Given away, one oat latte at a time
A customer asks for a large oat latte with an extra shot and a vanilla syrup. The person on the till taps large latte, then hunts for the milk option, which is on a pop-up that only appears after a second tap. The queue is long. They make a note on the cup instead, and the oat, the shot and the syrup go through as a plain large latte.
Nobody is being dishonest. The till simply makes the right thing slow. Multiply that by a few hundred drinks a week and you are giving away a lot of oat milk, espresso and syrup.
Why modifiers go uncharged
- Modifiers are set up as optional pop-ups that are easy to close without choosing.
- Charged and free options are mixed, so staff are not sure which cost extra.
- Menu and price changes were added over time without tidying the layout.
- New staff learn shortcuts from others, including the wrong ones.
- Nobody checks how often drinks go through with no milk choice at all.
It also affects your data. If oat milk is not recorded, your milk ordering and stock figures are wrong too.
What a messy till costs you
The most direct cost is revenue missed on every uncharged extra. Stock figures look worse than they are, because the till says you sold plain drinks while the fridge says you used oat. Customers are charged inconsistently, which they notice when one barista charges for the syrup and another does not. And a confusing till slows every order, even the ones that are charged correctly.
How we fix the till setup
- We watch a busy period and list how drinks are really ordered: the common combinations, the words customers use, the order staff tap things in.
- We export your till's products and modifiers, such as from Square, Lightspeed, SumUp or Zettle, and map every drink, size, milk, syrup and extra.
- We rebuild the layout so the most common drinks and milk choices are on the first screen, and milk is a required choice rather than an optional one.
- Charged extras are grouped and clearly priced, so staff can see what costs more.
- We set up a weekly report that shows drinks sold without a milk choice, and each barista's rate of extras, so you can coach rather than guess.
- Where your till supports it, cup stickers print the full order, so charging and making use the same record.
| Till issue | Fix |
|---|---|
| Milk choice is optional | Make it a required step for milk drinks |
| Extras are buried | Put common extras on the first screen |
| Mixed free and charged options | Group and label charged extras |
| No way to check | Weekly report of drinks without modifiers |
Most of this is configuration of the till you already have. We only build something custom, such as the report, if the till's own reporting cannot show it.
After the rebuild
A new barista can take an oat latte with an extra shot in three taps, and the price is right. The milk choice cannot be skipped. The weekly report shows fewer plain drinks and more modifiers recorded, and your milk and syrup usage finally matches your sales. Customers are charged the same whoever is on the till.
When you change prices or add a seasonal syrup, the layout has a clear place for it, so the till does not drift back into a mess.
Does your till look like this?
- Milk choice is a pop-up staff can skip.
- Extras are several taps away.
- Staff write modifiers on cups instead of the till.
- Oat milk usage does not match oat milk sales.
- Different baristas charge differently for the same drink.