Modern point-of-sale (POS) systems are capable of much more than the clumsy cash registers of the past. Many of today's digital POS solutions include customer relationship management (CRM) features that can help you deliver better experiences for your customers while simultaneously helping you streamline your company's operations. Here are some of the ways today's cutting-edge POS systems can help your business.
Build a Customer Database for Better Marketing
Inputting customer data by hand is a process that can waste both the customer's and the employee's time. A POS system equipped with CRM features can help capture pertinent customer data, such as shipping and billing addresses, names and nicknames, and contact information quickly. With this information, you can improve your targeted marketing campaigns. Building a customer database is essential for businesses of all sizes, and today's POS systems really make that process quick and simple.
Track Loyalty Programs
An easy and effective ways to engage your customers and improve loyalty among them is to implement a rewards program. For example, you could provide customers with loyalty cards that get punched every time a customer makes a purchase. With a modern POS system, you can match the amount of punches on your customers' loyalty cards to the data in your computer, this will help ensure that nobody abuses the system. Additionally, if customers forget or lose their cards, you can pull up their loyalty points on the POS and issue a new card that accounts for all of their previous punches.
Create Customer Profiles in Real Time
A CRM-friendly POS system allows you to track customers' purchasing histories, helping your salespeople to sell more effectively. You can track everything from their personal tastes and preferences to shopping frequency. This allows you to make relevant product suggestions and help cater the shopping experience to each individual customer. As you can imagine, this can make the customer feel more welcome and valued, increasing long-term loyalty.
Track Your Inventory for Better Planning and Marketing
A POS system with CRM features can help you make informed decisions on which products are popular, which items aren't selling well, and the demographics of people buying or not buying them. This information can help you decide when to put items on sale, when to raise prices, when to reorder products and appropriate quantities to buy. When you're able to monitor your inventory, you can plan attention-grabbing marketing campaigns using in-store custom signs, posters, brochures and other advertising materials. In short, your POS system can streamline your inventory management, as well as the marketing side that goes with it.
Reward Your Best Customers
Your POS system can help you track who is spending the most money at your business. It's important that those high-value customers know they're appreciated, and your CRM-equipped POS system can be a helpful tool for tracking big spenders so you can reward them appropriately. You already know these people love your company, so they're sure to appreciate receiving free products or services. Another good option is to give them branded apparel, calendars, magnets and other fun promotional gifts. This is a great approach, because it's an effective marketing tactic that also helps improve customer loyalty, keeping your most valued customers coming back for more time and time again.
In addition to helping you build a much stronger rapport with your customer base, a modern POS system can automate backend processes, such as exporting data and and reporting changes, saving your team valuable time and effort. You can also synchronize data across multiple departments, effectively improving communication. Upgrading your POS system can be a huge leap forward for businesses of all sizes, so think about cashing in that old cash register and moving in to the future today.