Lightspeed Payments: 7 Must-Have Features For Hospitality

The way your customers pay plays an instrumental role in both your service and your workflows. In today’s world, convenience is king, and transactions should be quick and easy, allowing customers to carry on with their day. Long queues to pay or declining certain payment methods can be frustrating for customers and may end their experience on a sour note – reducing the chances they’ll return for another visit. 

As a result, hospitality businesses must adopt a payment system that’s purpose-built for fast-paced environments, with quick and secure payment processing. It’s also essential to ensure that the software is constantly updated to meet changing customer requirements, so you never have to worry about rejecting a customer’s chosen payment method.

But what other features are essential for a successful end-to-end payments process? 

In this article, we’ll deep-dive into Lightspeed Payments’ seven must-have features and how they’ll benefit you, your staff and customers. 

7 Must-have features for a seamless payments experience 

1. Flexible payments: for the best customer experience
2. Automatic reconciliation: save time on end of day reports
3. Integrated EFTPOS & payments: speed up service and reduce errors
4. Split bills, add tips, process refunds and add surcharges: for speed and convenience
5. Built-in PCI compliance and fraud prevention: for peace of mind
6. Detailed reports: dig into your data
7. Comprehensive support: whenever you need it

1. Flexible payments: for the best customer experience

Digital payments, such as ApplePay, are expected to play an increasingly significant role in hospitality payments, and it’s predicted that the number of digital payment users in Australia will rise from 3.8 million users to 6.2 million by 2025.

Plus, in Australia, under 27% of consumer payments are now made in cash and 56% of Australians believe that contactless payment options would make them feel more comfortable dining out. Therefore, these shifting customer expectations and behaviours mean hospitality businesses need to be prepared to offer their customers flexible payment options.

Lightspeed Payments empowers businesses to accept the most up-to-date payment methods, such as debit and credit cards and eWallets like ApplePay and GooglePay. Plus, the cloud-based software is constantly updated to meet changing customer requirements, so you’ll always be one step ahead of your customers’ expectations.

2. Automatic reconciliation: save time on end of day reports

There’s nothing worse than trying to figure out discrepancies at the end of a long shift.

While accounting isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, it’s absolutely crucial in running and growing a successful hospitality business. 

Lightspeed Payments seamlessly integrates and syncs with accounting packages like MYOB, Quickbooks and Xero, for no additional charge, so all of your transactions are automatically reconciled. This means no more late nights (or early mornings) trying to work out variances and card discrepancies – giving you more time to focus on what matters – be it your customers, staff or optimising your menu. 

“Using Lightspeed Payments I’ve seen our variances drop quite significantly and saved time on end of day reconciliations, I was surprised how much of a difference it has made” – Phil, Sneaky Possum and Teralga Hotel

3. Integrated EFTPOS & payments: speed up service and reduce errors

During a busy service, speed and precision are essential, especially when it comes to settling the bill. 

Lightspeed Payments allows hospitality venues to process payments that are automatically synced with their point of sale (POS). This means that payments are automatically pushed from the POS to the payment terminal, and back, ensuring every purchase amount is correctly displayed, paid and recorded inside the POS: reducing double handling, risk of errors and administrational overheads.

Investing in a payment terminal that syncs with your POS, means your staff don’t need to manually key in every payment into the EFTPOS machine, reducing keying errors and saving time for both you and your customers. 

4. Split bills, add tips, process refunds and add surcharges: for speed and convenience

As we touched on earlier, convenience is king – particularly for time-strapped customers. And, as customers shop more online, via apps and their phones, they’re less tolerant of bad payment experiences. 

With an increasing number of Australians shopping online, the desire for quick payments (or refunds) is now influencing customer expectations when paying in person. As a result, it’s imperative for your payments system to ensure every step of the payment process is seamless.

Lightspeed Payments makes it easy to split the bill (by item or amount), add tips and process refunds or cancellations, so your customers are guaranteed a quick and flexible checkout process. 

Plus, the automatic surcharging feature allows you to pass on any card processing fees to customers – essentially making your transaction fees 0%.

5. Built-in PCI compliance and fraud prevention: for peace of mind

Credit card fraud, theft and data breaches are an increasing concern for consumers, and a recent survey found that 96% of respondents are concerned about falling victim to fraud.

Lightspeed Payments has built-in PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance and fraud prevention for peace of mind for both you and your customers. Lightspeed also encrypts your transactions and never stores data on your device after a payment has been processed, which keeps you and your customers safe.

With Lightspeed Payments you will: 

• Secure your data with end-to-end encryption for all transactions
• Protect your revenue with constant monitoring for suspicious activity
• Receive robust protection for all stored cardholder data

6. Detailed reports: dig into your data

Data and reports are the best ways to understand your business and customers. And, with detailed insights into your payments, you’ll be able to make the right decisions based on the numbers and your analysis.

Lightspeed Payments comes with a powerful data and analytics tool, so you can report on:

• Payment type
• Payment type totals
• View Eftpos Transaction Status
• Deposit/Payout information
• Transaction fees associated and cross-referenced with the Lightspeed order ID

7. Comprehensive support: whenever you need it 

Payments are an integral part of your business and it’s imperative that you have access to comprehensive support, should anything go wrong. 

With Lightspeed Payments, you’re never alone. With access to our dedicated hospitality support team, you can reach out for support 24/7 to a team of payments and POS specialists. You’ll also have access to a library of guides, webinars, demos and videos, as well as free one-on-one onboarding and optimisation sessions to ensure you’re set up for success.

“From the get-go, I’ve received ongoing support and further training when needed. My account manager has been so wonderful and a great help every step of the way.” – Leah Bullivant, We Bowl’n

Lightspeed: your all-in-one POS & Payments solution

Lightspeed is your all-in-one POS and Payments solution that provides a seamless front and back of house experience, backed 24/7 by a team of industry experts that are committed to your growth and success. 

With Lightspeed, you can manage your entire business from one, centralised platform – from your ordering and payments to inventory management and accounting. 

• Point of sale: menus, team attendance and sales reports
• Ordering: from dine-in to takeaway
• Payments: fast, convenient payment experience
• Inventory management: recipes, margins, COGS and supplier management
• Insights: easy to read reports on your performance
• Support: dedicated team of hospitality experts