How’s Your POS (point of sale) Working For You?

The point of sale (POS) is the place where your business is made or broken. Sure, your profit is wrapped up in the merchandise. You make the money when you buy the product. You realize the profit when you sell it. But you have to get the customer to the point of sale before you can realize that profit. The POS has to work for you.

How, exactly, do you make your POS work for you? Here are five very real ways your POS is either working or not working for your success.

1. Your customers don’t mind standing in line – Of course, you don’t want to make your customers wait any longer than they have to. If you’ve got a long line, open another register. But customers will stand in line if it means something to them, and they’ll do it with a smile for
   1. Great products at a great price
   2. Great customer service
   3. Loyalty to your brand
2. You are driving customers to your store – There is a lot that has to fall into place for this to happen effectively. You need
   1. Great promotions
   2. Excellent marketing
   3. And a mailing list (which you capture at the POS)
3. You are building great customer relationships – Customer relationships begin and end at the POS. This is where you capture their names and addresses, learn what products they enjoy, and continue the conversation with them so they return to the store again. When customer relationships are optimized, they’ll spend more money more often.
4. The prices justify the expense – To run an efficient POS, you need to spend some money. But the profit you make on the back end, on the sale of your merchandise, should justify that expense. You can’t price your products too high or customers won’t buy them. If you price your products too low, you’ll lose money.
5. You can find your products easily – Customers know what they want. Unfortunately, they can’t always find it. But your employees should be able to . Your POS should have a product look-up feature that allows your store personnel to look up any product and know at a glance what section of the store it is in and where to find it. This is the heart of customer service, and it happens at the POS.

If you have an efficient point of sale system that you can manage effectively, you’ll have a profitable retail business.