Shift into a higher gear with credit card processing for your food truck business.

If you have a passion for preparing delicious foods and want a fun vibe and lower overhead costs, running your restaurant from a food truck might be the perfect business model for you. Part of setting up your operation will involve determining the types of payments you will accept. Believe it or not, food truck payment processing is fully in line with today’s technology, enabling you to accept much more than simply bills and coins from your hungry patrons.

How does food truck payment processing work?

Think back to the last time you went to a farmers market, or remember when you paid a contractor for completing a job at your home. If you used plastic to make these payments, you did so with the help of the seller’s mobile credit card software and accompanying reader. Thanks to wireless technology that operates on cellular networks, you can use the same equipment to accept your customers’ credit card payments at your food truck.

The advantages of credit card acceptance for your mobile eatery.

Easy payment processing using your phone brings with it several advantages. 

• You’ll attract a new customer stream. If you only take cash payments, you are bound to turn people away who don’t have it readily available. Increasingly, consumers are leaving their bills and coins at home. When you accept plastic, and particularly if your reader is also equipped for contactless payments powered by near-frequency communication (NFC) technology, you can easily sell more food and expand your customer base.
• Give diners additional choice. Even people who have cash might not want to spend it. When you provide payment choices, you put decision-making in your diners’ hands.
• Leave your digital mark. Once your truck’s business name shows up on your buyer’s credit card statement and/or the receipt you email to them, your business has, intentionally or otherwise, advertised for itself. That means that if your customers forget your identity, they can refer back to the card app or their stored emails to refresh their memory.
• Keep the line moving. On one hand, it’s nice to see a long line of hungry people waiting to be served by your food truck. On the other, no one wants to be held up waiting for another customer to scrounge around for exact change. When you accept credit cards, checkout is sped up without compromising security. In the end, everyone wins!

The bottom line is this: Continuing to accept cash is important, but 21st-century customers appreciate the flexibility and convenience of paying using their mobile devices or credit cards. Today’s food truck payment processing technology makes doing so easy and affordable.

Take your food truck payment processing to the next level with point of sale capabilities.

Of course, the primary job of your food truck’s payment processing hardware and software is to accept customers’ money, whether it comes in cash or through electronic transactions. However, today’s point of sale (POS) systems come with a whole host of additional capabilities that can streamline your entire business. Consider the following advantages that will delight your customers and modernize your operations.

• Integration with your accounting software. Whenever you sell a product, it is recorded in your POS system, which communicates with your other financial programs. As a result, you can track how much you are spending in real time no matter where you are! 
• Expanded payment choices. Most modern payment processing systems let customers pay in several ways: credit and debit cards with magnetic stripe or EMV chips, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay, just to name a few. In the case of the last three options, customers must have a compatible device and digital wallet where they have stored their payment information. When the time comes to purchase their food, they simply open the wallet app, authenticate their identity facially, or with a fingerprint or PIN, and place their phone or wearable device close to your contactless card reader. Within seconds, information is transmitted back and forth via NFC technology to securely process the payment.
• Customer loyalty capabilities. Today’s POS systems allow you to easily establish an ongoing relationship with your best customers. Your system should come with customer relationship management tools that allow you to collect contact information such as their name and email address. This data can then be stored in a database that you can leverage in numerous ways to grow your mobile eatery. For instance, easily set up a loyalty program that rewards buyers for their repeat business. Alternatively, ask for their permission to be placed on your mailing list so that you can periodically send out updates, promotions, discounts, and links to your social media pages. Keeping your business on your patrons’ radar is one of the best ways to ensure that they will come back (and hopefully bring friends and family). 
• Additional features your customers want. Sure, it’s great to operate a food truck that attracts walk-up customers, but wouldn’t it be even better if you could expand to accommodate people who can’t make it to your location? The good news is that your POS system can even help with this. The software can be set to allow your customers to order their food online for pickup as well as to have it delivered with a third-party app. Again, the more you do to provide product and payment choices, the larger and happier your customer base will become.

There was a time when running a food truck could be a lonely and unpredictable venture. Totally dependent on walk-up business and forced to only serve people who had enough cash on hand, food truck owners experienced days when sales were mediocre at best. Thanks to modern payment processing options, and contactless online and delivery choices, you can count on more robust sales and a deeper pool of satisfied customers. Combine these with the ability to manage your finances and customer relationships from anywhere, and your mobile restaurant business should be on the road to success!