Can a New Year Resolution work for you?
It’s the same old story every year. As the clock turns from 31st December to 1st January, out come the New Year’s Resolutions.
At a personal level, these resolutions are often about giving something up, doing more of something or ticking something off the bucket list.
“I’m quitting smoking.”
“I’ll learn a language.”
“I’m going to climb a mountain.”
The problem is, because most resolutions are hard to follow through, many people will already have given up on the idea by now!
But, when it comes to running a retail business, the January slow-down can be a great time to set a ‘resolution’ and give the business a new focus. That could be setting a goal of some kind (e.g. around profitability) or planning to do something different that brings about a positive change. For retailers, this might mean anything from improving your digital presence to re-designing the store or finally updating the technologies you deploy.
Let’s take a moment to think a bit more about that last one – what kind of tech are we talking about here?
As a retailer, should you be taking cues from CES 2018 (the annual Las Vegas gadget extravaganza) and stock up on suitcases that follow you around or robots that capture video moments in your store? Well, maybe not!
Whereas this year’s tech show has already come under criticism for focusing on ‘nice-haves’, perhaps we at the Good Till can help you with something that offers a more useful solution to a real problem – a new smart POS system that’s intuitive, affordable, bang up-to-date and gives you the resource you need to manage and grow your business with ease!
So, if you’re interested in making this kind of tech upgrade in your store, here’s a few of the key things to look out for:
Contracts
If you’re just entering the smart POS market, look carefully at the kind of contracts offered by providers. Long-term, inflexible contracts might offer some cost-savings but could be bad news if the product or service doesn’t suit your business well.
To remain competitive, we’d suggest a subscription based POS service that offers a good degree of flexibility. The Good Till, for example, allows you to take a free trial (with no contract and no commitment). Then, if you decide to go ahead, we can offer competitive monthly costs which can be scaled up or down according to your needs.
Capability and Price
The dilemma in many business decisions is whether to pay more and get more, or go down the opposite road. When it comes to a POS system, you could end up with something that has every technical feature going (whether you need them or not) at a high price, or have a value option which just doesn’t cut it in terms of capability.
So, what’s the answer?
Firstly, you need to view this decision as an investment rather than a cost. With that in mind, start by listing the key things you want the POS to help you with, then match those to core features. Does it have the technical capabilities to help you with staff management, inventory control, sales targets or customer loyalty, for instance? How easily can the system be set up and what about features that support the migration of data from your existing system?
Once you know exactly what you want to achieve, it should be easier to set a realistic budget for a POS system that ticks every box.
Compatibility
Unless you want to make a complete overhaul of all your technology, it’s a good idea to investigate whether the new POS will be compatible with other systems you already use, for instance your accountancy software. Ask providers to explain how such integrations work and what the options might be in cases of incompatibility.
Beyond the cost
An important part of any tech upgrade is to find out what is included as standard and what comes at an additional price. With a POS system, you’ll want to think of your investment in terms that go beyond the hardware and software. What does the provide offer around set up, training, maintenance, support and updates?
Good Till customers benefit from no or low set up fees, competitively priced hardware and a range of subscription levels that include training and ongoing support from our UK based experts.
If this is the year where your business resolution goes somewhere along the lines of “a tech upgrade that supports every aspect of my business”, don’t let that idea get dusty at the back of a store cupboard.
Contact us now to start putting it into action!