For busy retailers, it goes without saying that you work long hours and that you’re hugely committed to your business. But sometimes it’s a case of needing to work smarter rather than working harder. And there’s no doubting the fact that a modern EPOS system can help you work immeasurably smarter. In no particular order, here are 6 ways in which you can transform your levels of efficiency with the minimal capital outlet.

Integration is super-easy

First of all, integration is one of the surest ways to avoid duplication of work. By way of example, integrating BillPay into your current system means that your cashiers won’t have to switch from one system to another to handle the transaction, minimising the workload and heightening customer satisfaction levels.

And if you go a step forward and integrate your loyalty programme with your EPOS system, the time savings, and additional promotional opportunities can be massive. For example, think of a forecourt retailer being able to send an in-app message to their loyalty customers that there is a discount on the car wash on Friday.

Integration can also allow you to blur the lines between the bricks and mortar world and the world of online commerce. Your customers can avail of your best online offers, for example, but choose to use Click ‘N’ Collect to physically collect their goods rather than wait for postal delivery.

Customer satisfaction

Your customers come first, so why not provide a shopping experience that they want? Let them check out themselves, or with the help of a staff member, depending on their need for speed and their personal levels of familiarity with checkout technology.  Using self-checkout services also reduces the number of staff you need to process your customers.

And if you think that the notion of speeding up your checkout service is not important, let us throw out a rather sobering statistic. Research tells us that British retailers lose up £1.4 billion each year because of busy checkouts. Customers just don’t bother to wait, so the sale is lost. We fully accept that some people may resist the new technology at first, but once you’ve demonstrated it to them, very few of them revert to waiting in a queue to check out.

Another way of making sure your customer is happy is by offering a Pay At Table service for your lunchtime restaurant customers to let them get back to work without delay. Or the same facility for a pre-theatre dinner will make sure that nobody misses Act 1.

Efficiency

One of the biggest efficiencies relates to the staffing levels you require – and remember that staff is one of your biggest expenditures each week. Knowing how many customers visit your store each day –and at what parts of the day – allows you to have the optimal levels of staff in your store at any given time.

And think of how much quicker it would be to change pricing in your store with an EPOS system. If the budget puts an extra 20c on a packet of cigarettes, the change can be made instantly on all stock in your store – or in all stores in your Group.

Get real-time management information

They say that if it can’t be measured, it can’t be managed. But by having an EPOS system in place, you have instant access to the type of management information that can bring about practical improvements to your business.

For example, if you know that you have very few customers in your restaurant on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, then you can introduce some exciting ‘Midweek Specials’ to keep the tills ringing midweek.

This is immeasurably better than ‘going with your gut’, as it introduces a level of science and a data-driven approach to your marketing incentives. And remember that the information produced by your system can be accessed anywhere in the world, on any device. So just because you’re lounging by the pool during that well-earning break, you can still react instantly to anything that needs addressing back home.

Build a customer profile

If you know what your customer likes, this is the primary building block for being able to sell them more. Your EPOS system lets you build a very accurate profile of what your customer prefers, when they like to visit your store, whether they react to offers or promotions – and lots more really practical information to make the relationship more profitable.

It means that any marketing information you aim at this particular customer can be much more hardworking and much more relevant. An email campaign could be developed, for example, that lets you invite all your regular weekend restaurant customers to enjoy a special tasting menu during a fallow midweek period.

Free up valuable management time

Management should be managing, not operating. The time you save with an automated system can be used to create newer and better ways to push your business on to the next level.

And the time you save via an EPOS system can also allow you to spend more time in front of the customer, getting the sort of first-person feedback that every good marketer needs to have on a regular basis.

So why not talk to us today about driving your business forward. We’re full of ideas when it comes to EPoS Solutions for retail– and we’re only too happy to share them with you!