Point of sale (POS) software offers people a new level of convenience when processing electronic transactions in a wide array of locations. However, in a report of more than 150 user reviews of POS software, the most frequently mentioned concern from reviewers was a lack of reliability.
Reviewers of nearly every product reported bugs, freezing, or crashing of the software tool. Users found these to create significant challenges when working in a typically fast-paced retail or restaurant environment.
“The app constantly crashed when taking large orders,” one reviewer said. “My co-workers and myself eventually resorted to writing the order first and then submitting it when we were out of view of the guests. It was almost impossible to split checks, and it became tedious to process multiple payments. It required multiple reboots throughout the course of a shift.”
G2 Crowd, business software review platform with more than 80,000 user reviews, recently released its Spring 2016 report on POS software, including seven products: Square, Aloha POS, Shopify POS, MICROS-Retail, Vend, Lavu and Maitre’D. The report identified a variety of challenges and benefits associated with these pieces of software.
Users consistently noted problems with POS tools that are Internet reliant.
“When the internet goes down so does your ability to take credit cards,” said one user.
Reviewers also listed a variety of features they appreciated about the POS platform they use. Most often they referenced how easy POS software is to learn and to use.
“[I like] the ease of use for the average user,” one reviewer said. “Minimal training is required to get someone functional on the software.”
One point of conflict for reviewers was around mobile POS systems or applications. Users typically found tools available on a mobile phone or tablet to be cheaper and more convenient than other systems. However, they also indicated that these systems are especially susceptible to stability and internet-connectivity issues.
In the report, Square, Aloha POS and Shopify POS were the three products named as leaders, as they received strong reviewer satisfaction scores as well as high market presence scores. Square received the highest customer satisfaction score of the seven tools.
User reviews in a software space help provide feedback to software vendors on current product issues and ways to improve products in future releases. POS users clearly stated that stability and ease of use are important to customer satisfaction. Time will tell which of the POS industry leaders will effectively address these issues and potentially emerge as tomorrow’s leaders in the space.