Feature differences
T/F: SpotOn offers it's on in-house payroll platform.
SpotOn does not have a native Payroll functionality meaning that timekeeping data needs to be imported to a Payroll partner which can result in errors. Spot On does not manage quarterly/annual taxes.
Prospect tells you SpotOn offers compliant credit card surcharging. How does SpotOn's "surcharging" work?
SpotOn automatically raises rx prices by 4% to cover CCP, but restaurants are still paying a 4% processing fee. Customer's also pay SpotOn's nearly 4% processing rate on taxes and tips (no way to cover this). This structure is called Dual Pricing.
T/F: SpotOn has direct integrations to 3PO companies like DoorDash, Uber Eats and GrubHub
False. SpotOn offers middleware integrations like ItsaCheckmate. Aggregators like ItsaCheckmate are not the same as having Toast's direct 3PO integrations
T/F: SpotOn has its own native inventory solution like xtraCHEF called MarketMan.
False. SpotOn does not offer a comparable AP automation or inventory solution to xtraCHEF. SpotOn has multiple integration partners. Note that this is not a true differentiator for SpotOn as Toast also integrates with many of these partners (i.e. MarketMan, MarginEdge, R365)
What must restaurants do in order to offer Dual Pricing and not risk a fine?
If you don't reprint your menus, you could face steep non-compliance fines. This is not made clear to SpotOn customers.
T/F: SpotOn lets restaurant operators reopen closed checks.
False. With SpotOn restaurants can't reopen closed checks, and can't refund tips from closed checks.
Restaurateurs would have to manage each location individually with SpotOn. If a SpotOn restauranteur wanted to edit their menu across their 3 locations, how much time would they spend editing each individual menu for each location? Toast restaurateurs can manage all of their locations at the same time - updating menus, accessing and managing reporting from one central location, and more.
Prospect tells you that SpotOn is offering free hardware. What happens to a SpotOn customer if they cancel within a year?
If you cancel services within one year, you must pay the difference between the initial purchase and the full list price of all hardware. Since SpotOn heavily discounts hardware, regularly up to 100%, this can be a lot of money. If they cancelled services within a year, Bar Solita would have owed nearly $14,000 in HW discounts, Di Pasquale's Marketplace would be liable for $18,150, and The Pig Da Cow and Da Chicken would need to pay just over $1,600.
T/F: SpotOn offers offline mode.
SpotOn lacks a true offline mode, and instead gives merchants a cellular stick. The cellular stick may help if a restaurant's Wi-Fi goes down, but what happens if SpotOn goes down?
Able to Continue Operations in an Outage: Toast offers the ability to collect payments as well as send orders to the kitchen from the POS and Kiosk when the network is offline. SpotOn has no offline mode at all meaning that customers aren’t even able to take or send orders to the kitchen in the event of a SpotOn outage. They offer cellular backup which will prevent an ISP outage, but does not protect against a SpotOn outage.
SpotOn charges a _% fee for all Online Orders. This is listed on the receipt as an “OLO Surcharge”. Toast doesn’t have a guest facing fee. What is this fee?
5%
How much do SpotOn CC rates increase on a customer after a year?
.2%
Name one way SpotOn's marketing platform wins over Toast?
Review Software: SpotOn offers the Ability to see and manage all online reviews from the major review sites in one dashboard. Note - Toast allows customers to see feedback given via handhelds and digital receipts in Guest Feedback (within Guestbook).
Social Media & Google Integrations: Allows users to post content directly on Facebook and Google (Social Media integration coming soon for Toast)
More Advanced Reporting: Additional metrics and visuals to track impressions, clicks, engagement, and ROI.
Name one way in which Toast's online ordering pages drive more revenue than SpotOns?
More guest orders through SEO: changes made from the POS to hours, view-only, or OO menu items automatically sync directly to the website and helps the website appear higher in search results. SpotOn’s online menu and website is built on a different platform – which means that their website account information can’t be integrated with the SpotOn POS.
Upsell items: Toast customers can grow average ticket size with upsells based on what the guest has in their cart. SpotOn do not have these features.
SpotOn will offer tiered rates with a headline rate of 1.99%. Buyer beware - tiered rates usually end up being very expensive....why is this?
Only certain cards "qualify" for this rate. Since most cards won’t qualify for the 1.99% rate. We often see 2.99% for non-qualified card present transactions.
What is one of the downsides of SpotOn's KDS?
SpotOn does not have a native KDS and instead promotes its integration with FreshKDS, which offers significant depth, runs on iPads which are less durable, and does not have a native or offline mode-compatible integration.