TrustRadius Insights for Aloha Cloud are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Pros
User-Friendly Interface: Many users have praised NCR Aloha Cloud for its extremely user-friendly interface, which has greatly facilitated fast and accurate transactions. The layout and simplicity of the program make it easy for all users to learn, streamlining the training process.
Versatility in Handling Transactions: Reviewers have highlighted the versatility of NCR Aloha Cloud in handling large transactions and offering a wide range of payment options. Some users appreciate the ability to charge payments to house accounts, while others value the flexibility of accepting check, cash, or card payments. This versatility makes it easier for businesses to accommodate various customer preferences.
Efficient Check Splitting: A common positive sentiment among reviewers is the ease with which NCR Aloha Cloud allows for splitting checks. Users commend the seat number system that optimizes table delivery and facilitates organizing potential split checks. By automatically breaking down items and total checks by seat, this feature minimizes interruption and slows down service lessens interruptions during busy periods.
Aloha POS is being used as a point of sale system for our entertainment and dining options. It is wonderful having every register synced to one another. The user interface is extremely easy to navigate and update. There are so many creative ways to organize items throughout separate tabs to make the checkout process quick and efficient.
Pros
Speeds up trainee process during onboarding.
Able to add and delete buttons for quick updates.
Export payroll hours into ADP seamlessly.
Cons
Sometimes you need tech support to help add or delete tabs.
The programs are always growing and updating so sometimes you need assistance.
The tech support isn't always available or takes time for them to respond.
Likelihood to Recommend
Aloha POS is particularly well suited for companies within the hospitality industry where you are dealing with a lot of people at once. The software helps create an easy and seamless checkout process. Keeping customers moving quickly and remaining calm is especially important to us when it comes to providing superior service.
VU
Verified User
Administrative Assistant in Sales (11-50 employees)
Aloha POS was used until recently (when we switched to Toast) for our six tasting room locations, some with kitchens, some without. It did the job for having all our products available to ring up and I like that there was a look up feature for items without buttons.
Pros
We used a deposit item to refund credit cards and you could issue the refund on any card which was helpful.
It was easy to create items and buttons for the POS.
Cons
It took a long time to refresh the POS.
We had a lot of issues with it going offline.
Likelihood to Recommend
For a high pace work space where changes are constantly needing to occur and be refreshed on the POS, Aloha falls a little short.
It was our POS system for drink & food operation at a casino. It is the system all the way across the house, front of house, back of house, and the office sides.
Pros
The setup and ease of use is a huge plus to me. It is very clearly organized, supports high volume use, and gives us a lot of options as servers, to keep track of our schedules, sales, tips received, and tips paid out.
One cool function that I like is the recipes function. We had ours set up to where if you held down the button of the item you are questioning, for example, if I needed to look up the liquors in the long island iced tea, then it would display the recipe that I am looking for. Saves a LOT of time when you are busy or need an answer quick for a customer. This IS a function that has to be set up with the initial setup, from the back end, which I wasn't a part of but it was great having it available to us for food and drink menu items.
Cons
Honestly, I have yet to have an issue with any of the functions of Aloha. The only thing that was a little complex was the end-of-day functions, (as we were a 24-hr casino) as if there were any open items, it would just auto-close these and that could get a little troublesome if I was behind in closing out checks. But I am not entirely sure if that was related to how our company itself was set up to run, not the actual Software.
Likelihood to Recommend
Aloha is great. The system is designed for very high volume use, it is pretty secure, and it is ridiculously easy to learn and navigate around in. In a casino, I am on the terminal constantly, as well as the other servers on their terminals, and very rarely do we have any connectivity issues, it never freezes on us, and it gives us solid reports at the end of the night.
Aloha POS is used for both front and back of house operations in my food & beverage establishments. The system is used for real-time facilitation and execution of restaurant service. Aloha is an intuitive and straightforward point of sale system, that allows for seamless and effective communication between the front of house staff and the back of house. The front of house sends back orders for the kitchen to prepare complete with timings, coursings and added details that vary from client to client. The back of house receives these orders via a system of printers, with items directed to the appropriate station for prep. The entire system itself takes elaborate planning, but the execution and the operation is seamless and incredibly effective.
Pros
Customizability for order placement. With today's clientele, they tend to pick things apart to make it more familiar or are averse to certain ingredients in dishes. Aloha allows for simple and clear modifications, to where the ingredients of the entire dish can be listed out and edited right there on the screen.
Course timing and ordering. In finer dining establishments, timing is a priority, and Aloha's coursing system works very well, from their item "Hold" actions, as well as configuring the orders to not fire upon input, only until the "Order" prompt is issued. This allows for entire meals to be input at the beginning and fired for the kitchen course by course to allow for perfect timing.
Splitting checks is another staple with today's clientele. Aloha's system optimizes this system by designating seat numbers that are effective in meal to table delivery, but also in getting a head start in organizing potential split checks. By utilizing the seat number system in the POS for proper communication for table delivery, the system has already broken down the item and total check by seat, ready to be divided up if necessary. Just a few prompts and you'll have a table of ten split ten ways with ease, as well as the option for multiple checks to split the cost of individual items in case a large party all wanted to share an appetizer. These requests tend to bog down the service and slow down the process, but Aloha has streamlined the entire process resulting in minimal interruption.
Cons
Aloha does has a very comprehensive and intuitive approach to restaurant service operations, but doubles as a timekeeping system for payroll as well. Aloha could benefit from increased functionality from an HR perspective, considering it already utilizes a clock in, clock out, and break functions. Increased employee facing functionality, scheduling, and personalization, with an option for weekly averages, reports, and summaries of total labor and income tracking, and built-in scheduling system would truly make this an all in one POS masterpiece.
Speaking of personalization, customization for each server could allow for increased efficiency. The system itself already thrives, but by allowing some tweaking from the user for their own POS screen could result in even better communication and speed of service, allowing the service to create a system that best fits their style and technique.
Likelihood to Recommend
Aloha POS is well suited for any kind of full-service restaurant, from high volume establishments to low volume, intimate fine dining settings. The universality to the system makes it an asset for any operation. I don't see much need for Aloha POS when it comes to fast casual, or fast food establishments, as Aloha POS is geared more toward constant communication and planning between the front of house service and back of house prep. For counter service, I believe this would be underutilized, and these establishments would be fine with a simpler service.
We use it across the organization. It's our time clock for all departments, as well as our POS for servers and bartenders in our restaurant. It addresses scheduling, tip declarations, time management and inventory. Its simplicity makes it user-friendly across the board, allowing new users to feel confident in it quickly.
Pros
Time Clock
Server/Bartender Check Outs
Ease of use
Cons
Clunky
Outdated
Reporting functionality is limited.
Likelihood to Recommend
Restaurants and bars are what I believe to be the best place to utilize the Aloha POS system. We primarily use it for bar orders, as our restaurant is prepaid buffet with cash bar. Because we only use it for drinks, it keeps the screen options to a minimum making it easier to navigate for our bartenders and servers.
VU
Verified User
Administrator in Finance and Accounting (1001-5000 employees)
It is used throughout the company in a variety of restaurants and event centers. This has been used for completing transactions through payment, as well as reporting on the back end for sales and labor tracking. It was a crucial part of the sales process in every environment in which it was used.
Pros
Extremely user-friendly. The layout and simplicity of the program made for fast, accurate transactions. This was an easy system to learn for all of our users and made training a much more streamlined process.
Versatility - even in the largest of transactions, my options for payment were wide-ranging (from charging to house accounts to accepting check, cash, or card). My ability to update price keys and users was extremely helpful where other systems have proven to be difficult to navigate.
Great support. As we transitioned to newer versions of Aloha, we always had a great line of communication with customer support, and fast, friendly service.
Cons
Customizing receipt settings, such as messages to be printed on receipts, seemed to be one feature that was lacking throughout the time that I used Aloha.
A more detailed error message that does not simply provide a code, but also potential troubleshooting tips or a general category under which the error falls.
The Aloha server was frequently down at a couple of our locations for the entirety of my tenure. The problems would always be resolved quickly, but not without phone calls to our support team, or the Aloha support line.
Likelihood to Recommend
In a fast-paced, high-volume environment, this simple POS is a perfect solution to completing sales transactions. However, for establishments that would like to truly customize what their staff is seeing and ringing in, and what the guests are seeing when receipts are printed, this POS does leave something to be desired.
I do not have to deploy anything. All the changes I make go out with the end of day refresh from the cloud.
Every detail from menu items, modifiers, hierarchies, promo, daily specials and etc., are easy to set up and maintain.
Cons
Aloha Kitchen doesn't have a backup if one of the KDS controllers goes down. It would be nice if it automatically sent orders to the next screen if a controller stops working.
It would be nice to be able to version off a particular submenu screen to multiple hierarchies.
Auto spooldown does not work, at least for us, and it somehting that needs to be addressed.
Likelihood to Recommend
There are just too many specifics to talk about. I would just say that overall Aloha POS is a great product, easy to learn and will not disappoint.
