POS Software Blog

Who stands behind your POS Solution?

In this day and age, most small-medium merchants utilize email marketing to boost awareness with their customer base in an effort to increase sales and the profitability of their stores.  There are many companies providing email marketing technology platforms at reasonable prices.  Chances are, you are already using one of them for your current campaign efforts.  There is also a good chance you are reading this article as a result of our email marketing efforts.  If that's the case, you are living, breathing proof that the concept works. 

In today’s climate, merchants are faced with migrating from a cash register to a POS system or upgrading from an antiquated POS system to a current state-of-the-art POS system.  Does the decision represent a significant cost or a wise investment?

A while back, I wrote a blog post about baby boomers retiring and their children taking over in the farm and feed store segment.  This factor seemed to be driving a great deal of business our way due to the sons and daughters injecting automation and technology into the business after many years of manual processes.  However, as the weeks go by and I continue to have conversations with farm and feed store owners and operators, I have learned that many factors come into play with this industry suddenly embracing new technologies.

I've always been fascinated with how words take on new meaning within particular industries or social circles. In retail and hospitality, the word "ring" is a prime example. Anyone who has ever worked as a clerk, a cashier, a server, a bartender, a delivery person, etc is familiar with "ringing" up a customer or guest check. The derivative of this industry-specific term is the sound made by a cash register drawer. Most older cash registers contained a bell that would ring each time the cash drawer fired open. Many modern-day computer peripheral cash drawer devices used with automated POS (point-of-sale) systems also contain optional bells that will ring each time the POS system fires the cash drawer.

In the past few months, we have had more customers open their 2^nd location than ever before.  For most small business merchants, the opening of that 2^nd location is a pivotal point in the success of the enterprise.  The advent of the 2nd location typically indicates that the small business owner has had enough success at the 1^st location to both fund and merit the opening of the 2^nd location.  It also suggests that a 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th location are likely to be feasible and could possibly be right around the corner.  Needless to say, adding the 2^nd location to the business is an exciting time for the merchant.

When you think about the overall customer experience as it pertains to your business, naturally the first component that comes to mind is your staff.  I would agree that the most critical component that impacts the customer experience is the ability of your staff to interact with your customers in a way that meets your standards of quality.  These interactions should reflect your brand, your mission and to some degree, your personality as the leader of your organization.

Chances are you are not carrying as much cash as you did in the past.  You are not alone.  According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, there were some 176.8 Million Card Holders in 2010.  Further, the average cardholder carries 3.5 cards.  80% of all consumers carry a debit card.  Approximately 60% of all consumers have a rewards card of some kind.  That is a lot of plastic!

In the past few months, I've heard these words more frequently than ever:  "my facility is a bit of a hybrid...what do I do for POS?”  There are a few reasons for this increase in frequency of this question. 

When I was in restaurant management, there was nothing more important to me than speed of service.  Several factors came into play when striving to be a leader in this area.  Some of these factors included operational issues such as employee training, the physical layout of the operation, procedures in place, attitude and proficiency and finally, technology.  In the 1990’s when my restaurant deployed a computerized point-of-sale (POS) system, speed of service was suddenly easier to achieve with each and every visitor.