Most Full-Service Restaurants Are Frustrated With Their Payments Services, a Survey Finds

Frustration with payments runs high among full-service restaurant operators, so much so that only 20% expressed no frustrations in a new TouchBistro Inc. report released Monday.

The other 80% had some issue with their payments services, with many of them, 21%, citing a lack of transparency on pricing. That was followed by 18% who are tired of manually entering batches into accounting software and 16% who do not like to deal with multiple vendors and point-of-sale terminals. Other top frustrations are manually entering transaction amounts in terminals (15%) and dealing with small vendors or resellers that do not inspire trust (9%).

Merchants of all sizes have long complained about the intricacies of the payments industry, but many are now choosing integrated-payments systems to alleviate some of the challenges of managing multiple business operations. Two-thirds of the more than 500 restaurant executives surveyed said they use an integrated POS system. Research firm Maru Matchbox conducted the survey for Toronto-based TouchBistro in December. TouchBistro develops tablet-based point-of-sale systems for the hospitality industry.

Cash, credit, and debit card payment acceptance is almost universal among full-service restaurants, with some beginning to accept mobile payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. TouchBistro found that 18% of restaurants accept all three.

That may be linked to a push for contactless payments. Visa Inc. forecasts there will be 100 million contactless cards in circulation in the United States by the end of 2019.

“More merchants are accepting contactless payments, so have the ability to accept mobile wallets as well,” John Florinis, TouchBistro vice president of payments, says in an email to Digital Transactions News. “As merchants upgrade their POS and payment devices to accept EMV, most all new hardware includes contactless payments acceptance capabilities so the merchants are prepared for greater consumer adoption of mobile wallets.”

The survey also found that online food ordering is popular among full-service restaurants. Twenty-seven percent use just one delivery service, like Grubhub, but 73% use two or more. Online orders also tend to have higher average tickets than face-to-face ones for these restaurants, with most saying consumers spend up to 20% more because of more add-ons and more menu items per check.