How often do you have to change your cashiers’ trashcans? How much of that waste is comprised of unwanted receipts? As businesses grow ever more reliant on digital communication, it’s important to keep pace at the register. The most effective newsletters and promotions often use email and text to reach customers. QuickBooks receipts benefit more than just your customers. Let’s take a look at why you should email your receipts with QuickBooks.
Cost Efficiency
A traditional, printed receipt uses paper and ink. It’s wasted money that you’ll never see again. Unless your customer is making a business purchase, they will likely throw it away as soon as they get home. Some even refuse their receipts at the checkout counter, and cashiers must throw away the tiny investment themselves. Any advertising you’ve put on the back will never be seen. Even promises of free items and sweepstakes do not encourage the majority of customers to keep their receipts. Eventually, all of these tiny costs pile up, and you inevitably use a significant chunk of revenue you could use better elsewhere.
An email receipt is valuable for everything it does not represent. For instance, it does not represent wasted paper and ink. It does not represent lost funds and frequent waste. An individual receipt may not represent a huge loss, but printer ink has never been cheap, even for receipts, and paper is slowly being ostracized as most businesses adopt green practices. Email receipts only cost the electricity needed to run your hardware. QuickBooks receipts functions make filing tremendously easier as well, which helps you save valuable labor hours, especially during tax seasons.
An Email Receipt is Easy to File
Filing receipts is notoriously frustrating for business owners, and that frustration runs both ways. In addition to collecting and managing receipts for business purchases, you need receipts to provide concrete evidence of your sales numbers. Emailing receipts makes this essential part of bookkeeping much easier. Rather than stopping to scan in receipts, photograph, or store them, you can simply move the digital files into the correct folder. Organization and data management, of course, become massively easier.
Another thing to consider with email receipts is the advantage of digital signatures. If your customer must sign for a credit or debit card purchase, you can keep a can of pens ready and prepare to keep a very, very large folder full of receipt paper. However, if customers sign on a touch screen, the signature is automatically stored in your system, and it files just as easily as an emailed receipt. It prevents the potential loss of revenue from challenged charges and cases of identity fraud down the line.
Customer Satisfaction
The most important part of any business is customer satisfaction. The fact that so many customers simply leave their receipts at the register should prompt business owners to reevaluate their existing system. A mandatory part of any transaction, businesses try year after year to maximize their return by further investing in receipts. You’ve undoubtedly seen coupons, contests, or repeated branding on the back of your own receipts. A handful of customers make use of these features, but the overall cost of the receipts almost always outweighs the return.
The truth is, customers who are already in your store don’t need that kind of advertising. Receipts do not and should not fulfill the same role as a newsletter or mailer. Customers simply will not use them for these purposes. Customers perceive receipts as part of a finished sale and not the first step in a return sale. As the final step in your sale, your receipt should, at most, solicit customer feedback. It should also leave your customer with a positive view of your business.
Green Practices
Email receipts are becoming more popular with consumers for the same reason they’re becoming more popular with businesses. They’re easier for customers to store for tax and accounting purposes. They are also far easier to keep track of should they have to make a return or utilize any warranty features. Customers also feel better about purchases that contribute to greener business practices. Since paper is such a conspicuous part of any business and customer relationship, it’s one of the best ways to make a clear, green impression on buyers. It not only makes your business more sustainable, but it makes your business look more sustainable, which is an increasing factor in consumer shopping choices. QuickBooks receipts provide a shortcut to improved customer perception.
An email receipt cuts down on waste, both financial and environmental. This savings is a cost-efficient measure that will win rather than repel customers as well. Storage becomes easier, and QuickBooks receipts are ready for tax season, accounting, and potential challenges with card companies. It’s a great combination of benefits from a single step, and it’s a change that benefits everyone.
