Customer service boosts revenue, wins return sales, and convinces undecided customers about the value of your products or services. You may not think of your POS system as a customer service tool, but few employees interact with as many customers in such a crucial manner as your cashiers. The point of sale is the final part of your customers’ experience. If they have an unpleasant time waiting for old hardware to process their order, a bug prevents them from using their chosen method of payment, or your point of sale simply doesn’t live up to your business’s style and professionalism, they may not return. Most customers also head to the cashier before anyone else if they need help. If you don’t equip your cashiers to handle these requests, especially in a small business without a separate customer service desk, you will appear unprofessional. Nothing destroys customers’ trust faster than employees who appear ignorant.
Your POS system can become one of your best customer service tools, even when it’s performing regular POS functions. The speed, access, and experience your point of sale provides will influence customers’ impression of your entire business. Since this point sees the most interaction between employees and customers, it’s important to have the best tools on hand.
Speed
If you have a line out the door during the morning rush, that means you sell great products. It could also mean your POS system needs an upgrade. Nothing frustrates customers like a long line, especially when they near the front and realize their lost time can be pinned on a technical malfunction. Your POS system doesn’t even need to break down to make customers’ lives difficult. Systems that include outdated features, slow, even the best employees behind the register. Additionally, new forms of payment are less compatible with many older POS systems.
If your card scanner breaks down, but the rest of the system still works, you will have to watch a painful number of customers turn around and leave your store. New POS systems allow cashiers to submit credit and debit card information several ways, ensuring a bug in the scanner doesn’t turn into a day with fewer sales. Your POS should be able to accept cards at least three different ways. This allows the line to keep moving, even when things go wrong.
Access
A legacy POS system provides basic sales and customer information and nothing else. It’s difficult to access information customers need in order to make informed decisions, and it’s just as hard for employees to help. Many Cloud-based POS systems allow greater access to information, however, allowing a single cashier in a small business scenario to handle the kinds of questions customer service representatives normally handle. Even new hardware helps your employees interact with customers. Rather than trying to guess what the customer wants by listing various features and prices, swivel-mounted touch screens allow customers to physically see and acknowledge options.
This helps the check-out process, as well. Instead of playing Twenty Questions with customers, touch screens allow them to choose if they want receipts, how those receipts should be delivered, and quickly sign. This eliminates the eternal frustration of lost pens.
Experience and Image
Winning return customers requires more than excellent products. It also takes superior customer service and an experience the customer wishes to repeat. It may sound silly, but many customers find advanced POS hardware entertaining. Recent generations grew up using touch screens, so using them in your business establishes a familiar system customers will feel comfortable using. Personally interacting with these systems by signing on screen and sorting through payment options, also allows customers to feel more engaged with your business. Your sales staff seems more open, friendly, and trusting by using the same screens as your customers.
While an old POS system dates your business, newer, sleeker hardware creates an advanced, professional image. It’s easier for customers to trust technology that looks something like the systems they use themselves. In an age of touch screens and convertible laptops, this means updating.
POS updates help you work faster and provide customers with a better overall experience. The casual appeal of a tablet or touch screen leaves customers with a sense of familiarity and comfort. New hardware makes your business appear more professional and future-oriented. As legacy POS systems become a thing of the past, their tendency to fail increases. They cannot provide the number of solutions Cloud-based technology provides, nor can they keep up with new, streamlined systems. Updating your POS system allows you to provide the best, fastest service for your customers. You don’t need a separate department to provide great customer service. You simply need to equip your employees with the tools they need. Cashiers interact with customers more than any other type of employee. In order to meet customer expectations, they need POS systems that help rather than hinder.
