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A Comprehensive Review of
TouchBistro
In-Depth Analysis
TouchBistro POS Review
In the contemporary, digital world, restaurants rely greatly on efficient point-of-sale (POS) systems for their day-to-day operations. One such prominent software is TouchBistro POS, a dedicated POS for restaurants and eateries. TouchBistro is one of the best iPad-based POS systems that can help restaurants simplify many of their daily functions. It can also help streamline and improve various daily operations for restaurants and eateries.
TouchBistro POS offers reliability, efficiency, and seamless integration with the restaurant business. This has helped it emerge as a solid choice for restaurant owners. This article seeks to offer insights that would help users take their businesses to new heights by deciding if TouchBistro POS is the right choice. The comprehensive review also explores the various features, benefits, and things to consider before selecting TouchBistro POS to help restaurant businesses make informed decisions.
With a user base of over 29,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, TouchBistro has established itself as a leading player in the POS industry. The system boasts a plethora of features – table management, reservation management, menu customization, order processing, payment handling, customer management, staff management, inventory control, reporting and analytics, and more.
TouchBistro’s Primary Offerings
TouchBistro offers four main restaurant service management software products, with Point-of-sale being its primary offering:
Restaurant Point-of-Sale Services
TouchBistro’s restaurant point-of-sale system helps a restaurant maximize its profits. One can quickly increase sales using built-in tools to increase check sizes, speed up table turnover, and highlight profitable menu items. This mobile point-of-sale (POS) system speeds up seating reduces order errors, and guarantees seamless payment processing that helps improve the overall guest experience.
It has an on-the-go system that manages staff, floor plans, and expenses and offers insights for optimization, whether on-site or remotely. With the help of this, businesses can easily save time and money. TouchBistro provides restaurants with an all-inclusive solution that improves their productivity and builds them up for long-term success in the competitive sector.
Front-of-House Solutions
The Front of House Solutions from TouchBistro can boost a restaurant’s productivity. It can arrange processes automatically by giving employees more time to focus on the visitor experience. This is a cloud-based Point of Sale (POS) system, which enables easy order taking, immediate bill splitting, and menu revisions from any location.
With TouchBistro’s front-of-house solutions, managers can process payment with an integrated system to ensure safe, fast transactions without human input. A Customer Facing Display, which gives visitors visual confirmation of their orders in real-time, improves service and reduces errors. This all-inclusive Front of House Solutions from TouchBistro allows restaurants to run efficiently, resulting in a flawless and delightful dining experience.
Back-of-House Solutions
TouchBistro offers two main types of back-of-house solutions, including:
Kitchen Display Systems
The TouchBistro Kitchen Display System (KDS) can help transform restaurant kitchen management by guaranteeing prompt and flawless order fulfillment. It helps in restaurant management in a multitude of ways:
- Thanks to immediate on-screen tickets and audio reminders, staff members never miss an order, which speeds up service. By combining all orders from online and point-of-sale systems, the KDS reduces duplication of orders and boosts productivity.
- It simplifies communication between the front and back of the house, reduces errors, permits speedy ticket clearance, and offers a history view for simple error corrections. With this system, wait times are decreased by carefully allocating orders to particular stations, and uninterrupted operation is guaranteed even when there is no internet.
- Customizable displays, touchscreen interfaces, and damage-resistant hardware for kitchen environments improve KDS usability. Collaboration is facilitated via cross-screen communication, which synchronizes several KDS screens for effective order tracking.
- The system, which uses analytics and reporting, offers information on order details, bump times, ticket averages, and other topics to give managers insightful knowledge about kitchen performance.
TouchBistro’s KDS is vital for smoothing restaurant operations, improving order processing, and increasing kitchen productivity.
Profit Management
With TouchBistro Profit Management, a complete back-office solution powered by MarginEdge, one can increase the profitability of one’s restaurant.
- It features digital invoice processing that helps keep inventory management in order and save time. Invoices can be scanned, emailed, or photographed for prompt digitization, giving a precise picture of food costs in less than 48 hours.
- Owners can maximize margins in real time with recipe management, menu analysis tools, and centralized solutions for cost calculations and ingredient price changes.
- Visual budget tracking lets owners and managers monitor profitability and make better financial decisions. One can further streamline processes by placing orders through the program and centrally controlling order guidelines.
- The software decreases errors in human entry by automating the nightly import of labor and sales data. It also supports limitless bill payment in the United States without processing or transaction fees—a feature especially useful for the restaurant business.
- Sophisticated controls for multi-location administration provide uniformity among locations, standardizing stock and granting entry to combined sales reports on a centralized, private platform.
TouchBistro Profit administration optimizes back-office processes, opening the door to more profitability and efficient restaurant administration.
Core Features of TouchBistro
The following are the main features of the Restaurant POS system TouchBistro.
Table and Reservation Management
TouchBistro’s extensive table and reservation management features help maximize the dining experience. This makes it easy for restaurant operators to create floor plans, place employees in designated areas, and monitor seat availability. The reservation capability of the system makes booking and guest tracking much more accessible, which helps front-of-house operations run smoothly.
Menu Management
TouchBistro boasts excellent features that help with customization. This is particularly notable in its ability to control menus. The system allows for scheduling restaurant specials, flexibly arranging menus, and managing takeout orders effectively. It provides color-coded highlights, customizable menu options, and thorough item descriptions, all of which help increase staff productivity and improve the ordering experience.
Order Management
Order processing is quick and accurate with TouchBistro’s table ordering, customer-facing display (CFD), and kitchen display systems (KDS). The integration of external delivery services like DoorDash makes operations much easier for restaurants providing pickup and delivery services. The KDS of the system makes it easier for front-of-house and back-of-house employees to communicate with one another, which reduces errors and improves order accuracy.
Payment Processing
TouchBistro Payments, powered by Chase, offers a dependable and safe payment system for customers and restaurants. The software supports debit and credit cards, digital payments (such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay), and contactless purchases. Even without an internet connection, transactions can go through smoothly thanks to offline payment capabilities.
Customer Management
Work related to building and maintaining customer relationships is simplified through TouchBistro’s customer management tools. The system captures and stores essential customer data, including phone numbers, email addresses, and birthdays, without compromising privacy. Automated marketing campaigns and loyalty programs are sent to the customer for engagement and retention. The ability to send customized emails and targeted advertisements improves the customer’s experience.
Inventory Management
TouchBistro also adds inventory management functionalities, enabling companies to keep track of their materials. Supply chain management becomes efficient and seamless when features like low stock alerts, exportable stock level data, and integration with inventory management providers are in place. Although more complex capabilities might need to be integrated with outside vendors, TouchBistro’s fundamental inventory tools meet the basic requirements of eateries.
Reporting and Analytics
The cloud-based architecture of the system enables extensive reporting and analytics. More than 50 report types are available on TouchBistro and can be filtered using various criteria. The scheduling and automation of report generation improves the availability of critical insights. Decision-making processes are aided by the integration with third-party analytics solutions like MarginEdge and Avero, which provide comprehensive business data.
Staff Management
TouchBistro’s integrated features make staff management more efficient. Simplified shift management is made possible by the clock-in/clock-out feature, real-time statistics on staff hours, and customized account assignments. Role-based customizable permissions improve system security and control.
Gift Cards
Businesses can sell both physical and digital gift cards using TouchBistro. A customized touch is added by the gift card customization options, which allow designs for different occasions. The purchasing of digital gift cards using mobile apps is made more accessible by the integration with TouchBistro card-not-present payments.
Integrations
TouchBistro integrates seamlessly with a range of best-in-class software solutions. From payment processing and accounting to inventory management and business insights, the system’s compatibility with external providers ensures a comprehensive ecosystem that aligns with diverse business needs.
User Reviews and Satisfaction
Understanding how users perceive and interact with TouchBistro is essential in evaluating the system’s real-world performance.
Positive Reviews
The user-friendly interface of TouchBistro is praised by many users, who highlight how well it simplifies daily tasks. The elements related to table and reservation management are commended for their efficacy in facilitating fast administration of reservations and ideal seating arrangements. The usefulness of the comprehensive analytics and reporting capabilities in monitoring sales, staff output, and overall restaurant performance is emphasized.
Critical Reviews
Concerns over the exclusive compatibility with Apple products are voiced by specific consumers, who point out possible drawbacks for companies using other platforms. Users who favor more superficial price structures note that the à la carte pricing model may be a disadvantage even though it offers customization choices. Occasional bugs or issues spark discussions regarding customer service responsiveness in resolving technical issues.
Overall Review
Despite these reservations, a lot of companies are happy with TouchBistro’s capacity to improve client experiences, expedite processes, and offer insightful data via its reporting functions. The committed customer service team has been specially commended for its promptness and efficient problem-solving. The fact that TouchBistro can be used in both quick-service and fine-dining restaurants has certainly helped the product gain favorable reviews overall.
Pros and Cons of TouchBistro
Here’s an overview of the strengths and drawbacks of this POS system.
Pros
The following can be considered to be the main perks of using TouchBistro, as pointed out by users.
- Customizability: Over the past few years, TouchBistro has repeatedly achieved the top-grossing spot among POS apps on iTunes, a notable accomplishment highlighting its significance. The application has attracted a sizable user base, and many users have tailored the platform to meet their unique requirements. While some might find the frequent updates alarming, they indicate the company's health and growth. Many clients like the regular updates and see them as a benefit.
- Ease of use: TouchBistro’s attractive interface and user-friendly design have garnered praise. The interface is sleek, contemporary, and generally easy to navigate. Additionally, the initial setup is simplified and requires less effort and technical know-how. Because of its ability to cut costs, such efficiency makes it a desirable choice for companies seeking efficacy and simplicity.
- Affordability: When it comes to point-of-sale systems, TouchBistro is a more affordable option because it requires less hardware than larger, more complex systems. This affordability offers a workable solution with lower total expenses, which is especially beneficial for small firms with a single terminal.
- Restaurant-specific features: TouchBistro POS is tailored to meet the unique needs of restaurants, offering specialized features such as table management, reservation management, menu management, and more.
- Smooth learning curve: The user-friendly interface ensures a smooth and intuitive experience for staff and management, facilitating efficient operation without a steep learning curve.
- Smooth integration with third-party apps: TouchBistro integrates with various third-party applications, allowing better functionality and expanded capabilities to meet specific business requirements.
- Highly customizable: The POS system offers a high level of customization, allowing restaurant owners to tailor the platform to their specific needs and preferences.
Cons
Users reviewing the POS system also flagged the following downsides:
- Exclusive to Apple devices: TouchBistro POS operates exclusively on Apple devices, limiting its compatibility to iOS platforms.
- À la carte approach may increase costs: The pricing structure involves paying for each feature separately, potentially increasing overall costs as additional functionalities are added.
- Slow support responses: Many complaints have surfaced about extended wait times and slow responses from customer support agents; some consumers expressed annoyance over a multi-day wait.
- Bugs: Many users expressed dissatisfaction with the software's functioning by reporting bugs in the reporting feature.
- Insufficient inventory and reporting features: Certain users wished for more extensive inventory and reporting functionalities, suggesting a possible lack of the platform's feature set.
TouchBistro’s investments have gone mainly toward improving the company’s main point of sale system. Even if there have been changes, some consumers may still feel that some aspects—mainly reporting and inventory—are still inadequate. As a result, users may have to spend money on add-ons to get a more complete solution. While the accounting and reporting functionalities are straightforward, there have been recent additions of connections with Xero and Shogo. With 7Shifts integrated, employee management has become more efficient, and customer data processing has become simpler.
Pricing and Plans for TouchBistro
Here is a complete breakdown of TouchBistro POS pricing structure:
- For $69 a month, TouchBistro POS provides a powerful cloud-based restaurant management system. Essential functions, including staff management, tableside ordering, reporting and analytics, menu and floor plan management, and integrations, are all included in Point of Sale (POS) software.
- Users can customize their system by selecting Front of House (FOH), Back of House (BOH), and guest engagement solutions. The FOH solutions offer a dependable, user-friendly point-of-sale system that can boost revenue, improve visitor satisfaction, and simplify operations for as little as $69 per month. FOH choices include payments for clear terms, affordable rates, and customer-facing displays to improve the visitor experience.
- The Kitchen Display System, which streamlines FOH and BOH communication, enhances order accuracy, and guarantees a flawless guest experience, is available for $19 monthly for BOH solutions.
- With a monthly fee of $330, Profit Management offers automated accounting procedures, cost tracking, and effective inventory management to optimize profitability.
- The pricing structure also includes online ordering (beginning at $50 per month), reservations (starting at $229 per month), and loyalty (starting at $99 per month).
- Guest engagement solutions include marketing (beginning at $99 per month) and gift cards (starting at $25 per month).
- It's possible to pay extra for hardware and some services; delivery and processing costs might be involved.
Why Choose TouchBistro?
Here are the reasons why restaurants and eateries can choose TouchBistro as their go-to POS system.
Easy Setup
Setting up TouchBistro POS is quick and straightforward, with the caveat that the system exclusively operates on iPads. The system can be installed on existing hardware or purchased directly from TouchBistro, and live demos, workshops, tutorials, and onboarding support are available to assist with the setup process.
Ease of Use
TouchBistro POS is designed with user-friendliness in mind, offering a simple and intuitive interface. Guides, live demos, and workshops are provided to ensure users can easily navigate the system. The iOS-based interface is particularly user-friendly, and customization options cater to individual restaurant needs.
Improved Security
TouchBistro prioritizes cardholder information security, storing only the last four digits of cards for processing purposes. The POS system employs SSL encryption for secure internet transmission, and measures are in place to prevent unauthorized access. Regularly monitor and investigate reported vulnerabilities to contribute to the system’s overall security.
Customer Service & Support
TouchBistro provides around-the-clock customer support, accessible through phone, chat, and email – even on holidays. Users also get a searchable knowledge base comes with resources such as articles, videos, and newsletters, alongside live workshops. The POS system provides thorough training to users, and specialists can remotely access the system for issue diagnosis.
Members receive round-the-clock phone or email support for any questions. However, some reviewers drew attention to possible delays in support response times. TouchBistro interacts with customers on review platforms to quickly resolve issues.
With professional support agents, the platform provides multiple assistance methods, such as phone, email, support tickets, and live chat. TouchBistro’s menu configuration and network setup are covered in short films on their YouTube channel. The website has a comprehensive support section with setup and written instructions.
Additional Features
Two key bonus features make TouchBistro an excellent choice:
- Reservation Communication: TouchBistro simplifies floor planning, staff assignments, and seat availability tracking. The reservation feature enables efficient management, including customer preferences, allergies, and special occasions. Two-way SMS and email communication keep guests informed, and cancellation fees can be processed with a Stripe account.
- Marketing Management: The POS system integrates with a marketing platform to automate campaigns and engage customers effectively. Their loyalty feature rewards customers with detailed customer information, which helps personalize interactions.
Final Verdict
TouchBistro POS is an efficient, user-friendly solution designed specifically for the restaurant industry. With its wide range of features, customizable options, and seamless integration with third-party applications, TouchBistro caters to the diverse needs of restaurants of all sizes.
While the exclusive compatibility with Apple devices may limit its appeal to businesses using other platforms, the overall performance, customer support, and continuous updates position TouchBistro as a reliable choice for restaurant owners seeking a solid POS system.
The pricing structure, while flexible, may pose a challenge for budget-conscious businesses, especially with the à la carte approach that can potentially lead to higher costs as additional features are added.
For those in the restaurant industry who prioritize a tailored POS system that is easy to use, customizable, and feature-rich, TouchBistro POS is worth considering for streamlining their operations and enhancing the overall customer experience.