Rezku Review

Rezku POS is the point-of-sale component in the complete Rezku restaurant management suite, which includes apps for detailed sales reporting and menu costing, customer relationship management, table management and online reservations, and online ordering with delivery capability.

Let's take a look at the features, costs, and requirements to use Rezku at your restaurant, bar, or cafe.

What You'll Need to Use Rezku

To use Rezku POS in your restaurant, you'll need an Apple iPad, the Rezku POS app, and your choice of compatible card readers and printers available for purchase from Rezku. For PCI compliance and system reliability, a separate dedicated Rezku POS router is also required. Rezku sells a managed commercial router, which is optional.

To take credit and debit cards, you will also need a merchant account with Rezku Payments. While the company previously worked with a variety of processors and was dedicated to being "processor-agnostic" it has since changed its stance and taken credit card processing in-house.

At CardFellow, we strongly suggest using equipment that allows you to choose your own processor, as it increases your competitive leverage to secure low pricing for your credit card transactions.

Printers, cash drawers, and iPad stands round out the system requirements and are available for purchase separately or bundled into a workstation package. Rezku also supports customer-facing displays and kitchen displays.

Using the POS

We had the opportunity to try the Rezku system for ourselves. Over the years, we've tried several POS solutions, and Rezku is definitely a nicely designed solution. Not only does the app look great, it's easy to use and loaded with features.

Best Rezku Features:

• Menu images
• Separate dine-in, takeout, and bar checks
• Check splitting by number of diners or by specific items
• Online ordering enablement

The option to include images with each menu item is a feature that contributes to both the look and functionality. Users of other systems frequently request options to add images to menus, but many POS systems still don't support it. As you can see from this screenshot, the use of menu item images is both visually appealing and makes it easier to locate an item quickly.

Another handy thing is that Rezku has detailed how-to videos on every aspect of the system available right through the back office dashboard. You can watch the videos from the iPad or from any internet-connected device. The best part is that videos are available in a list from the knowledge base, or from individual functions. For example, if you're in the "happy hour setup" screen, a small video camera icon shows at the top. Clicking that will bring up the happy hour setup video, making it easy to get relevant video tutorials for exactly what you want to do.

The system is very intuitive and user-friendly, but if you do need help on a particular feature, the videos probably cover it. And if not, Rezku support is also available to help.

In short, the Rezku POS system provides tons of features and backs it up with great support. Let's take a closer look at the available features.

Rezku POS Features

Rezku is a powerful POS system designed specifically for the restaurant and bar industry. Its website states it helps independent restaurants and small chains compete with national brands.

Some of the most important restaurant-specific features include tab pre-authorization, splitting and merging checks, gratuities, and ordering by seat. Additionally, Rezku offers easy online ordering capabilities and a white-labeled restaurant app.

Rezku POS makes use of iPads for wireless order-taking tableside and printing orders to the kitchen. The unique serverless offline mode allows you to continue taking orders from any tablet as well as process credit payments offline.

Restaurant and Customer Features

As a food-industry POS, Rezku caters to the needs of restaurants and bars, offering features like modifiers, check splitting, customizable menus, timed pricing for happy hours, gift cards, online ordering, and more. Even better, Rezku will set up your menu for you, saving the time and frustration of doing it yourself. However, you can always add or delete items from the menu once it's set up. You won't have to rely on Rezku to make changes for you.

Modifiers and Order Flow Design

To help servers take orders faster and make sure that the kitchen gets clear instructions, Rezku point of sale gives you tools to design the order-taking experience from start to finish. Use forced modifiers to make sure important questions are being asked / require an answer, and unforced modifiers to easily make substitutions or up-sell. You can apply both forced and unforced modifiers to the same item.

For example, if I ring in a black and bleu burger, it can first display an unforced modifier that asks if I want to remove any of the items that come on the burger.

Clicking "bleu cheese crumbles" will specify no bleu cheese crumbles on the burger. However, I don't have to remove any of the items. I can simply click "next" to move to the next modifier screen: meat temperature.

While a diner might not have had any changes to the burger, they will need to specify how they want their burger done. That means that this screen is required. If I try to click "next" without choosing a meat temperature, a red error box in the top right corner will specify that I need to select the temperature.

This means you should use forced modifiers when you want to require a choice - for example, meat temperatures, salad dressings, or choice of sides. Use unforced modifiers if the modifier may or may not apply. For example, one customer may want to skip the bacon on a particular burger while another customer will want the bacon. Unforced modifiers aren't required, they just make customization easier.

Advanced Check Management

Check management is one of the best features of the Rezku system. More than ever, diners want to split checks. But they don't always want to split 50/50; sometimes a big group wants to split by what each person ordered, or a couple pays for theirs while a third person wants to pay for their own. With Rezku, you can split checks in a number of ways: split payment types (cash and credit), easy split based on dollar amount, split by items, or split by seat. You can even split a split!

By default, when you click into the checkout screen, you'll have the options "easy split" or "itemized split." Easy split simply divides the check by two (or more) people. Clicking the "add" button adds another "person," thus further dividing the check.

Easy split will divide by the number you choose regardless of whether you've entered items by seat. For example, if you have a party of 6 and enter orders for 6 individual seats, but only 2 people are splitting the bill, you can simply use the easy split by 2.

Itemized split is where you can split the check by specific items or allow for splitting by seat. There's also a "split order" option for when part of a party is still adding items, but another diner wishes to leave and pay their portion. Split order allows you to move some items to an entirely separate check to cash out that diner.

Splitting a Check by Seat

There are two ways to split checks by seat. The easier way is to ring in the order by seat when you initially enter it. To do so you just need to specify the party size and tap each seat to enter that person's order. There's also an option for shared items (such as appetizers for the table) that you can use. If you assign items by seat initially, the system will automatically split the check into separate checks for those seats. Additionally, if there was a "shared" item, it will divide the cost of that item evenly among all checks. If a party of three split the fried mushrooms for an appetizer, each check reflects 1/3rd of the cost of the mushrooms. (As seen in the screenshot, below.) Diners won't have to discuss who is putting which app on their individual check; it will simply divide the cost of a shared dish.

If you don't initially enter items by seat, you can still split the checks by item. You'll just need to manually choose which items go on which check. However, that's a simple matter of tapping the item and moving it to a new check on the same screen.

Perhaps you've entered items by seat, but two diners at your party of three want to pay together. No problem - simply merge their checks. When you're looking at the itemized view, you'll be able to merge and choose which checks to make into one.

You can also use merging to combine two types of checks. No need to make patrons close out their tab at the bar before getting them started on table service. Instead, just merge their bar tab into their dinner with a few easy taps.

On-Screen Authorization

Save paper and speed up checkout with tableside payment, sign-on-screen, and emailed receipts. This popular option gets you quicker turn-times and increases customer service. Still prefer to have paper receipts with signatures? You can turn off the option to allow guests to sign for their bill on the screen.

Menus

The Rezku menu is both beautiful and functional. The color coding in modifiers helps servers quickly see which items a dish includes. If the customer asks, "Does this have onions in it?" the server can quickly answer with confidence using the product information. If modifiers appear in green, they come with the dish by default. Tapping a green modifier will remove it, specifying NO [item] on the order. On the other hand, modifiers in grey are not part of the dish, but can be added. Tapping a grey modifier will add it.

As already noted, Rezku offers the ability to include high-res photos, color code your menu, and more. You can leverage your existing food photography to help new staff learn the menu quickly or take new photos of dishes as you add them.

You can choose from over 16 million custom colors to color-code your menu for fast and easy ordering. Color is proven to increase memorization through association and will help make sure servers are ordering from the right part of the menu.

Timed Pricing Controls and Named Discounts

Scheduled pricing means you have complete control over the cost of your items. You can create daily promoted items or happy-hour specials that change through the week. Setting up timed pricing is easy in the back office dashboard. You'll simply set a name for the promotion, and choose which menu items apply. You can set the hours and days of the week when the promotional pricing is valid, and include any "black out" dates to which the pricing doesn't apply. You'll also set the special promotional pricing in the dashboard. Rezku conveniently lists all of your menu items and the regular price so you don't have to go look up what it normally costs.

It's faster and more accurate when staff doesn't have to manually calculate happy hour prices.

You can also create preset discounts by percent or by dollar amount; for example, "Employee Discount," "Coffee Club," "Coupon 06" etc. This allows staff to easily provide the correct discount to a customer.

Online Ordering and Delivery

Delivery and online ordering are more popular than ever. If your restaurant is prepared to offer the most convenient methods for takeout, you’ll miss out on revenue.

Rezku OLO is the company’s customizable, white-label online ordering system, featuring easy-to-use menus and beautifully designed pages. You’ll be able to achieve branding consistency, upsell, and provide a customer portal where they can view loyalty points.

If you offer delivery using your own in-house drivers, the comprehensive driver dispatch control center helps plan the most efficient routes, estimate delivery and driver return times, print labels for order boxes, and see an overview of all deliveries and drivers.

Want to offer delivery, but hesitant to hire your own drives? Connect to the DoorDash driver fleet through an integration with your OLO system. You’ll get the best of both worlds – the option to offer delivery without hiring drivers yourself. You’ll also have the ability to integrate with other popular third-party services, including Uber Eats, Grubhub, Seamless, Postmates, and more.

Branded App

Rezku boasts that you can increase orders threefold while maximizing customer engagement using their branded restaurant app customized for your restaurant. Available for both Android and iPhone, the app allows customers to easily order online, earn rewards, apply coupons, and more. On the business side, you can send push notifications with discounts or reminders, ensuring you say front-of-mind when it comes time for customers to choose a restaurant.

As seen in the screenshot below, the app is highly customizable so you can use your own logo, match colors, and ensure brand recognition.

The branded app is included as part of the Rezku premium package.

Customer and Administrative Features

In addition to the functions of the POS system itself, Rezku provides gift card and loyalty programs and back-office management functions like staff notifications.

Gift Cards

The value of offering gift cards as a tool for increasing revenue can't be overstated. As a promotional tool, gift cards encourage repeat customers and higher ticket averages. Rezku offers both online "egift cards" and physical full-color, durable, reusable gift cards with your existing custom logo and design. Gift cards can easily be redeemed through the POS system using the same process as paying with a credit card.

Rezku also states that gift cards are included in the monthly fee, so there is no separate charge for the gift card program.

Loyalty Program

For restaurants that want to provide loyalty programs to encourage repeat business, Rezku includes a loyalty rewards program in the monthly subscription fee. The points-based system lets you reward customers with discounts of your choice. Customers can earn points at multiple locations and from both online and in-restaurant purchases. Rezku can help you design custom loyalty cards that integrate with the POS.

Staff Notifications

Need to communicate with staff across multiple shifts? You can write notices to your staff through the back office portal. Notes are divided into three sections - specials, 86'd items, and daily notes.

Staff can view the notes for the day at any time from the login screen before they enter their login PIN.

You're not required to post notes, but it's a great way to get information to your servers, especially at the beginning or end of shifts.

Reporting and Management Features

Behind the scenes work is just as crucial for food service businesses, and Rezku provides plenty of features to make management easier. The back office dashboard, accessible from the iPad app or an internet-connected device, contains a variety of sales and labor tools. It includes in-depth reports and makes it easy to keep track of important data, while ingredient-level inventory management keeps you up-to-date on stock levels.

Sales and Labor

What you need, when you need it. With the sales and labor dashboards, you can choose from dozens of premade reports and filter by criteria such as date, hours, and more. You can download reports to use in other applications (such as Excel) for further analysis. You can optionally set up emails to send nightly overview emails to key stakeholders, save custom reports, and send key details on a set schedule.

Inventory Management and Costing

Inventory management is critical to the food and beverage industry. With ingredient-level tracking, you can enable emails to be warned of low stock and automatically “86” items from the menu, ensuring your servers have the latest information on the menu.

You'll also be able to keep a close watch on cost by tracking ingredients to the ounce.

Remote Management App

Take back your life and get out of the office. With Rezku POS’s manager app, you can manage your restaurant from anywhere. Real-time data is stored in the cloud so you can see sales, labor, and more right from your smartphone. Make live changes to the menu, promotions, pricing and every other setting in Rezku POS from the comfort of your couch, out at a park, or in line at the store. An integration with MailChimp also allows enhanced marketing capabilities right from the app.

Offline Mode

Unlike other systems that say they have an offline mode, Rezku POS is fully functional offline. Backup cloud storage and battery operation keep things moving.

Feel confident making and taking orders without setbacks. This is especially important regarding payments. Even without internet access, you can still take credit card payments when using the Rezku point of sale system for iPad. The encrypted information is securely stored and automatically uploaded to the payment processor when internet is restored.

Additionally, orders will still continue to print in the kitchen and staff can continue to enter orders on multiple POS systems, ensuring no interruption of service.

Security Features

Restaurant management features aren't the only thing you'll need in a good POS system. You'll also want to ensure security for your payments and POS functions. Fortunately, Rezku has you covered.

User Permissions

Permissions assigned by staff role allow you to easily place workers in the trust hierarchy as either employees or managers. Flexible per-user permissions let you assign specific out-of-role duties to trusted staff or assistant managers or enable specific management functions without giving away the keys to the castle.

By going into the permissions screen for an individual employee you can adjust individual permissions without adjusting a users' entire role.

For example, if an employee works in a supervisor role and doesn't need full management permissions, but does need to be able to do things that a non-supervisor can't, you can adjust those specific things. If a supervisor should be allowed to apply happy hour pricing outside of set happy hour times, you can enable that function for only that employee.

EMV and NFC Capable

With the latest Magtek card readers offered with Rezku POS, you can take EMV chip cards and contactless payments from customer cell phones through services like Apple Pay. Using EMV also means you avoid more chargebacks due to non-compliance with EMV standards.

PCI Compliant

Rezku takes data security seriously, and is PCI compliant. Rezku point of sale uses the E2EE encryption standard for all card data at the moment of the swipe or when it's read. Your customer's payment information is never stored in its unencrypted form, drastically narrowing your scope (and the expense) of maintaining PCI DSS compliance.

Credit Card Processing

While Rezku started off as a processor-agnostic company, it has since brought processing in-house, meaning you'll need a merchant account through Rezku in order to take credit and debit cards with the POS system. Called Rezku Payments, the solution allows you to take all the usual payment methods, including credit and debit cards and contactless payments such as Apple Pay.

Rezku publishes some pricing for credit card processing. For its free base plan, the company lists a processing rate of 1.99% + 25 cents per transaction, but it has asterisks indicating there are conditions.

The fine print explains that the rate is the “qualified” processing rate, and that a rate of 2.99% + 25 cents per transaction will apply to rewards cards, international cards, and corporate cards. It also states that “other tiers may apply,” including assessments.

These statements indicate tiered pricing, a model CardFellow advises against due to its lack of transparency and the difficulty of predicting your total processing cost.

The company doesn't publish pricing for its two higher tier plans, but you can easily request a quote to review in private to compare Rezku Payments's pricing with that of other merchant service providers.

If you're not yet a CardFellow member, you can join for free to request pricing from many companies in one central location.

Rezku POS Pricing

As a limited-time promotional offering for new customers, Rezku has no monthly fee for the first two terminals. Up to 5 terminals will run you $99/month. For more than 5 terminals, the monthly fee comes in at $199. All three of these prices are published on the company’s website with asterisks that state this pricing is for new customers only and is promotional, limited-time pricing. It’s unclear what the costs go up to after the promotional period.

The monthly fee includes most of the Rezku features available, with the exception of the branded restaurant app (an additional $149/month) and DoorDash Driver Integration (an additional $39/month.) Also, multi-location functionality will run you $129/month and order-ready texts cost $89/month. However, all other functions (POS, online ordering, gift and loyalty programs, advanced reporting, driver / delivery dispatch system, kitchen display, and more) are included at no additional cost.

The monthly fee also does not include the costs of credit card processing, nor does it include any hardware costs.

Hardware you may need includes an iPad or iPads, check printers, kitchen display systems, cash drawers, and credit card readers or countertop swipe machines. Rezku offers pre-made bundles of equipment (typically a card reader and iPad stand, optionally with a customer-facing stand) but does not publish costs for those bundles. The company also sells the other accessories, such as cash drawers, but again does not publish pricing.

Enterprise pricing is available upon request, but Rezku does not provide further details.

Equipment and Accessories

As noted earlier, Rezku is iPad-based. You'll need a compatible Apple iPad to run the system at your restaurant. The POS also supports industry standard accessories that restaurants need. Quality kitchen printers from Epson and Star Micronics, reliable card readers from Ingenico and MagTek, UPC scanners for retail items and all-metal commercial food scales by Brecknell are all compatible with Rezku.

You can utilize additional iPads for kitchen display systems to provide convenient order processing right in the kitchen. There is no additional charge for attaching kitchen displays to a Rezku system.