The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.

ArchiveAugust 2016

Melbourne Gift Fair a hit for our POS software

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Wow, Melbourne Gift Fair was a terrific event with plenty of new sales leads being harvested through the five day event. Our sales team is busy now meeting with the prospective new customers from the gift, newsagency and homewares channels, learning about specific business needs and showing how the software can serve these needs.

The fair was a wonderful and intensive experience as over five busy days we got to meet with plenty of engaged retailers to talk business, hear their plans and show off live some of the innovations we have released, which present them with further business growth opportunities.

The Melbourne Gift Fair is excellent like this, for talking business, exploring ideas and advancing relationships. It is a fast-track event as we have been able to progress in a few days with some opportunities that might otherwise have taken weeks to progress.

This is where trade shows really pay off for an engaged POS software company.

We are grateful for the opportunity to see so many people and offer the Tower Systems [pitch, to show business owners we care enough about them to support this event and through it their business channels.

Plans are well advanced on our next gift fair, this time in Sydney.

Tower Systems invited to be part of an ATO working group

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We have agreed to be part of a working group with the Australian taxation Office to help our customers meet compliance requirements. Here are the details of the ATO invitation:

You are invited you to be part of a working group for the Software Assurance project. The intent of the project is to provide your clients with transactional certainty prior to lodgment, reducing the burden and cost of compliance.
 
We want to work with you to co-design solutions for your software products that help to reduce or remove common errors that trigger our analytics and subsequent audit action.
 
Common errors can include:
  1. duplicated invoice or receipt numbers
  2. incorrect or misclassification of supplies
  3. reversal mistakes
  4. discount corrections.
We would also like to explore other opportunities to improve the internal governance and assurance processes your clients use, making it easier for them to get their tax and super obligations right.

Now hiring for the Tower Systems POS software help desk

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In our weekly customer service email last weekend we put out a call for prospective candidates to connect with us for an opportunity to be trained to join our help desk. The process of bringing someone on to the help desk is structured with the new-hire receiving comprehensive training and in-store tutoring prior to taking calls live.

Fishing and outdoors retailers loving facilities in the Tower Systems software

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The fishing and outdoors shop software from Tower Systems has won plenty of new fans in recent weeks with some terrific sales across the country.

Retailers are purchasing the software to handle:

  1. Sale of bait by weight.
  2. Manage rod and lure repairs.
  3. Manage the sale of packs / bundle / hampers.
  4. Sell fishing licences.
  5. Include local fishing spot information in receipts.
  6. Age check customers for appropriate product.
  7. Integrate with websites.
  8. Manage supplier electronic invoices.
  9. Integrate with Xero.

The Tower Systems Fishing and outdoors shop software does all this and plenty more. Plus, it will evolve further as our user community in this specialty retail channel grows.

Buoyed by excellent sales since the recent trade show, new voices in our community will help us add value to the Tower story in this space.

We are excited and grateful.

Helping small business retailers promote and manage LayBy services to drive sales

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LayBy is an important tool for small business retailers in a range of vertical channels. Offering LayBy can attract shoppers and drive revenue. For this to happen, the LayBy service must be well run, tightly controlled, so as to maximise the benefit for the retailer while maintaining a focus of service for the customer.

Using the Tower Systems POS software, small business retailers are able to efficiently manage the LayBy offer from operational rules to shopper documentation to follow up to knowing where a LayBy is at any point of time.

Whereas in the past small business retailers would manually write up and track LayBys, using the Tower software small business retailers are able to handle this professionally with:

  1. Consistent LayBy rules applied to every transaction.
  2. Ensuring all details are gathered.
  3. Gathering the correct deposit.
  4. Recording the location of the LayBy.
  5. Handling a shopper deciding not to complete the LayBy.
  6. Dealing with a change in the mix of products on LayBy.

Offering small business retailers consistency around the creation and management of LayBys drives business efficiency, improves employee confidence and delivers to shoppers a solution they are sure to love.

We have retailers using the Tower Systems LayBy services as a point of difference for their business, a marketing opportunity through which they are able to drive traffic and sales.

We are thrilled to be part of such success stories and love hea4ring them.

LayBys continue to evolve with even more enhancements delivered in recent months and more coming soon.

Helping small business retailers compete with our Xero / POS software integrated solution

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The most effective ways small business retailers can compete with big businesses and online is through efficient operation, accurate data and customer service touch-points that add appreciated value.

Tower Systems only sells its POS software to small business retailers.

We believe in small businesses, their importance to local communities and their broader economic value.

Through our software, our personal in-store training, 24/7 human and locally based help desk service, regional user meetings, weekly online workshops and other touch-points we help small business retailers beyond what is usual for POS software companies.

Our company motto is we’re here to help. We take this seriously. Everyday, out motto challenges us to help our customers in ways they do not expect, ways beyond the software itself.

Founded in 1981, Tower Systems has evolved as technology has evolved. The software we sell today is generations away from where we started. We are proud to have served some of our customers for decades.

More than 3,500 specialty small business retailers in Australia and New Zealand use our specialty POS software.

To us, a specialty retailer is one that offers services unique to the channel, services that define the business. We embed in our software for each retail channel facilities that serve needs unique to that channel. We take pride in doing this and enhancing these channel-specific facilities as the needs evolve.

We appreciate software cannot stand still. Every year we release significant enhancements, serving the needs of our customers. One such enhancement a couple of years ago was our Xero integration, approved by Xero and listed on their website as a partner.

The Xero integration delivers to retailers a seamless and deep connection between our POS software and Xero. This saves time and reduces bookkeeping costs for any small retail business.

The Tower Systems POS software / Xero link is another Tower AdvantageTM.

Beautiful software leverages POS software data

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Retailers are reacting to the beautiful interactive business intelligence reports available through the cloud-based platform released by Tower Systems.

Small business retailers are loving the elegant reporting, that they can access the reports from anywhere, that they can easily compare trading periods and that vitally important business data points are so accessible.

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This software is creating a buzz among retailers hungry for a fresh view of business performance and keen to see how they are competing with their most important competitor – themselves.

Tower Systems is grateful to the encouragement of its small business retail customers and their guidance in developing this and other exciting new software.

Tower Systems leverages Tyro and Xero partnership

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Thanks to the Tower Systems partnerships with Tyro broadband EFTPOS for retail and Xero and our direct integration with the beautiful Xero accounting software, we are thrilled to support the Tyro Smart Account. This has been outlined to our small business retail customers in this week’s customer email:

Our EFTPOS partner Tyro now offers a fee-free bank account that links to Xero and automates your supplier bill payments? It’s called the Tyro Smart Account, and is available exclusively to Tyro merchants.

If you’re using Tyro and Xero and you’d like to activate your Smart Account (it’s free after all), contact banking@tyro.com. Tyro is also offering complimentary Xero training on batch payments to all merchants who activate. The training is conducted by leading online Xero trainer Jet Convert and is valued at $110.

Sunday small business retail advice: everyday marketing for small business retailers

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We get to see many different retail businesses in in our work and along the way we pick up ideas that work particularly well. Here is a selection of everyday marketing tips we see working in almost any business.

  1. Always have a value-proposition offer just inside the entrance to the business. This should be a double-sided offer, one they see as they enter and as they leave.
  2. Always have an appealing impulse purchase offer at the counter. Change this weekly. Use the opportunity to learn more about what your customers will purchase on impulse.
  3. Always know your top selling item in the store and always place products next to the top selling item thoughtfully, to leverage the eyeballs looking for and at the top selling product.
  4. Run a generous loyalty program where the value is understood. This probably means not using points.
  5. Create stunning window displays people would not expect to see in your type of business.
  6. Offer multi-buy opportunities unlocking savings for people purchasing more than would be usual in a single visit.
  7. Be brief in talking to customers about your products on social media: a single product per post. Two sentences. Short sentences. Make the post appealing beyond you trying to promote your business. Entertain them.
  8. Send customers a card for special occasions, a personal card to reinforce the personal relationship you have with them.
  9. Change the front two metres of your shop weekly, keep it fresh for your customers and your staff.
  10. Unpack and price products on the shop floor and not in the back room or outside of shopper view.

Our goal with this list is to give you ideas you can use right away as well as ideas that will get you thinking of your own ideas.

Go for it. Remember, if you do next week what you did this week you cannot expect any growth. Growth only comes from change.

Customer service at Melbourne Gift Fair

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One of the benefits of participating in trade shows is being accessible to customers. This is what we are experiencing today at the Melbourne Gift Fair. Already, two and a half hours in, customers have stopped by our star for a chat and to catch up on software enhancements. We have also been able to ask questions and learn of more opportunities we can explore.

It is important for all software companies to be accessible to customers like this. Invaluable!

We are here at the Showgrounds for five days and energised for the opportunities we will encounter.

How will your POS software company treat you this Saturday?

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Today, Saturday, many POS software companies will be closed, providing barely basic services for their retail customers. Not Tower Systems.

  1. Our Melbourne based office is open, offering live support to small business retailers. For the best support experience retailers want to be talking with someone based in an office with the full suite of tools at their disposal.
  2. Access to the office is through capital city based numbers and a toll-free number in New Zealand.
  3. Our after hours numbers are live and ready to support the office based service with over-flow calls if necessary.
  4. Our senior management is online and accessible should such escalation be needed.
  5. Our Knowledge Base is live and accessible.
  6. More than 130 professional training videos are available from anywhere i  the world to provide free, repeatable, training.

This level of Saturday service is rare for small business POS software companies. We are proud of this Tower AdvantageTM.

Small business retailers value personal and accessible POS software customer service

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We are winning good business for our POS software this year from retailers switching from other POS software. While the software is a factor in their decision to switch, customer service is top of mind.

Customers switching love:

  1. Personal service. When they call they talk to a human. And, yes, they can call any of our offices even toll free from NZ. We hear many stories of poor service from other POS software companies where personal contact is discouraged.
  2. Names.  Names matter. Were humanise our contact and support by people on our teams using their names, real names.
  3. Access to leadership. Our leadership team is directly accessible to our customers should they wish to escalate any issue. Too often we hear of other POS software companies sidestepping issues or completely ignoring requests to speak too senior management. We take personal service seriously.
  4. Free training weekly. People love our free and easily accessible live online training workshops.
  5. Free one-on-one training. People love that they can schedule top-up training long after the installation is done.
  6. Transparency on updates. People love that they can suggest changes and watch as other customers vote on their change suggestions.
  7. Extensive help desk coverage. People love our long hours and our weekend coverage.
  8. Response time. People love how quickly we respond to their queries.

These are points of difference we have invested in with infrastructure, people and management focus. We are thrilled to win business from other POS software companies because of these services we provide.

This whole package is part of our Tower AdvantageTM.

Practical facilities in the Tower Systems POS software for small business retailers

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We were asked this week for a list of the practical facilities in our POS software by a group putting together a report for retailers to consider us. Here is part of the list we shared with them. It provides a good starter insight into the everyday facilities on which small business retailers can rely:

  1. POS sale scanning.
  2. POS sales using user configures touch buttons.
  3. Tracking sales by employee.
  4. Control over the look and feel of the sale screen.
  5. Control over the look and feel of receipts.
  6. Smart receipts that add value to the customer experience with local knowledge, care instructions and more.
  7. Customer receipts that contain a $$ discount off the next purchase if loyalty engagement is achieved.
  8. Structured end of shift process to reduce mistakes and more easily track fraud.
  9. Employee theft mitigation controls.
  10. Inventory control.
  11. Multiple price levels for products.
  12. Multiple customer types with varying levels of support and assistance.
  13. Community group co-loyalty engagement.
  14. Anniversary and birthday marketing and recognition.
  15. Customer marketing facilities to enable targeted marketing.
  16. Importing supplier stock files.
  17. Importing supplier invoices.
  18. Generating orders based on sales.
  19. Four different and valuable types of loyalty facilities.
  20. Comprehensive business performance reporting.
  21. Customer age controls.
  22. Serial number tracking.
  23. Repairs management.
  24. Hamper/package support.
  25. Product manufacturing management.
  26. Multiple POS terminals in a store.
  27. Multiple stores connected.
  28. More than 100 reports with extraordinary options to facilitate insights into the business performance.

This is not the full list we provided. It is intended to provide a glimpse of the comprehensiveness of our software and to show our software is not your usual offer the sheep POS solution.

Everyday marketing tips for small business retailers

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Here at Tower Systems, through our work with our specialsist retail POS software, we get to see many different retail businesses in in our work and along the way we pick up ideas that work particularly well.

Here is a selection of everyday marketing tips we see working in almost any business. This list was first shared with our customers on the weekend, as part of our weekly email of advice, support and encouragement.

  1. Always have a value-proposition offer just inside the entrance to the business. This should be a double-sided offer, one they see as they enter and as they leave.
  2. Always have an appealing impulse purchase offer at the counter. Change this weekly. Use the opportunity to learn more about what your customers will purchase on impulse.
  3. Always know your top selling item in the store and always place products next to the top selling item thoughtfully, to leverage the eyeballs looking for and at the top selling product.
  4. Run a generous loyalty program where the value is understood. This probably means not using points.
  5. Create stunning window displays people would not expect to see in your type of business.
  6. Offer multi-buy opportunities unlocking savings for people purchasing more than would be usual in a single visit.
  7. Be brief in talking to customers about your products on social media: a single product per post. Two sentences. Short sentences. Make the post appealing beyond you trying to promote your business. Entertain them.
  8. Send customers a card for special occasions, a personal card to reinforce the personal relationship you have with them.
  9. Change the front two metres of your shop weekly, keep it fresh for your customers and your staff.
  10. Unpack and price products on the shop floor and not in the back room or outside of shopper view.

Our goal with this list is to give you ideas you can use right away as well as ideas that will get you thinking of your own ideas.

Go for it. Remember, if you do next week what you did this week you cannot expect any growth. Growth only comes from change.

Newspaper home delivery software from Tower Systems popular

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While some are writing off the the Australian small business newsagency channel, here at Tower Systems we are proud to be enjoying growth in the use of our newsagency software and our newspaper home delivery software.

The growth is coming from new business – people switching to Tower from other software and people expanding their businesses.

We have geared for the growth with expansion of the help desk and other customer facing services in the business.

With the most widely used software in the newsagency channel, we are chosen as the safe software company, the one strong enough to help newsagents navigate change as they transform their businesses.

Last week, here at this blog, we shared our commitments to newsagents. We think these commitments are a positive reflection on our support for the newsagency channel. The commitments differentiate us:

Here are our commitments, our promises, to you:

  1. We will not leave the newsagency channel. With more than 1,750 newsagent customers today we are here for you.
  2. We will fight for you. Beyond our software, outside of support, we will help with supplier issues, business strategy and other challenges you confront.
  3. No locked-in support. Taking support coverage is optional. We never block access to your software if you choose to not take support coverage.
  4. Fast support. Most calls are handled when you call. If not, we call back fast.
  5. Easy management access. The leadership team of Tower Systems is available if you need them. We take customer service seriously and personally.
  6. Updates when you choose. You are in control of when you load updates.
  7. You are listened to. We offer the only transparent, user driven, software enhancement suggestion service. All our customers are listened to.
  8. Regular user meetings. Around the country, in city and regional locations – we offer free face to face training and networking through the year.
  9. Free training. Long after you install our software you have access to free personal training to refresh knowledge or provide training on new facilities.
  10. More integrations. Our direct links to Xero, Magento, Shopify and more mean you have more direct link options to help you grow your business.
  11. Business management insights. We can look at your business performance data and provide a personal analysis of what we see
  12. The Tower AdvantageTM. Our professional and friendly help from training to support to business advice. We are not your average software company.
  13. Owner access. Our owner, Mark Fletcher, is easily accessible: 0418 321 338.

You can purchase our software, lease it or even rent it by the month. You choose the path most appropriate to your needs. We make doing business easy.

Tower Systems has more newsagents using its software than all other newsagency software programs combined.

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