subject: Technology As An Aid To Business Processes And Business Life [print this page] There are a lot of worries involved with running your own business. From wondering whether sales will meet expectations to dealing with employees, worrying about bad checks and verifying the age of customers so you aren't selling adult products to minors, there are many potential problems that could come up any day.
Fortunately, technology can get rid of some of these worries. Technology may not be able to tame the savage beast(s) that are sometimes called troublesome employees, but you can easily verify a customer's age or accept payments conveniently and securely.
A credit card terminal would be the first technological piece of wizardry that could simplify your business life. If you're not accepting credit cards, you really should be. In fact, some customers may see you as a corporate dinosaur and take their business elsewhere if you do not offer such a payment option.
When looking for a card reader and separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to payment processing equipment, you want to look for one that would allow customers to enter their PIN. This hits two birds with the one proverbial stone, allowing customers use of their debit cards and lowering your transaction rates considerably.
Next up, we have the check reader - this is a must if your company has had a history of receiving bounced checks. This is sort of like a credit card machine for checks. Just insert the check into the reader and the amount of the check is automatically debited from the customer's account.
Oh, the simplicity of it all - can you believe that you wouldn't have to drive to the bank to make a physical deposit, and just have to wait 24 hours for payment to clear? A check reader can give you, as business owner, the peace of mind you need because you can be sure that the customer can pay right before he/she moseys out of your shop.
For merchants who sell tobacco or alcohol products, adult videos or other products only adults can legally enjoy, the age verification hardware is a necessary piece of technological wizardry. Again, this is sort of like the above credit card and check readers, but this time you would be slipping a state-issued ID through the machine in order to make sure that your customer is of legal age.
In a matter of seconds, you would be able to determine whether said buyer is of the right age or not. Instead of hiring another person to check each customer's ID and manually subtract the present year from the year they were born, this gives you a definite answer when it comes to serving (or refusing service to) certain customers.
Especially for people from our generation, technology can be more bane than boon, as things were definitely simpler back in our youth. But when it comes to the world of business, some pieces of technological wizardry can make life a whole lot simpler.
