Call Sales: +1 (833) 437-3835
Call Sales: +1 (833) 437-3835
Julie Holkeboer | March 7, 2020 |
One of the best ways to help your business maximize your technology investment from the start is to carefully consider your point of sale (POS) system. Choosing a solution with POS features designed to scale can help fuel overall business growth.
Whether the goal is to save money or keep things simple, some business owners make the mistake of selecting basic or outdated technology. However, cutting corners on the front end often leads to frustration and disappointment later.
Check out our list of 13 must-have POS features to help you boost your growing business.
The right POS system will do much more than handle sales transactions. It will create happy customers who return again and again. Your POS features should include options offering built-in incentives to buy more and pay easily.
Did you know that customers enrolled in loyalty programs spend 57 percent more and generate 12 to 18% higher revenue growth per year than other customers?
Use your POS to offer loyalty programs and discounts to incentivize your customers to come back repeatedly and buy more on each visit. This not only rewards loyal customers, but helps to attract new ones as well.
Discounts or offers can be based on something as simple as providing a birthday coupon. Or they can be as sophisticated as tracking which products a customer buys and then giving discounts on related products. Detailed insights from your POS also allow you to delight your most loyal customers with a surprise discount after a certain number of purchases.
If a happy customer enjoys your products or services, you can help them spread the word! Allow them to share their enthusiasm with friends by offering gift cards. Gift cards help build loyalty and word of mouth marketing.
As an added plus, when a new or returning customer comes in with a gift card in-hand, they’re likely to spend even more than the card balance.
Your customers need to be able to run a tab. Make sure they can split the bill among friends. And you can even allow them to use multiple forms of payment for one transaction. Your POS should make these options quick and easy for everyone.
Also, mobile payments and alternative payment methods are becoming more mainstream every day. Your customers have come to expect a wide variety of ways to pay.
It’s projected that mobile proximity payment users will surpass one billion in 2020, making it essential for your business to choose a system with POS features that can accommodate new and emerging payment options. Revel customer Cinnabon is able to accept contactless payment like ApplePay and LevelUp with their iPad POS.
Many customers find digital receipts helpful as they’re less likely to lose them. For your business, they offer an opportunity for your brand to show up in their inbox and create ongoing engagement. When sending the receipt, you can also include a customer satisfaction survey or an invite to join your loyalty program.
As an added bonus, e-receipts are an ultimately less expensive option than the paper alternative. This eco-friendly option is also appealing to customers looking towards businesses to lessen their environmental impact.
The POS features of the system you choose should make sales and administration easier for your staff and leadership team.
An effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool is arguably one of the most important investments for a service-based business, as it will allow your managers and marketing team to more effectively track and engage with customers.
By choosing a CRM that is integrated with your POS, you have access to an even greater pool of data to draw from. Then that data can be used when making decisions on loyalty programs, marketing campaigns and how to deliver a better overall customer experience.
Centralized cash management features, such as a till with alerts and prompts, will enable you to keep track of your cash flow throughout each day in real-time. Ideally, your cash management should help you manage pay ins, pay outs and safe drops, as well as holding, closing and virtual tills.
As cash management is mission-critical, look for a POS that’s both easy to configure and provides a full range of features. That way you’ll be ready for new opportunities as they arise and not find yourself needing to switch to a new POS as you grow.
Integrated inventory and product management features empower you with a complete picture of what you have and what you need to reorder at the level of detail required for your business to run efficiently.
Proactively knowing exactly what inventory you have on-hand ensures less food waste, which saves you money and resources.
Your POS should include features designed for team management such as keeping track of labor and streamlining various aspects of your business-specific operations. You can even standardize your operations across multiple locations if applicable.
These features can help your business save money, while enhancing the customer experience by having the right staffing in place and ensuring operations run smoothly.
Robust reporting is a must for any business. Tracking data on all transactions and leveraging analytics will help you make sound business decisions.
With the right data, you can identify a wide variety of information to help you make better business decisions, including:
For example, our client, quick serve restaurant Gordo Taqueria, was able to use the data and reporting provided by the backend of their POS to streamline operations and cut expenses, making the business more profitable and better positioned for growth.
The POS features within the system you select are only as good as the technology that enables it.
Do you want to be able to ensure you can sell on-the-go or provide self-service when possible? To do this, your system should be able to utilize portable hardware, such as an iPad POS.
Curry Up Now has maximized the benefits of their portable hardware by having mobile order takers approach customers waiting in line to take their order. This resulted in faster service for customers, while allowing the restaurant to move people through more quickly and efficiently.
Having a POS with offline capability is a must. If the internet goes down, you still need to be able to process payments and capture information.
Whether encountering an area service outage or operating at a crowded event, such as a music festival with overloaded WiFi, offline capabilities can be a lifesaver.
For any business, security is of primary importance. Your POS needs to be PCI-compliant, EMV-compliant, and have Point-to-Point Encrypted (P2PE) payments to ensure your customers’ data is protected at all times.
Additionally, consider what platform your POS operates on. Using an iPad-based POS offers you the security that comes with running on Apple iOS, which is considered by experts to be more secure than Android.
New POS features and supplemental technology becomes available every day, so it’s best if the system you choose can integrate with other solutions.
Look for a solution with an open API which will allow you to add on functionality as it becomes available. As your business grows, you’ll have the power to customize your offerings to fit your business and customer needs.
Overall, the POS features available in the system you adopt can help your business grow or it can hold you back, so choose wisely. By determining which features are of the greatest importance to your business and finding a solution that can meet those needs, your business will be in the best position for future growth.
Looking for a new POS platform that offers the latest technology, is easy to learn, and provides a multitude of features to help you better manage your business? Learn more about our leading iPad POS System and see how Revel Systems can help.
Client Login