieand]

I’m adding in these questions we got from Instagram!

1. How much extra will it cost?

2. Are there any sit down restaurant owners currently using this? Would love to chat on how it’s working for you and your staff.

[kevinyien]

Thanks for adding these questions in!

1. For each location accessing Square for Restaurants, there is a $60 subscription fee for one device. Each additional device costs $40 per month (per location).

Your processing fee will be 2.6% + $0.10 per swipe, dipped, or tapped transactions. For manually keyed-in payments, your fee is 3.5% + 15¢. For more details on pricing, see this article.


2. Yes! We have a number of restaurants already using the product and love the discussion currently going on here in the Seller Community. For everyone reading this, please continue to use this as a place to connect with one another, share best practices, and give us feedback about what is and isn’t working. As a product manager for Restaurants, I’m always looking to hear directly from business owners about what is and isn’t working, so I appreciate your candor and conversation here.

[gdesanto]

Along with the pricing, the marketing for Square for Restaurnts mentions setting employee permissions, and clocking in and out on the register.

Is there still a per employee charge for setting them up in the system?

[Helen]

@gdestanto Sorry for this late reply! Employee management is included in the Square for Restaurants pricing, so there isn't a per-employee fee. Hope this helps! 

[kevinyien · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for the great questions and participation! Restaurants are such a vibrant community and today is a reflection of that.

To close things out, I wanted to share a few top of minds and gather your feedback to help inform our thinking.

Selling outside the restaurant

Times have changed. Diners expect to get the food they want when they want, where they want. More and more restaurants are finding it harder to survive on in-house sales alone, looking to online ordering, pickup, delivery, catering, private events, and more to stay afloat. The upcoming integration with Caviar is a significant step towards empowering restaurants, but only one step on the journey.

I would love to hear how you all are thinking about this, what your restaurants are doing about it, and how Square could help you even more.

What are some victories you’ve had? What are the struggles you’re facing? What isn’t going to change in the next 10 years?

Knowing your customers better

The old saying is that restaurants are a labor of love, and I’ve certainly found that to be true from working in them, speaking with hundreds of owners, and selling my own small batch ice cream (even though that’s 0.01% as hard as running a restaurant!). In the end, it comes back to forming relationships with your guests. It’s well known that repeat guests are what makes a business. The question is how to make everyone who discovers you online or steps in your door feel like a regular.

Whether you are a quick service restaurant that is pumping out hundreds of orders during the lunch rush, a fine dining establishment that researches every guest before they come, or the local watering hole, we all seek to give our customers the best experience possible.

How are you doing this today? What is the superpower you wish you had? How can restaurants work together to make this better?

This community represents a wealth of knowledge and experience greater than anything we could fathom within our four walls, so I’m truly excited to read and learn what you have to say. Thank you again for today, and looking forward to your collective wisdom.

Cheers 🍻