Service experience is crucial to customer satisfaction, and the easiest way to make customers happy (except for serving delicious food of course) is by choosing the right forms of payment processing for your restaurant. Customers are paying with a variety of methods these days and are looking not only for a restaurant that accepts credit cards, but secure digital payments as well. Shortening the time it takes diners to pay for their meals makes the dining experience more enjoyable, and increases the likelihood that they will return.

Your PSP – Payment Service Provider – will provide a range of benefits for you to pass on to your customer, such as acceptance of a wide range of payment options, keeping up with advanced technology, and ensuring that payments are secure through PCI DSS compliance.

mPOS – Payments Apps

mPOS for restaurants improves the customer dining experience by streamlining the ordering and payment processes. Instead of using a legacy cash register, which either requires your diners to either wait in a queue, or hand over their card or cash to waitstaff, mPOS will enable your restaurant to accept all payment types – credit cards, eWallets, or mobile money payments – from the table.

With mPOS your servers can give your diners a more convenient option for payment at the end of their meal, by accepting, processing, and providing a receipt, all from the comfort of their seat. Not only does this increase customer satisfaction by making the process more convenient for the client, it is more efficient for the server as they do not need to travel back and forth from the table to the register. It is also a more secure option as mPOS systems do not store sensitive information on their devices, and they maintain the high level of security compliance of the PCI DSS.

Multiple payment options

These days, customers are carrying their money in many different forms – from traditional credit or debit cards, to eWallets and other payments via mobile apps, such as QR codes, rather than carrying cash. With these alternate forms of payment, customers can worry less about their spend as they aren’t limited by the cash they have on hand. By accepting all payment types, it’s proven that restaurant income and revenue increases.

With an estimated 2 billion mobile device users worldwide, smartphone payments are an increasingly attractive payment option for consumers. QR Codes and eWallets are fast, secure, and convenient ways for your restaurant to accept payments.

The use of mobile phones is on the rise in Africa, and so is the use of QR Codes. QR Codes are two-dimensional square-shaped barcodes, which eliminate the need for a traditional point-of-sale system or transaction fees. The customer uses their phone to scan the barcode, and the payment is processed swiftly and securely. Your restaurant can also use QR Codes for marketing purposes, prompting the customer to scan and be directed to your website or social media page.

eWallets are secure digital purses holding currency linked to credit, debit, or prepaid cards. They are easy to use, secure, and fast, and done completely via a wave of a smartphone using NFC technology. Think of eWallets as a secure, digital way to accept credit cards.

Pin & Chip card reader

Pin & Chip cards have emerged as a new standard in credit card security. The pin & chip cards were developed to introduce a global system for accepting card payments, and to reduce fraud. The chip in the card is less susceptible to fraud or duplication, making it a safe and low-cost way to accept physical credit cards from customers.

Touch & Pay option (the latest card reading tech)

Tap and go (also known as contactless card) payments are on the rise in Africa. In 2017, Africa and the Middle East saw a 27x increase in tap and go payments. Tap and go is another way of utilising Near Field Communication – or NFC – to tap a card or device and securely transmit payment data.

Many banks across Africa are beginning to offer cards with tap and go technology. Companies such as MasterCard have an initiative to make it the new standard, to create greater payment consistency. Wide adoption within Africa and worldwide makes contactless payments an important option for your restaurant.

Centralized reporting

Having a single PSP to accept a wide range of payment types gives you the benefit of centralized reporting. The need to collect the data for all of your received payments from multiple places and reconcile them is eliminated – it is all in one centralized place. This saves your business time and money, and reduces the risk of missing a payment in your calculations.

Payment processing for restaurants is an important element of the business, and in maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. The technology customers use to make payments is constantly changing, and your PSP will keep up on these trends for you, ensuring that you are able to accept a wide range of currencies beyond the traditional notes and credit cards, and maintain a high level of security with PCI DSS compliance. With these benefits, you will ensure customer satisfaction, and ease of use and maintenance by your restaurant staff.