Point-of-sale (POS) systems have revolutionized how businesses handle transactions and manage their daily operations. These systems have become a powerful tool for businesses to streamline their processes, improve customer service and make better business decisions. However, despite the many benefits of POS systems, some business owners still need to utilize their POS functions to their fullest potential.
This blog post will explore the importance of underused POS functions. We’ll look at how these functions can help businesses make better decisions, gain a competitive advantage and stabilize their operation with streamlined and consistent workflows. We’ll focus on five key areas that underused POS functions can significantly impact: employee management, inventory management, customer relationship management and marketing, online ordering and reporting.
Employee Management
Retaining and hiring reliable employees is challenging for many businesses, especially in today’s competitive job market. POS systems offer a range of options to help enterprises improve their employee management. These systems provide companies with built-in and third-party management options to enhance their employee management capabilities, such as:
- Time clocks and scheduling allow businesses to track their employees’ time and attendance accurately.
- Payroll management ensures that employees arrive on time and work their scheduled hours.
- Tip management enables businesses to manage and distribute tips among their employees, ensuring they are fairly compensated.
- Productivity reporting provides employers with data on their employees’ work, identifying areas where additional training or support may be required.
Another great POS function improving employee management is self-service. Self-service solutions help businesses reduce stress from staffing issues by allowing customers to place their orders and pay without needing a server. By using less staff at check-in or check-out, employees can focus on other vital parts of the business.
Inventory Management
Supply trends and availability have changed drastically over the past few years, making inventory management more critical than ever before. Just-in-time ordering, which was once a popular inventory management method, is being replaced by predictive analytics to keep shelves stocked and provide peace of mind to business owners.
Many POS systems now offer advanced inventory management features. These systems allow businesses to take inventory with wireless barcode scanners, mobile POS tablets, and printers making it convenient for employees to input information without being reliant on a computer. Additionally, inventory counts are updated in real-time when these flexible solutions coordinate with transactions from checkout scanners and ecommerce platforms. With the ability to have a complete picture of inventory status, needs, and predictions, business owners can make more informed decisions, ultimately resulting in increased efficiency and order accuracy, time and cost savings, and improved customer service.
Having total control over inventory management has numerous benefits for business owners. First, it can improve cash flow, as businesses can identify slow-moving or obsolete inventory and adjust their purchasing accordingly. Higher profit margins can be achieved by reducing the costs associated with overstocking or understocking inventory. Improved loss prevention is another significant benefit, as businesses can monitor their inventory levels more effectively and identify potential theft or loss. Faster response to trends is also possible with better inventory management, allowing businesses to adjust their inventory levels quickly in response to changes in demand. Finally, companies with better management can negotiate with suppliers for better pricing, resulting in lower costs and higher profit margins.
Customer relationship management and marketing
According to Josh Howarth of Exploding Topics, customer loyalty has never been so fragile, with 88% of consumers saying it takes three or more purchases to build brand loyalty. The loyalty management market is worth $4.43 billion, and the average American consumer belongs to 16.7 customer loyalty programs. However, 57% of Gen Z Americans are less loyal to brands now than before the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, businesses need ways to connect with their customers and drive loyalty.
Businesses can connect with customers and drive loyalty through customer relationship management (CRM) marketing and POS functions. These systems provide customized promotions based on customer data and insights collected from the POS. In addition, companies can create targeted campaigns with simple signage and personalized receipts. As a result, businesses can increase customer loyalty and retention while seeing a higher ROI from their marketing campaigns.
Managing customer marketing and improving relationships takes time and effort, but it is simpler and more efficient with a POS system. These systems make seeing ROI from marketing campaigns easier and provide businesses with valuable insights into their customers’ behaviors and preferences. Using a data-driven approach to customer marketing, companies can build stronger customer relationships, drive loyalty, and ultimately improve their bottom line.
Online ordering
In today’s world, online ordering has become an essential part of the customer experience. From Chinese takeout to “buy online, pick up in-store” (BOPIS) for groceries or home goods, everyone is partaking, making it vital that restaurants and retail stores meet consumers online and provide easy order and pick-up solutions. POS systems can play an integral role in BOPIS, providing businesses with the tools to manage online orders seamlessly.
POS systems set up for online ordering often feature integrated and live inventory management updates, ensuring that businesses have real-time data on their inventory levels. Cloud printing solutions for labels and receipts also help organize and complete pick-ups. Additionally, display screens for incoming and outgoing order management make it easier for businesses to manage online orders. As a result, companies can streamline the process and reduce errors to provide a better customer experience by using POS functions to manage online ordering.
Data Analysis and Reporting
All of these solutions tie back to solid data analysis and business reporting. Data analysis and reporting are critical to a successful business strategy in today’s fast-paced environment. With a robust reporting solution that pulls data from your POS system, your business can stay ahead of the competition and complete all the tasks needed to operate efficiently. Live data analytics creates the best opportunities for business decision-making and statistical analysis. The most successful businesses utilize their POS system and third-party data analytic solutions to predict trends, make decisions that produce higher ROI, and find areas of improvement for their business.
A POS system can provide businesses valuable data, including sales figures, inventory levels, customer behavior, etc. This data can help make informed business decisions and improve overall performance. With real-time data analytics, businesses can quickly identify trends, opportunities for growth, and areas that need improvement. They can also track the success of their marketing campaigns and adjust their strategy accordingly. By leveraging the power of data analysis and reporting, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and make data-driven decisions that drive success.
H2: Maximize your POS functions
In conclusion, a POS system offers more than just a way to process transactions. Businesses can improve employee management, inventory management, customer loyalty, online ordering, and data analysis and reporting by utilizing the many POS functions available. These functions include:
- Time Clocks and scheduling.
- Payroll management.
- Tip management.
- Productivity reporting.
- Self-service solutions.
- Predictive analytics.
- Live inventory management updates.
- Cloud printing solutions.
- Display screens for order management.
- Portable tablet and printer compatibility.
- Customized promotions.
- Targeted campaigns.
- Signage.
- Customized receipts.
- Real-time data analytics.
Businesses must leverage these functions to stay competitive and operate efficiently in today’s fast-paced environment. These functions can help companies save time and money, improve customer service, increase profit margins, and respond quickly to trends.
Therefore, we encourage businesses to incorporate these POS functions into their workflows. By doing so, companies can achieve greater success, and their customers will benefit from an improved overall experience. So, whether you’re running a retail store, restaurant or any other business that uses a POS system, take advantage of these functions and watch your business grow.
