by Ben Dwyer You might be familiar with Revention because it’s become the preferred POS system on the show “Spike’s Bar Rescue.” In addition to bars, Revention’s POS solution is designed for pizza parlors, fast casual and quick service restaurants, and full service restaurants.
Revention’s founders decided to make the POS solution’s name a combination of the words “revolutionary,” “re-invention,” and “retention.” Since the original platform was released in 2005, Revention’s customer base has grown to tens of thousands of restaurants, bars, cafes, and other food-service businesses.
Read on to learn whether Revention is the right choice for your bar or restaurant.
What You’ll Need for Revention
To use Revention as your food industry business, you’ll need the POS Workstation with Revention software. The hardware and software are bundled into the Workstation, which has a built-in credit card reader. You can customize your POS setup by purchasing compatible accessories, such as cash drawers, receipt printers, produce scales, pagers, and more.
If you plan to accept credit and debit cards through the Workstation, you’ll need a merchant account with a credit card processor. Revention calls itself “credit card processor agnostic,” so you can choose the credit card processor that offers you the best pricing. We’ll cover this in more detail in the section on Revention and Credit Card Processing later in this review.
Revention Features
Revention has attracted its wide customer base because it’s rich in features. The POS system includes easy-to-use touchscreen menus, a customer database, built-in marketing functionalities, delivery, inventory management, and more.
The company offers this video introduction:
All of the key restaurant features are available, including splitting checks, starting tabs, and configuring happy hour or other time-based specials. Let’s take a closer look at some of the system’s most popular restaurant functions.
Touchscreen Menus
For many food service businesses, picture-based POS systems have grown in popularity. No one wants to keep customers waiting while they frantically scan the POS system, trying to figure out which item is which. Revention offers a convenient, easy-to-use picture-based touchscreen POS.
You can customize the touchscreen menu so you know exactly what an item is by its icon, and you can enter as many items as you need into the menu. Each item can be edited without having to delete or modify the main entry in the POS system, allowing you to customize the dish to diners’ specifications.
It also integrates with a scale for price-by-weight items like produce or frozen yogurt. The POS solution can identify which employee took an order by his or her fingerprint.
You can easily and quickly update your restaurant’s menu as necessary. The menu editor is accessible from any workstation and you don’t have to reboot the system to save changes.
If you run a bar, Revention can display drink recipes right with the order to ensure accurate pours.
Table Management
Customizable table layouts are a must for restaurants that want efficient seating. Revention’s table management feature lets you assign servers to tables and shows the status of all tables in every room. You can customize the map so it’s an exact rendering of your bar or restaurant.
Discounting Capabilities
While discounts are a great way to attract customers, you don’t want to apply too many discounts. Revention manages discounts so that your employees apply coupons to the right items. You can create coupons by order type, date, or other variables. Coupons can be created for “buy one, get one” or “pick any” type of redemptions. Revention also has features in place to prevent problems such as coupon stacking.
Customer Database and Marketing
In order to market effectively, you need a robust customer database. Revention’s customer database shows you a detailed order history, tracks loyalty points, and lets you delete inactive customers.
Do you want to save time and effort when it comes to marketing? Revention’s marketing features allow you to send emails within the POS system. You can also create maps to see where to target your marketing efforts.
Online Ordering and Delivery
Maybe your customers don’t feel like coming to the restaurant to order. Revention created the HungerRush online ordering system, which gives customers the option of ordering online or through their mobile device. The company’s website states that online ordering increases the average check by as much as 15%, positively impacting your bottom line.
Customers have the option of ordering as a guest (without having to create a login), using their facebook account to log in, or setting up an account through HungerRush. Customers who choose to set up an account or log in can save their favorite items, enroll in integrated loyalty programs, and store credit card details for quick future ordering.
Credit cards are processed through the POS system, so you don’t have to worry about third-party gateways and associated fees.
Offering delivery, not just take out? Revention aims to eliminate late delivery drop offs through its EyeDeliver management system. You can set delivery boundaries and zones and create fees for different zones. Your set zone information carries through between the online ordering system and your POS.
The delivery management integrates with Google Maps and includes a map with turn-by-turn instructions and real-time driver updates so that your customers get their food quickly. Orders are sent right to the delivery driver’s smartphone, including best route options for making the deliveries. Customers can add tips and sign for their orders right through the app.
Additionally, the system offers delivery reminders to ensure that the driver doesn’t forget items from a customer’s order.
From the management side, you’ll get delivery reports, can view pending deliveries, calculate time to delivery, and remotely view drivers’ locations from your computer, as seen in the screenshot above. You’ll also see popup messages on the dispatcher display for estimated time on the road, as well as visual indicators for “late return” if drivers are not back by the expected time.
Inventory Management with Ingredient Tracking
Revention wants to make wasting food a thing of the past. Its POS solution provides costs for recipes and menus, can be set to require inventory counts on a daily or weekly basis, and shows recipes and portions for ingredients, batches, and items.
Additionally, integrated liquor monitoring (along with spill and comped order adjustments) help you accurately track total liquor consumption, sales, and losses.
Kitchen Displays
Busy restaurants know how useful a kitchen display system can be. Kitchen displays prioritize orders and have a timer to tell staff when an order is late, helping ensure diners aren’t left waiting. It can also help cut down on the chances of lost or misplaced paper order tickets, as orders will appear on the display screen rather than simply print on a small piece of paper.
You can define the prep time for each menu item so that when the order is displayed, the items with the longest prep times are shown first.
Kitchen displays are optional with Revention, so if you prefer paper tickets or aren’t ready for a full KDS, you can still use Revention.
Workforce Management
Managing workers doesn’t have to be a hassle. With Revention’s POS system, employees can clock in and out, print out their schedules, and request time off. If you need to message them, the system requires them to read it before they clock in or out. Revention optionally integrates with payroll companies if you’d like to manage payroll directly from the POS system.
You can also set parameters for employee schedules to prevent early or late punch in and get alerts for labor warnings such as employees that have crossed into overtime or notifications when minor employees are on the clock.
Loyalty Program
Revention built its own loyalty program for its POS solution, called Honeycomb. Customers don’t need a card, and you can configure the program to meet your business’ unique needs. A rule generator lets you specify the details for rewards, including the dollar amount a customer must spend or specific items they must purchase in order to qualify for a reward.
Customers can enroll easily by providing their name, phone, and email address. They can complete signup online or on their phone through your HungerRush app or through your in-store Revention workstation. When they make purchases, they’ll automatically receive points.
Note that the Honeycomb Loyalty program incurs a separate charge. It is not part of the base costs to use Revention. Expect a setup cost of $99 per location as well as a one-time configuration fee, currently $199. From there, Revention bills monthly, with costs starting at $65/month/location for the loyalty program.
Pricing subject to change.
Reporting
Revention’s reporting functions enable you to view data in real time, including productivity, workforce statistics, cash flow, and discounting. You can email yourself reports or view the information on a mobile device.
Additionally, Google Analytics is available for the HungerRush online ordering option, offering detailed information about traffic and sales. HungerRush also offers an admin panel that allows you to view reports including real-time online sales data, top performing and bottom performing stores, coupon usage, and customer activity.
Customizable reports can be generated automatically at chosen intervals, and saved, printed, or emailed to the relevant staff.
Security
As a small business owner, you want to know your restaurant or bar is safe when you’re not there. Revention’s POS solution integrates with surveillance and security systems, and it has optional fingerprint recognition to give you peace of mind. The fingerprint scanner can be required to access the system, ensuring usage is restricted to authorized employees. For PCI compliance-related security concerns, Revention stresses that it helps businesses achieve PA-DSS compliance for point-of-sale transactions.
HungerRush is PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant, helping minimize the risk of fraudulent transactions for both you and your customers.
Installation
With Revention installation, you can ensure your system is set up correctly from the start. An installer will ensure that your equipment is placed in your preferred locations in the restaurant and that cables are out of the way. You can also take advantage of employee and management training to ensure staff is prepared to use the system. Employee training will be conducted at your location before shifts. Management training will be conducted during downtime shifts.
There are also options for in-classroom training at Revention headquarters using a clone of the system at your restaurant. The in-class training allows for your entire staff to receive training at once with Revention experts.
Revention Pricing for Credit Card Processing
Revention’s website doesn’t publish credit card processing costs, because it’s not a credit card processor itself. Revention works with many processing companies, and that company will set the costs. The fees for credit card processing are in addition to the Revention POS workstation and accessories you may choose to purchase.
Want to know what you’ll pay for credit card processing? Request a free, fully disclosed quote from the processors that support Revention. No sales calls, no obligation. Try it here!
Revention Pricing
Unfortunately, Revention doesn’t publish the cost of its hardware and software bundle on its website. The hardware and software bundle are in addition to credit card processing fees. We’ve reached out to Revention to clarify the costs for the POS system, and will update this section as new information becomes available.
Optional add-on services (such as the Honeycomb Loyalty program) are not included in the base cost. At the time of this writing, Honeycomb will run you a minimum of $65/month per location, plus a one-time configuration cost of $199 and a setup fee of $99 per location.
Revention Accessories
While the main Revention Workstation (which includes hardware and the POS software) is all you need to get started, Revention offers a wide range of compatible accessories to accompany its POS system.
There are kitchen display units, receipt printers, cash drawers, fingerprint scanners, firewall protectors, touchscreen monitors, headsets and earpieces, caller ID interfaces, barcode scanners, label printers, customer displays, video surveillance cameras, pagers, custom mounts, coin dispensers, and scales. Whatever you need to customize your POS solution, Revention has it.
Have you used Revention POS at your food service business? What did you think? Help other businesses decide by leaving a Revention review!
