Increase Your Profits with a Point of Sale (POS) System

Whether you operate a chain of restaurants, a mom-and-pop convenience store, or a medium-sized retail shop, you are in business to make money. And, one of the most critical aspects to your profit and loss is your ability to track information… you need to know which products are making you money, what items need to be re-ordered, who your customers are, and so on. This is where today’s point of sale (POS) systems play such a valuable role.

In the not too distant past, retailers used mechanical cash registers to record sales onto a paper tape which then had to be manually transcribed into the company’s accounting ledger. Later, electronic versions of cash registers were introduced which allowed business owners to track more of the data pertaining to each transaction (for example, management was able to track all sales and refunds by each cashier). Today, cash registers have evolved into modern computer-based point of sale systems, which let you track more information than previously imaginable.

Some of the ways that a point of sale system can help you increase your profits include analyzing your product margin, tracking sales, increasing the accuracy of your pricing, and maintaining customer contact.

As a business owner, you know how important it is to keep a close watch on the margin of each product since you want to focus on selling the things that make you the greatest profit. A point of sale system can help you quickly identify your greatest money-makers and make decisions about how much of each item you want to stock. (If you have a limited storage area, it doesn’t make sense to fill it up with low-profit items).

A point of sale system also allows you to know, practically at the push of a button, how much cash you have in the till (and how much of it is profit!), the type and amount of each product sold that day, and how many items are still on the shelf. You can even set it up to automatically notify you when reaching the re-order point on any item.

With the advent of barcodes and barcode scanners, retailers now enjoy greater accuracy in the pricing of their products that ever before. If you need to increase the price of a “widget”, you simply make the change in your point of sale system and all widgets immediately reflect the new price. Plus, your cashier or sales clerk doesn’t have to guess what any product costs (which might cause you to lose money)… they just scan it and the correct price is automatically applied.

Marketing 101 tells us that an existing customer is worth a lot of money to a business owner because they are likely to buy from you again and again in the future (this is known as the “residual value”). Because of this, you should make selling to your existing customer base part of your marketing plan. A point of sale system lets you keep track of customer names, addresses, and purchase history… just imagine how you could use that information to generate more sales!

Hopefully by now it is clear that a point of sale system can help you track the information that is critical to your business success. This includes analyzing your margin, tracking each day’s sales, increasing the accuracy of your pricing, and maintaining contact with your customers. Armed with this information, you can make informed decisions and take actions that are sure to increase your profits.

Brian Cook is a freelance writer whose articles on point of sale (POS) systems have appeared on many websites. You can find more of these at http://www.pos-free-software.com

Can Point of Sales Systems Really Enhance My Customer's Visit?

You may assume that your guest's experience at your restaurant may be enhanced by a point of sale system. Maybe you had not even though of it. However, the fact is that a good point of sale system can benefit the experience of your guests.

So often the salesperson tries to focus your attention on the benefits of their product with regard to your interests. But what about your customer's interest? Shouldn't you also be concerned about how installing a point of sale system is going to affect them?

Depending on the type of restaurant or bar you have certain benefits will be more readily apparent than others. On top of that, the method by which a guest's experience is enhanced may also change. But overall you can expect some or all of the following:

Remote Printing or Displaying Or Orders

There are varying degrees of this benefit depending upon your application. In Table Service you have the ability to have the order entered by the server and immediately printed on various printers in the kitchen. With some systems you can have up to 6 remote printers. This reduces steps to the kitchen and eliminates the requirement for the server to even go to the kitchen to deliver the ticket.

In a Quick Service environment you can also use printers to deliver orders to the kitchen but an even better solution is a kitchen video system. The orders get to the kitchen even faster as an item is sent to the monitor as soon as the next item is entered. With printers, the order does not start printing until the order is finalized. With a kitchen video system items can be set to go when the next item is entered, thus speeding up the process of order delivery even more.

Bars can enjoy increased speed of service through the use of remote printers. With some systems we can even use the printer next to the terminal to save on the cost of an additional printer. Drink orders can be printed on this printer and the drinks can be prepared and waiting on the server when they walk up.

For your customers, faster service means happier customers

Reduced Errors In The Kitchen

Printing or displaying the orders for the kitchen is also more accurate than hand written tickets. No longer will you have hastily scribbled notes to the kitchen that are hard to read, time consuming and the birthplace of guessing and eventual errors.

In multi-lingual situations you will be pleasantly surprised how quickly your kitchen staff will learn to read the tickets that come out of the printer.

You will also see how organized the tickets are and how special orders and modified items stand out with either 2-color printing on the tickets or multiple colored items on the displays.

For your customers, reduced errors means happier customers.

Quality of Service

In a Table Service setting, since the server is not required to walk to the kitchen to hand deliver the ticket they are able to use this time to prepare soft beverages and deliver them to the table quicker.

For Quick Service operations once the cashier is through with one order they may start another. The orders are separated and a specific number is assigned to each. This number helps track the entire order and keep items together for presentation to the customer.

In bars with a kitchen it would be ridiculous for a bartender to leave the bar to take an order to the kitchen. This would reduce customer service. Well, so is not serving food to your bar customers. By printing orders on a remote printer you are better able to serve your bar customers.

For your customers, better service means happier customers.

On-Line Credit Authorization

Some point of sale systems are able to process credit card transactions via a high-speed Internet connection. This reduces authorization down to as little as 1 - 2 seconds from up to 30 seconds for a dial-up connection.

On a standard credit card machine provided by most credit card processors each approval can take up to 30 seconds. Each swipe takes time. Each server waiting in line adds up the total time it takes to process a credit card for a customer. If you have 3 servers waiting on the same credit card terminal the 1st server waits 30 seconds, the 2nd server waits 60 seconds and the poor 3rd server waits 90 seconds to get their approval. Add the time it takes the server to walk back to the table and the poor customer has almost had another birthday!

For your customers, faster service means happier customers.

Processing Credit Cards At Multiple Terminals

Take the previous scenario and add multiple terminals. In our industry we recommend 3 servers per point of sale terminal. Therefore, if you have 3 server terminals you could have as many as 9 servers on the floor at one time. If they all try to access the same credit card terminal from the processor the wait could be intolerable for your guests.

Almost every restaurant point of sale system allows for credit card transactions to be swiped at each terminal. With most processing software you can swipe at every terminal at the same time and there is no additional waiting. If you are processing through a high-speed connection each terminal in the network can expect an approval in less than 2 seconds.

For your customers, faster service means happier customers.

Professional Appearance

DirecTouch Restaurant Point of Sale will produce a professional and neat guest check, ticket or receipt for the customer. Items will be detailed with pricing. Modifiers can also be printed to show preparation instructions. The taxes will be shown and broken out by type. The total will be displayed in bold lettering so that there is no confusion.

You will also be able to show the date of the visit, the server, cashier or bartender that served them as well as any marketing information you wish in the header and footer of the receipt.

This will assuradly be better than the receipt we get at our local Mexican restaurant which is simply a calculator tape with no description of the items we were served.

For your customers, a trusting customer is a happier customer.

Customer Reward or Customer Loyalty Programs

With Frequent Diner Modules you are able to reward repeat customers through either discounts on meals, free food or reduced prices on specific items.

These rewards are earned either on a points system or on dollars spent. The rewards are good off of their next visit.

Use these programs to directly market to your customers about specials, new items or even an invitation to come in for a free/discounted meal for their anniversary or birthday.

For your customer, a rewarded customer is a happier customer.

Split Checks

There are many times when the customer will not tell the server that they want split checks until the ticket is presented. Having an easy method of splitting these checks is essential to customer satisfaction. If the task is difficult then the attitudes of the servers will show through to the customer. Then the task itself will take a long time, really impacting the customer's experience.

Some,not all point of sale systems have extremely fast and easy method of splitting checks at any time the ticket is open. In a few simple touches, extra tickets can be added to the table and items moved to the proper seats. When done, the system will immediately print new tickets for each guest.

If the server rang the original order in separate seats then it is even quicker and easier to split the order.

For your customers, faster service means happier customers.

Split Items

Sharing appetizers should be encouraged by your servers even if the guests want to split the costs amongst themselves. This will create additional sales for the restaurant in enhance the guest's experience.

Some,not all point of sale systems can easily split the cost of an item and divides the cost amongst the guests that shared the item. If not all the guests shared the item, then only the guests who want to share the cost will.

For your customers, accurate pricing means happier customers.

Pricing Accuracy

Hand written tickets create errors. Using a calculator to compute tickets creates errors. For years, cash register salespeople have been taught that doing a guest check audit is one of the best ways to sell a cash register of point of sale system. Humans make errors. Point of sale systems don't.

What about multiple prices for the same item? Do you run a happy hour in your bar? How about early bird pricing in the restaurant? How do you know that the servers and bartenders are charging the correct price? Your point of sale system will set the price by the time of day for you. Your early birds will get their discount pricing.

The National Restaurant Association backs this up with surveys and documented evidence that says that the average loss due to human error on hand written tickets and calculator tape is 2% of sales. Do the math for your business with our Return on Investment spreadsheet. I'll bet the loses are huge if you are using hand written checks or calculators to compute guest checks.

For your customers, accurate pricing means happier customers.

86 Item Feature

Almost all restaurants run some kind of daily special or have items with a limited shelf life. Table Service applications sometimes have lunch or dinner specials that are added just for that day. Deli operations sometimes have a limited number of breads available by style. The 86 Item feature will count down these types of items until you are sold out.

Prior to running out of an item the terminal will display a numeric display on the button letting the server, cashier or bartender exactly how many of that item are left. When the item is sold out it will then display a symbol on the item button and prevent the item from being rung.

Customers who want a daily special that is out will be given the opportunity immediately to order something else rather than ordering the item and then being disappointed that it is not available.

For your customers, a satisfied customer is a happier customer.

Faster service, better service, customer rewards, accurate orders, fewer mistakes and satisfied customers are all benefits enjoyed by your customers simply by you investing in a point of sale system.

The fact remains that the investment is yours to make. The financial benefits are yours to enjoy from the return on your investment. But you are going to have the share the satisfaction with your customers and guests.

Jerry D. Wilson has over 25 years of restaurant point of sale experience consulting and helping businesses automate their processes, control their businesses and increase their profits. You may find out more about restaurant systems and how they can help your business by visiting DirecTouch Point of Sale. directouchpos.com

Your Marketing - From The Couch To The Cash Register

When you put time or money into any marketing plan, your only objective is to MAKE A SALE. Are you sure your marketing is going to get your customer from their couch to your cash register?

When somebody hears your message or sees your logo from some medium you have created, what does the path from that first ‘touch’ to your cash register look like?

We call this path the yellow brick road. If your yellow brick road is well built, then your customer will follow a developed path from a recognition point to your cash register. If your road is not well built, there is confusion in your message and because of others’ more developed avenues, this customer will end up at your competitor’s cash register. Therefore, your road must stand out, and it must be designed in a way that will lead the customer through a predetermined path with a transaction being the primary goal.

An example of a marketing plan without any such road is one that puts advertising out into the community and does not have a clear actionable next step; or one that has the clear and actionable step, but the step is too big for the customer who is not ready to make an immediate purchase. A person who has been casually contemplating the purchase of your product will not react to a “One Day Sale Next Friday” advertisement. She may consider dropping by your store next Friday during your advertised sale, but chances are that will be forgotten after five minutes. This customer has no path to follow because the timing and the conditions were not yet right for her.

Your advertising in this case, has been somewhat wasted. A woman who will make a purchase in the next six months received it, but the only option that you gave her was to buy next Friday. You do not know who she is and you have no way of following up with her.

Your own aimless advertising cost yourself a warm lead.

The only way to keep in touch with this person is to continue to run costly advertising, and maybe, just maybe, when she is ready to purchase, she will receive another one of your mailers or hear your radio commercial and she will come right in and buy from you. I would not hold my breath if I were you.

Now we’ll run the same example with a message that clearly has a road for this customer to follow. You run an advertisement in the Sunday paper. The advertisement is designed in a way that creates a clear path: a visit to your website. She will visit your website because you have an offer that both interests and engages her; something that caught her eye and sparked her interest. This could be anything from a product recommendation tool your website offers, to a free book about how to pick the perfect product. You will intrigue her enough that she will take the first step down this path. This is powerful because when she goes to the website or calls you on the phone, you will capture her information.

The minute that you capture her information, you have capitalized on your marketing investment. Information, when it is in the right hands, is as good as cash.

Therefore, instead of positioning your advertising, or any other marketing program, to go right for the sale, you should instead also create a more comfortable step for people to take that will give them something of value in exchange for their information.

When you have their information, this puts them on your road. Once they are on your road, you will have everything choreographed so that you touch these future customers as often as possible in a systematic way. With these frequent touches you will be keeping that top-of-mind awareness and you will be flying a holding pattern until they are ready to buy.

Each piece that you put out into the community will have a specific objective about where you want them to go. You will have to choose the destination (website, phone, or to stop in) based on your chances of success of actually getting them there. This being said, obviously, you want them to come into the store, but this is the hardest objective to achieve.

You must understand the proper objective of marketing. This objective will be one of three things. It will either lead the future customer to click, call, or stop in. It is important that you understand your own path as to deliver a clear message to the customer.

When your path is well structured, it will lead right from the customer’s couch to your cash register.

Tom Richard is the author of Smart Sales People Don't Advertise: 10 Was To Outsmart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing To buy this book or to subscribe to Tom's weekly ezine, visit http://www.tomrichard.com/

Choosing a Good Point of Sale System

Choosing a good point of sale system is one of the most important aspects of a new or existing business. A good point of sale system can help you serve your customers better and more effectively, helps with inventory and bookeeping, can give you valuable reporting features and streamline the checkout process. Do you use credit cards? A POS system can integrate that as well and can totally eliminate the terminal fees you are used to paying for.

A typical point of sale system consists of, the register computer, monitor, cash drawer, bar code scanner, receipt printer, mag strip reader, and pole display (for retail establishments). Touch screen monitors are growing in popularity, making it easier by just having to touch the screen for what you want instead of having to remember keyboard keys or use a mouse.

The POS Software is a just as important item as the pos hardware. The pos software should be able to maintain an unlimited number of products in the database. It should work with or without a barcode, set price levels by customer, quantity or promotion, be compatible with regular monitors as well as touchscreen displays, run sales and inventory reports, support integration of data files, manage receivables, and one of the most important for your employee benefits is to be easy to learn and use.

When setting up your pos equipment, you need a basic network. All you need for an ethernet type network is Cat5 cabling to each register that plugs into a network switch ( I don't recommend using a hub) or if you need internet access for cc processing you can use a router, but you may still need the switch as well. I also recommend that you have a back office computer that runs the same software. The reason for that is so you as a manager can check reports, do the accounting, receivables, etc all from the back office and you don't have to interrupt operations on the sales floor. In the back office, you should have all the network cabling connecting into the switch/router (preferrably everything labeled as well), you'll also have your dsl/broadband modem if you are using one and I would also highly recommend a backup power supply, UPS, and a network attached storage device , NAS, for backing up your data. Backups are extremely important! One other option that is becoming increasingly popular is video security such as IP video (network video) which allows you to be able to view your store from anywhere where internet access is available and the video quality is much better than the older analog cctv type video and with the proper software you can record, pause, zoom, rewind,etc. Once all this is setup your business should be streamlined and ready to go. Feel free to contact me for any additional information or advice or visit my website at www.hivelocitynetworks.com

David Overholser, a partner of Hivelocity Networks in Martinsburg, WV, has worked in retail POS for a major clothing store chain for 6 years and did support and setup of the point of sale equipment and has taken that knowledge and started his own POS, IP Video, Network cabling business.

Hosted Point of Sale Applications

With Software as a Service becoming the motto of many of today?s large software companies it becomes obvious the power Internet Applications hold. Instead of selling a license to install software and risk a bad install software manufacturer?s can charge for access to the software online through a web browser. This provides so many benefits that I don?t think I can list them all.

*Hosted software is instantly updated to all users
*Has an install so easy you can just click a shortcut and you?re running
*Can provide guaranteed off-site data back up that was once only the luxury of super rich mega companies.

Those are just the icing on the cake. You can run a Hosted application on almost any platform. Suddenly Linux systems don?t require a specialized software install, just a web browser. The technical support required for a non-Microsoft operating system drops considerably. You also get the added advantage of easy access on handheld devices and mobile phones.

The easiest fastest way to create any tool for multiple platforms and not worry about technical support costs is to look for those companies making the leap to the next level of technology. Software companies that make Internet Based and Web Based applications are going to experience an explosion as the world moves to this advantage.

Many of the largest companies have already stated their support and intensions in this area. When looking for a software company to provide a point of sale system I look at how well it integrates into this model. Can the software be hosted on a single server and manage 100 locations? How easy is it to install on different platforms? Can I keep it backed up and updated quickly and easily? Will it lower my bottom line and increase my profits? Evaluate the arguments and you?ll see the advantages Hosted Applications can offer any size business.

The development costs for a Hosted Application are also significantly less. Instead of worrying about difficult installs for multiple operating systems (even Windows Apps have to be tested on Win98 and up) you can focus on writing towards the most currently accepted standards as determined by the W3C. Having only one standard to worry about removes the concern that different operating systems will require different installs and files. As long as you use a browser that follows the W3C guidelines, and the big ones do, then you?ve reduced development and testing time. This creates a better application that isn?t bloated with all the junk needed to make it run on a million different systems.

There may be some concern in using a Point of Sale system through the Internet, but SSL encryption and other security techniques are quite sound. Stealing information has been around long before technology and thieves will always pick away at the profits. The question is whether the risk is higher in using a Software tool that can be so easily accessed by not only your employees but by financial assassins that we all know are there. Security is an always will be a concern, but if your company is connected to the Internet in any way then any information on those networks is at just as much of a risk if not more of a risk than the information stored in a hosted application.

If your network is connected to the Internet then you?re already taking the same risks as someone using an Internet Hosted Application. Even systems on a closed WAN have their security risks. The benefits of using an Internet Hosted Point of Sale System far outweigh the risks. In business every dollar counts and when it comes to technology picking the right path can make a huge difference in your profits.

Please consider this article for publication in your newsletter or on your website. Permission is granted to reprint for free with author box and byline intact. Please send me a copy of your publication if you choose to include my article. TITLE: AUTHOR: Ed Duval URL: www.AndTechComputers.com

MAILTO: support@andtech2020.com

Author Box - ? Ed Duval (2006) Ed Duval is contract writer and software developer for www.AndTechComputers.com and Creator of the HotPotato Restaurant Point of Sale Software System. With over a decade of experience in software development he shares his unique insight on today's point of sale software systems.

Free POS Software Review

 

With free point of sale software you can save hundreds to thousands of dollars by avoiding the purchase of expensive new software/hardware systems. All you need is a PC based or linked cash register/drawer system. There is no reason for the equipment to even be new. Many of the free POS software programs can be used with scanners, will track sales by item, cashier and much more! If you have a small business and are tired of dealing with refunds, credits, and sales reporting by hand then make the leap to the POS software age.

The following free POS software products may be compatible with your current system or with new or used equipment that you obtain. (Verify compatibility before purchasing any new hardware or trying to install this software on an existing system.)

Cash Register

Yes that is actually the name of this point of sale cash register program. A simple name for a complete software product. This free POS software can perform all of the common register functions, track up to 13,000 SKU's, monitor sales of up to 56 employees, and handle daily sales reporting. This program is DOS based so it will run on DOS or Windows based systems. There sometimes is an issue with DOS based programs with Windows XP.

POSGreen Lite

This free POS software is based on the same Fieldpine engine used in their premier versions, but available free without any time restrictions. There are some limitations such as the number of products tracked and no network support (single lane).

PetraLite

This Lite version of PetraSell™ has true Point of Sale depth and is not time limited. It is however restricted to single user mode.

FreePOS Version 4.95E

POS freeware specifically created for restaurant use.

Retail ICE

Not downloadable and has a $20.00 materials and shipping fee (in U.S.). But worth a look.

For more information about the top free point of sale software available including download links visit http://allfreebiesoftware.com/point-of-sale-software today. The home page http://allfreebiesoftware.com will also help you find the best free photo software, free CD burning software, free accounting software and much more!

The author Dave Jacobs has a marketing based MBA and has worked with computers ever since he purchased his first computer, a Commodore 64 in the early 80's.