Handheld ordering: does it really save a lap?

Every provider of handheld tills makes the same promise: give your servers a device, and they will stop walking back and forth to the till. Orders will reach the kitchen sooner, servers will spend more time with guests and the whole floor will run faster. It sounds obvious, and in many venues it is true.

But not everywhere. In a small room with the till a few steps from every table, a handheld saves almost nothing, and it can add something guests notice: a server looking at a screen instead of at them. The honest answer to whether handheld ordering saves a lap is that it depends on the room, the service and how the device is used.

This guide covers how to measure what a handheld saves, what it costs at the table, the kinds of service where it clearly wins and where it does not, and how to make it work if you decide to try it. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

Handheld ordering means taking the order on a device at the table and sending it straight to the kitchen and bar from there. The server no longer writes on a pad, walks to a fixed till and types the order in again.

That changes three things. The walk to the till disappears. The order reaches the kitchen sooner. And the order is entered once, so it cannot be copied wrongly from a pad. Each of those can be measured, and each matters more in some venues than others.

It also changes what the server does at the table: they hold a device, and they look at it while entering the order. That is the cost side of the trade.

The first saving is the walk. Every order taken on a pad means a trip to the till, and often a wait there if another server is using it. In a large room, on a terrace or across two floors, each trip can take a minute or more, and each table may need several over the evening: drinks, food, more drinks, desserts.

To see what that costs in your venue, count it. On a busy night, ask a server to note each trip to the till and how long it took, including any wait. Multiply by the number of servers and tables. A simple time and motion study like this often surprises venues in both directions: some find hours of walking, others find very little.

If the total is small, a handheld will not change your evening much. If it is large, it may change it a great deal.

The second saving is time in the kitchen. An order sent from the table reaches the kitchen as soon as the server presses send, not two or three minutes later after the walk and the wait. Across a table's evening, that can take several minutes off the wait for each course.

Those minutes matter most at the busiest hour, when a server with five tables may take several orders before reaching the till. The last of those orders may sit in the server's pad for five minutes or more. With a handheld, each order goes the moment it is taken.

Measure it by comparing ticket times from order to kitchen before and after, or simply by noting when orders were taken and when they reached the kitchen on a few busy nights.

The third saving is accuracy. An order written on a pad and typed into a till is entered twice, and each entry is a chance for a mistake: a change written but not typed, a dish misread from handwriting, an order typed against the wrong table.

Handheld ordering removes the copying step. The server enters each dish and its changes once, at the table, where the guest can be asked if something is unclear. Our guide to taking an order without writing it twice covers the difference in detail.

Count remakes caused by ordering mistakes before and after, and you will see whether this saving is real in your venue.

Bars are one of the places handheld ordering helps most. A server working the tables in a busy bar may spend more time queuing at the bar's till than serving guests. With a handheld, the drinks order goes straight to the bartender's screen or printer while the server is still at the table.

That changes how the bar works too. Orders arrive one at a time as they are taken, rather than in bunches when servers reach the till, so the bartenders can work steadily instead of in bursts. The second round reaches the table sooner, and guests order a third more often.

A handheld makes it easier to record seats as the order is taken. The server picks the seat, then the guest's dishes, and each plate is linked to the person who ordered it. On a pad, seats are often written and then lost when the order is typed in.

Seats matter most for large tables and for dishes that look alike. A runner who knows which plate goes to seat three places it without asking, and the table never hears the question "who had the chicken?".

Against those savings sits the cost at the table. A server entering an order on a device looks at the screen for part of the conversation. Done badly, it makes the server look like a clerk and the guest feel processed.

Done well, the cost is small. The server listens first, looking at the guest, then enters the order quickly, then looks up to read it back. A well laid out system keeps screen time to a few seconds per dish. Our guide to tableside ordering: eyes up, not on a screen covers how.

The cost is highest in fine dining, where guests expect undivided attention, and lowest in busy casual venues, where speed matters more.

Handheld ordering clearly wins in large dining rooms, where the till is far from many tables. It wins on terraces and in gardens, where the walk inside is long. It wins in venues on more than one floor. And it wins in busy bars and casual restaurants with many tables per server and many rounds per table.

It also wins wherever orders are complex: many options, many changes, many allergies. Entering them once, at the table, removes the mistakes that copying creates.

In those venues, the laps saved and the minutes gained are large, and the cost at the table is small by comparison.

Handheld ordering wins least in small rooms where every table is a few steps from the till. The walk it saves is short, and the device adds little. It wins least where servers have few tables and plenty of time, and in fine dining, where a device at the table can feel out of place.

Some fine dining venues still use handhelds, but keep them out of sight: the server takes the order in conversation, steps away and enters it at a side station or on a device in a pocket. That keeps the moment at the table personal while still entering the order once.

If your venue is small and calm, a fixed till near the floor may serve you as well as handhelds, at a lower cost.

Guests do not see laps or minutes in the kitchen; they see waits. The wait for the first drink, the wait for the food, the wait for the bill. Handheld ordering shortens the first two, sometimes noticeably, because orders reach the bar and kitchen sooner.

Speed of service matters most at the start of the meal. A first drink that arrives a few minutes after ordering, rather than ten, sets the tone for the evening. Handhelds help most where that first wait has been a problem.

Many venues use handhelds for payment as well as ordering: the server brings the bill and the card terminal together, or takes payment on a device at the table. That can shorten the wait at the end of the meal, which guests often notice more than any other.

Whether it helps depends on your card terminals. If the terminal is separate from the handheld, the server carries both; if they are combined, the server carries one. Our guide to faster payment, measured in actual seconds covers the end of the meal.

Sometimes the walk to the till was doing something useful. A server passing the pass on the way to the till noticed plates waiting, spoke to the chef or picked up a finished dish for another table. Remove the walk, and those small moments can disappear too.

Plan for them. Make sure servers still visit the pass regularly, or give someone the job of running food, so the plates that used to be collected on the way still leave the kitchen promptly.

Some tables take a long time to order: a group that cannot decide, a guest with many questions, a table that wants to hear every special twice. With a pad, the server often leaves and comes back. With a handheld, it is tempting to stand and wait with the device in hand.

Treat a handheld like a pad in that moment. Answer the questions, leave the table to decide and come back. The device does not change the pace of the guest, only the speed of what happens after they order.

POS hardware for handheld ordering must be light, robust and quick. A small tablet in a sturdy case, or a dedicated handheld designed for hospitality, both work. Consumer phones can work too, if the system is designed for a small screen, but check that the menu and the check are easy to use at that size.

Battery life matters: a device must last a full shift, or be swapped at a quiet moment. So does durability: devices are dropped, splashed and left on hot surfaces. Our guide to POS hardware: what a venue actually needs covers the choices.

Handhelds depend on the wifi reaching every table. A terrace at the edge of the signal, a corner behind a pillar or a basement room can leave a server holding a device that cannot send. Test the wifi at every table before you rely on handhelds, and add access points where it is weak.

Keep the guests' wifi separate from the network the handhelds use, so a busy room of guests streaming video does not slow the orders. Our guide to restaurant internet: two lines, one service covers the network.

Most venues give each server their own device for the shift, plus one or two spares. Sharing devices between servers saves money but costs time, because servers wait for a device or hunt for one at the busiest moment.

Count your servers on the busiest shift, add spares, and decide where devices are charged and stored between shifts. A charging station by the pass, with each device in its place, makes it easy to see that every device is ready.

Handhelds carry the till around the room, so they need the same care as the till itself. Each server should sign in as themselves, the device should lock itself when left untouched and lost devices should be signed out at once.

Keep track of the devices at the end of each shift. A handheld left on a table, in a coat pocket or taken home by mistake is both an expense and a risk. A simple check-in at the charging station before servers leave solves most of it.

Handhelds cost money: the devices, cases, chargers, spares and sometimes a fee per device from the POS provider. Add the cost of improving the wifi if needed. Over a year, a handful of devices can be a meaningful sum for a small venue.

Weigh that against the time saved and the mistakes avoided. If handhelds save each server twenty minutes of walking a night and reduce remakes by a few dishes a week, they often pay for themselves. If they save very little, the money may be better spent elsewhere. Our guide to tablet POS: cheaper until it is not covers the hidden costs.

A handheld only saves time if servers are quick with it. Train every server before their first shift with a device: finding dishes, entering changes and seats, sending and holding courses, and fixing mistakes. Practise with your own menu and your hardest orders.

Train the hospitality side too: listen first, look at the guest, enter the order quickly, read it back. A server who has learned the device well spends less time looking at it, not more.

If you introduce handhelds, measure the effect. Before the change, record the trips to the till, the time from order to kitchen and the remakes caused by ordering mistakes on a few busy nights. After the change, record the same things on similar nights.

Ask the servers how their evening feels, and ask a few guests what they noticed. The numbers and the impressions together tell you whether the handhelds earn their place.

Some venues combine handhelds with ordering from the guest's own phone. Guests who want to order themselves, especially repeat rounds of drinks, can scan the code at the table; guests who prefer a server can order in person, on the server's handheld.

That combination saves the most laps of all, because many repeat orders never involve the server. It also frees servers to spend their time on welcome, recommendations and care rather than on taking the fourth round of drinks.

If you are unsure, try handhelds in one section first, or for one service a week. Measure the laps, the time to the kitchen and the remakes in that section against the rest of the room. Ask the servers who used them what they thought.

A trial of a month usually shows whether handhelds earn their place. It also shows the practical problems, such as weak wifi in one corner or devices that need charging mid-shift, before you buy for the whole floor.

An invented brasserie has a large dining room and a terrace, with two fixed tills inside. On busy evenings, servers on the terrace walk inside for every order, and at peak they wait at the tills behind each other. Orders often reach the kitchen several minutes after they are taken.

The brasserie trials handhelds on the terrace for a month, with each terrace server carrying a small tablet and the wifi extended to cover every table. Servers are trained before the first shift and taught to read orders back from the screen.

Over the month, orders from the terrace reach the kitchen sooner, remakes for missed changes fall and the terrace servers say they spend far less time walking. The brasserie extends handhelds to the dining room, keeping one fixed till for the bar.

servearound's point of sale runs in a browser and is laid out for a tablet, so a server can carry the till to the table on one. Checks open from the floor plan, dishes are rung in with their options and removals, by seat if the server likes, and rounds are sent, held or fired from the table, reaching each station's kitchen screen at once. On a screen paired as a till, each server signs in with their name and PIN, so every order is recorded against them, and it locks itself after two minutes untouched.

Guests can also order from their own phones using the menu they open with the table's QR code, when the venue turns ordering on, and their rounds join the same table's check. Kitchen analytics then show ticket times by day and hour, so the effect of a change can be measured. See Order Fulfillment and pricing.

In large rooms, on terraces and across floors, usually yes. In small rooms with the till nearby, much less.

Count the trips to the till and the time they take on a busy night, and the remakes caused by copying mistakes.

Only if servers look at the screen instead of the guest. Listen first, enter quickly and read back.

Sometimes, with the device kept out of sight and the order entered away from the table.

Light, robust devices with a full shift of battery and a screen size the system is designed for.

Usually. Test the signal at every table before relying on handhelds.

One per server on the busiest shift, plus a spare or two.

Yes. Combining handhelds with guest ordering saves the most laps, especially for repeat rounds.

Handheld ordering saves the walk to the till, gets orders to the kitchen sooner and removes copying mistakes, at the cost of some screen time at the table. It clearly wins in large rooms, on terraces, across floors and in busy venues with complex orders; it wins least in small, calm rooms and in fine dining.

Measure the laps and minutes before deciding, make sure the wifi reaches every table, give each server a charged device, train them to keep their eyes on the guest, combine handhelds with guest ordering where it suits, and measure again after the change.