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How POS Adds Up to Improved Customer Satisfaction
If we deconstruct the sentence: "To prosper, a company needs to place the right items in front of the right customers in the right
location at the right time for the right price point with as little waste as possible," we’ll see how advanced point of sale (POS)
technology can enhance every point.
A retail business runs on accurate information or it doesn't run well. In its elastic ability to gather and store customer information
and selectively retrieve it in hard copy or electronic reports, POS technology can help isolate existing clientele groups based on an
almost infinite variety of business-dictated parameters in hundreds of ways.
Accurate data based on criteria such as: location, sales history in dollar amounts, items bought, time of year, price range, age, sex,
marital status, children, items favored, popular styles, sizes, colors, brands, etc. can help determine trends in real time.
This can give a retailer insight into what to have on hand in what store when, in what quantity, what sizes, colors, etc., and to target
specific buying publics with ads to drive them into a store, a cost effective method of increasing sales. One can also e-mail visual
images, data, or video clips about a product to likely customers, and operate automated mail order and catalog sales that generate
automatic purchase orders to vendors.
Once in store, a retailer can enhance a customer's experience by having sales personnel call up product information thus offering the
discriminating buyer a wider choice than what's on hand, increasing product data accuracy and lessening the amount of data an employee
will have to remember or look up in a cumbersome catalog.
How a retailer will compile and use customer and stock data will, of course depend, on the type of operation.
Preferred customer information can be made available to every store in a chain. This can give a valued customer the assurance that they
are known and appreciated wherever they shop through preferential pricing, special offers, and promotional gifts.
It also allows for a convenient—and foolproof—return policy, and the opportunity to set up registries where friends, relatives, and
well-wishers can purchase items for a special occasion such as a wedding or a graduations without fear of buying a duplicate item others
shop in another store in the chain. These are only a few reputation builders possible with POS technology and reputations build
word-of-mouth advertising and hone a competitive edge.
Since it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, and dissatisfied customers so often keep
silent, vote with their feet, and complain to their friends, smart retailers pay very close attention to customer relations and do
everything possible to make a customer’s experience as positive as possible.
Inventory control and tracking can help a retailer ascertain what's on hand, or with a couple of keystrokes if the desired item is
available at another store and can be speedily shipped. This gives a retailer a previously undreamed of flexibility in having merchandize
shipped to where it will do the most good, and to set up special orders for out of stock items or custom orders in exact detail and
guaranteed time of arrival—one more chance for a retailer to demonstrate that his customers are his first concern.
Data gathered by efficient use of POS trend tracking, inventory control and integration with vendor data exchange can insure that hot
selling items are always on hand. If a shopper doesn't find a hot item he wants, he's likely to go elsewhere.
POS technology also allows a retailer to set up and automatically track layaways for higher-ticket items than a particular customer would
usually buy without having to resort to a high interest loan. Through vendor agreements, such sales can be made without the retailer
having to warehouse or buy the item ahead of time.
The ability to use a POS system to flit from store to store with a few keystrokes, tracking sales, inventory, employee activity, shipping
and receiving, and many other indicators in real time from a remote location permits realistic management of multi-store operations. By
knowing which stores may be over and understaffed at any particular time, a manager can shift employees to fill gaps thus reducing
customer wait-time, and resultant frustration.
While a sales person and a cashier are likely to be the only company representatives the average customer will ever know, every link in
the supply chain and managerial staff must be present, able, and well coordinated to back him up.
Confusion is the enemy. Fast accurate and properly prioritized data is an ally. POS technology can do much to make that enemy lower it's
flag and have supply-chain and administrative staff knowing it’s contributing to the small daily victories that summate in teamwork, job
security, and increased profits.
Layer on layer, every feature of a good POS system can increase customer satisfaction and the potential for prosperity of a retail
operation.
For superior POS, check out the features Retail Pro and try a live online demo to see its full functionality. To read about Retail
Pro's features, click here.
Contact One Step Retail Solutions to see a free online LIVE demo of Retail Pro.
