How to Get The Most Out of Your Retail Point of Sale (POS) Software

Making full use of your point of sale takes a commitment to learning, discovering and applying

In adopting point of sale technology, retailers are making an important investment that can be transformative for a business. However, making full use of retail POS is not guaranteed if retailers become satisfied with using only a few simple features and fail to learn all the applications of the technology. As companies go through busy periods, POS best practices can unfortunately become an afterthought. Does this sound familiar?

Here are some tips to prevent this from happening to your retail business, or to get back on track if it has already happened.

The Learning Curve of Advanced POS Methods Must Be Respected

POS systems are constantly evolving to keep up with the demands of a rapidly changing world, which is why you should always read up on changes in trends and innovations in services. This requires some time, but the return on investment could be pivotal for your business.

At least once a year, take an inventory of the features your store uses and does not use. Then ask yourself the following questions:

1. What changes have happened in your business over the past year?
2. Have you looked into the new version release that came out from your POS provider?
3. What changes have been made to the software that could better serve your business?

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

After taking stock of the features your business uses, you’re still unlikely to grasp every POS and retail software best practice, and you may not realize where your blind spots are. As business owners become more experienced, they might fall into the trap of thinking that it’s mostly young or inexperienced people that need to seek outside opinions, but failing to get help could be a fatal approach to retail technology because retail software is extremely dynamic. POS software is an area business owners have to approach with an open mind and a willingness to learn more. Anything else will result in businesses limiting the effectiveness of their POS solutions.

Invest in POS Education

By earmarking a portion of your budget for POS software training and analysis, you could be saving massive amounts of time, money and frustration in the long term. A training session could be used to discover new problem-solving methods that could improve customer experience and increase sales. Training does not have to be directed only at learning new techniques but also at refining those which, through misuse or habit, have begun to falter.

Tip: Check if your retail software provider offers client conferences or user groups.  These events can occur annually or even quarterly, either remotely (online) or at a physical venue. Either way, if your POS software provider hosts an event to showcase their latest and greatest features, partnerships and integrations, it offers huge value for you, as a business owner, to attend.  While sometimes spending 2 or 3 days out of the store might be a challenge, the long-term benefits of bringing back all of the new information to be applied in your business will far outweigh it.

High-quality POS vendors are constantly updating their solutions, but not all of them communicate what new features and modifications are being introduced or which businesses should be utilizing them and how. Even POS vendors set on educating their clients might become pre-occupied with everyday issues like support calls and sales, preventing them from achieving the outreach for which they had hoped. This means that businesses must take it on themselves to learn about these new features.

That’s why, when you’re deciding on which retail software to adopt, you should inquire about training resources that allow your business to learn how to best implement new features. Having contact with a trustworthy and friendly sales or account representative could go a long way in bridging the learning gap.

A final note on investing in education— employee training is an opportunity to shore up weak links. For example, coming to a consensus as a team on how to handle certain business activities or building a knowledge base so that future hires can easily look up POS best practices will improve company efficacy.

Next Steps

Acquiring a point of sale solution is only the beginning of reaching new levels of commerce for a retailer. If you want to avoid the fate of businesses who forget how powerful POS solutions can be, you should stay on top of new features, approach your POS environment with humility and make sure that current and new functions are used properly.

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