Running a successful food truck business is challenging, and grappling with an unreliable internet connection just piles on the stressors. How is your food truck supposed to take credit card payments when your signal keeps disappearing? What options do you have?
HOTSPOT
Most food truck operators use their phones personal hotspot. It sounds like a great idea at first. Convenience! You have always have your phone with you most of the time and it comes with your plan anyway (of course you pay a fee as well). However, using your phone’s hotspot isn’t always stable and reliable. Connection issues can come up if you’re connected to more than 2 devices or are parked in a very busy area. And unfortunately can end up costing you lost business and revenue. Definitely "no bueno".
OFFLINE MODE
Then theres "offline mode". To avoid losing out on potential sales during times when your hotspot goes offline, some food truck owners opt to use a POS system with an offline mode. This feature allows the POS to continue to accept credit card payments, even if the internet connection is lost. The card information is stored locally on the POS device and processed later when the connection is restored.
However, there’s a significant risk of losing out on revenue when using offline mode. Some cards may be declined when processed later, causing you to lose out on that sale. Additionally, you’ll need to be careful to track and reconcile these offline payments once they’re processed to avoid any discrepancies in your financial records.
SOLUTION: DEDICATED INTERNET CONNECTION
This option is most ideal for food truck owners and that is to set up a dedicated Starlink service with its own data plan. Instead of relying on your personal cell phone that’s also being used for texting, phone calls and social media, a separate phone or tablet hooked up to a plan provides a reliable connection that can be used whether or not you’re on the truck. Often you can connect the same device that you use for your POS to a data plan, making the whole operation that much easier. So call Starlink Local Installers and don't lose any customers because of bad internet!