Top 5 benefits of installing Epos Now

Businesses are increasingly using technology to streamline their business operations and improve the customer experience. Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) technology is affording small businesses across the globe the tools they need to compete against the corporate competition that dominates our high streets. We’ve come a long way from the clunky, glorified calculators of the past. Today’s EPOS has the potential to revolutionise the way your business runs, offering plenty more benefits than simply somewhere to stash the cash!

How will EPOS benefit my business?

Insight

One of the key benefits of EPOS is its capacity to measure and manage business activity in a way that allows you to make insight-driven changes. By building up a clear and accurate view of your business performance, you can set about improving it.

• Visibility:There are hundreds of reports available that can be tailored to measure a vast array of information from margins, inventory and sales.
• Spot trends: These analytic reports will allow you to spot trends hourly, monthly or seasonally. This will allow you to dedicate the resource you need when you need them, such as having more staff on shift between 6pm and 8pm, or knowing you need to stock extra sun cream in June.
• Know what your customers want: Knowing your most popular stock items allow you to discontinue unpopular items, or push surplus stock. You can also see what certain customers are buying and target push promotions to their email or mobile device.

Time

Many business owners testify to never having enough time in the day to do everything required for the betterment of their business. Many admin tasks associated with running a business, such as inventory management, accounting and staffing, are mandatory, mundane and time-consuming. EPOS systems have the capacity to automate features, reducing the time spent faffing in spreadsheets and more time running your business.

• Queue management: EPOS systems have the capacity to reduce the average transaction time. This cuts queues, reduces wait times and improves customer satisfaction.
• Staff Training: EPOS software interfaces vary from different providers. Systems offering a clean uncluttered interface with intuitive, user-friendly functions are best suited to fast-paced industries such as hospitality and retail. Your staff are your front-line users so they have to be happy with the functionality of the system in order to remain engaged and immersed in your selling processes. A simple system ensures your staff can be operational, serving customers and taking payments in a matter of minutes.
• Better use of time: Employees who would usually be stuck in the back with a clipboard, or counting cash in the office are freed up for a better use of their time, serving your customers. More people to serve means fewer frustrated walkouts, more time building rapport and an improved customer experience.

Money

The additional insight afforded by an innovative EPOS system will allow you to manage your finances with ease. With a clear view of incoming revenue and outgoing costs, spotting opportunities for savings is easy.

• Inventory Management: Inventory management is the bedrock of good business. Poor stock management impedes cash flow, risks wastage, shrinkage and can easily be taken advantage of by unscrupulous staff. Running out of stock is also a huge blow to customer satisfaction, making you look ill-prepared and unprofessional. EPOS not only eliminates the need for time-consuming stock takes, it also eliminates the human error involved with them. When stock is running low, the system can order more, ensuring you never run out. Anomalous data can also flag up employee theft, which costs the retail and hospitality sector millions in revenue each year.
• Marketing: No longer restricted to the realm of print and radio, marketing can be a cost-effective way of gaining new customers, retaining old ones and raising brand awareness. By integrating your EPOS with marketing software you can send out direct email campaigns to your customer base alerting them to events and offers, with a view to boosting revenue. This can be done via email newsletters, push promotions via text or by developing your own integrated app.
• Staffing: Staffing costs are some of a business's biggest expenses. By accurately tracking footfall you can forecast when your busiest times of day, allowing you to rota on staff accordingly. This ensures you are only paying for the employees you need, when you need them, cutting costs associated by an inflated staff bill.

Customer Retention

The age of internet shopping has seen consumers becoming increasingly disloyal. EPOS systems facilitate a number of ways in which to promote buying behaviours, keep customers coming back and reward loyalty, much in the same way large corporations do.

• Loyalty programmes: By offering your customers branded loyalty cards or the opportunity to earn points and promotions via an app on their phone, you incentivise repeat business. This is also a prime opportunity to collect customer data for marketing purposes, meaning you can tailor offers and promotions to specific individuals.
• Improved customer experience: Better inventory management systems empower staff to answer customer queries in a matter of moments, not to mention the queue cutting capabilities. This helps ensure customers never abandon a purchase.
• Connect your on and offline stores: By linking your e-commerce store with your physical operations you can ensure you never run out of stock, risking complaints, and reputational damage.

Employee engagement

Your employees are your first point of contact and your brand ambassadors. Giving them the best tools for their job, facilitating great customer service and incentivising staff to perform, boosts profitability.

• Incentivise top performers: The sales metrics allow you to decipher who sold, what, when and how often. By identifying top performers you can reward and celebrate staff who exceed targets. By championing this behaviour you can encourage a healthy sense of competition among your workforce and encourage them to push themselves, fueling the growth of your business.
• User-friendly: Equipping staff with a simple, user-friendly interface mean staff need minimal training and can be up and running in less than 15 minutes. An intuitive system means the average transaction time is reduced, allowing your staff to serve more customers.
• More time serving customers: EPOS reduces the amount of time your staff have to dedicate to tedious admin tasks. Less time on inventory management or cashing the till there’s more time dedicated to helping customers or meeting training needs.

Questions?

If you have any questions or would like more information on how EPOS could benefit your business, get in touch with our specialist Epos Now consultants.