subject: Point Of Sale (pos) Systems Can Improve Your Bottom Line [print this page] In today's competitive economic climate, business managers must leverage every advantage in order to succeed. One area that retail owners and managers often overlook is the customer experience created at the point of sale. While everyone knows that customers do not like standing in line to check out, only cutting edge business people realize that this last moment of contact is often the defining moment of the shopping experience for many customers. With recent advances in technology, point of sale (POS) equipment and software are simultaneously becoming more sophisticated and easier to use, enabling store employees to interact with customers in ways few people could have imagined only a few short years ago.
The POS systems of today are a far cry from the manual key-punch cash registers that were the norm not so long ago. Current technology is impressive in its flexibility and intuitive applications. Far beyond merely scanning barcodes and attaching a price to a product, POS equipment can help manage inventory, create appointments, capture credit card data, place product orders and much more. There are companies out there that are creating Point of Sale terminals already for just about any type of business you operate.
The most common use of this technology is to enhance the customer experience. Fast and accurate transactions are essential. Touch screen menus can be custom designed for just about any business application. One new feature even allows credit cards to be processed right from the screen, eliminating the need for additional costly equipment. In addition, having all of the necessary information literally at their fingertips means employees can look up inventory availability, ring purchases, place special orders, and schedule appointments just working through prompts on the screen.
Taken a step further, modern POS equipment enables business leaders to engage in their own customer relationship management (CRM). Tracking purchases and orders, CRM can generate promotions targeted precisely to each customer. Communications such as email messages and mailing lists can be produced based on different criteria, most often frequent shopper rewards programs or lapsed shopper incentives.
Finally, modern POS equipment can track inventory, evaluating and recommending safety stock levels, placing automated orders, and managing inventory costs for better leverage of assets. Having the technology handle processes that used to be all manual frees employees to spend more time with customers, enhancing the customer experience and creating loyalty.
The companies that succeed in the future will be those that embrace every advantage, and a great POS system is a wise investment for creating smooth, customer-friendly transactions.
