5 Ways Your POS System Can Provide Great Customer Service
Despite what some may think, a point-of-sale (POS) system is not just a cash register. It can also help business owners provide better customer service in a variety of ways.
Consider these statistics:
- 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. (McKinsey)
- 55% of customers would pay extra to guarantee a better service. (Defaqto research)
- It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience. (Understanding Customers by Ruby Newell-Legner)
As you can see, these stats show customer service is a key component to business. Believe it or not, your POS can help you give your customers a great experience. Here are some of those ways.
Loyalty Programs
A good POS system can be used not only to increase efficiency, but to incentivize repeat visits, and increase the frequency of those repeat visits. Of course this serves to improve the bottom line in a significant way. How retailers reward their loyal customers influences where consumers shop, dine, purchase fuel and groceries, how much they spend and which brands they purchase. To effectively build a winning loyalty program, retailers must have a partner, like a POS system that can track analytics like customer’s purchases and frequency of purchases. That way you can watch every customer touch point. This will help you to decide what you can offer as part of your routine customer-care processes. You can also send newsletters and emails telling them about new products and special offers.
Customer Satisfaction
It is important to know what stock to reorder to satisfy the customer and increase sales. You also need to know what is not selling, so that space and money are not wasted. Many times, inventory reflects the business owners’ choices rather than customer preferences. This is easily resolved with POS software reports. Track what your customers like and don’t like and make smart decisions with your inventory.
Flexible Options for Payment
In today’s world, accepting only cash in your place of business is rare. There are many forms of payment and most POS systems can accept these forms including cash, credit, check, gift cards, and even Apple Pay and EMV chip cards.
Speedy Transactions
Nobody likes to wait in line. And a cashier that has to punch in a ton of buttons, makes the process a lot longer. A reliable POS system can eliminate human error with integrated barcode scanning which increases speed. Speedier transactions means more sales and happier customers.
Email receipts and Capture Info
A quality POS system can give customers the option to receive an email receipt, which can help merchants to not only recall their customers’ name at the time of checkout, but also build targeted email campaigns informing their customers of current promotions and recommending new product based on previous purchases.
Undeniably, customer service is one of the key elements of managing a business. What some operators don’t realize is that a simple and reliable POS system is a key component in creating a great customer experience. A point-of-sale system can provide business owners with the data and the tools they need to give customers the best experience.