Whether it’s a cozy afternoon in a café with coffee and cake, an evening in your favorite restaurant around the corner or Sunday brunch in a bistro with friends, in the end there’s always one question: cash or card? In the background, restaurateurs are divided into two camps. Some focus on the time savings and reduced susceptibility to errors that card payments bring. Others see them as a financial burden and want to hold on to cash – especially in the context of tipping.

Hospitality – with cash and card payment

In Germany, one thing is not yet on the menu for some restaurateurs: card payment. The main disadvantage from their point of view relates to the additional costs. On the one hand, there are often rental fees for the card readers. On the other hand, transaction fees are incurred for each payment. When paying by debit card, these amount to less than one percent on average. However, if the guest uses a credit card, these fees can double or triple (MDR News). In addition, the immediate availability of cash payments seems more tempting for some.

On the other hand, there are the card-supporting restaurateurs. They see the perceived more hygienic card world, a shortened payment process or possible spontaneous visits for all those who do not carry a lot of cash as decisive advantages.

Regardless of their own tendencies, however, the following ultimately applies: customers usually wish to have a choice. If restaurants only allow one payment method, this can have a negative impact on customer satisfaction. According to the eat.pay-love study by Mastercard and orderbird, over 90% of respondents expected to be able to make cashless payments in 2021. Therefore, managers should find ways and means to offer cash and card payments – in a cost-saving and efficient manner.

Open questions

But this leads directly to the next question: What about tipping for card payments? Customers have doubts as to whether the tip really reaches the employee when paying by card. Restaurateurs and staff, on the other hand, fear that the tip will be lower if the guest does not pay in cash.

However, the point about tipping being against the introduction of card payment can be quickly refuted. This is because the money reaches the desired recipient in different ways: many guests, for example, still tend to tip staff in cash when paying by card. Some card readers are equipped with a tip function. This allows the customer to conveniently select which part of the tip should go to the staff member and this part is shown separately from the total amount. If in doubt, it is worth asking the staff directly in order to choose the right solution.

Modern cash register solution as a standard answer

It therefore depends on the right checkout setup in order to be able to meet the desired payment diversity. For restaurateurs who do not want to exclude any guests and at the same time want to benefit from both worlds themselves, it can also make sense to switch to a modern POS system.

Our ITR cash register enables, for example, payment with various payment systems (EC card, credit card, ApplePay, etc.), central data maintenance, table management functions or employee evaluations, which together reduce organizational effort. If the solution is expanded to include the kitchen monitor, the processes between service and kitchen staff can also be optimized – without the need for excessive receipt management.

Conclusion

Every guest is ideally free to choose whether they want to pay in cash or by card. It is essential to integrate all payment methods into the POS system in order to achieve greater security, transparency and efficiency in business operations – for example with POS software.

Would you like to do something good for your guests and yourself? Then let’s talk about all the advantages of the ITR cash register!