CategoryCustomer Service

While our offices are closed today for the Queen’s Birthday public holiday our after hours numbers are open for urgent calls. Better still, our awesome chatbot is up and running with correct answers to more than 80% of customer queries. Access to this is available 24./7 and it’s free.

The current economic climate is a topic of considerable discussion, and it’s undeniably influencing consumer confidence. Showcasing the value your business offers is more crucial than ever. For small business retailers, this is about actively nurturing stronger customer relationships and, in turn, securing better outcomes for your business.

When we speak of value, we’re referring to the benefits and savings shoppers perceive when they choose to engage with your business. While price is a component, true value often extends further. An item might have a higher initial cost but offer greater longevity, or a purchase could include more units or an added benefit that enhances its overall worth. It’s about demonstrating a clear advantage for the discerning shopper.

For small business retailers businesses utilising our Tower Systems’ POS software, there are built-in tools that help you communicate this value effectively. Here are five practical strategies you can implement to resonate with customers navigating the pressures of increased living costs:

1. Clear Savings with Discount Vouchers: Our Retailer (yep, that’s the name of our product since 1997) software allows you to issue discount vouchers, providing a tangible saving that customers can readily understand. A specific dollar amount off is often more impactful than loyalty points, offering immediate relief. You can structure these vouchers to ensure your costs are covered while clearly showing shoppers the direct financial benefit they receive.
2. Community Support and Customer Savings: Consider partnering with local charities, community groups, or clubs. You could offer their members a special discount, for example, 5% off their purchases. Simultaneously, a percentage of their spend, perhaps another 5%, could be donated to the organisation. This initiative not only drives new foot traffic from a supportive community base but also positions your business as one that gives back, offering indirect value to customers who appreciate social responsibility.
3. Rewarding Loyalty on Regular Purchases: For frequently bought items such as coffee, pet food, greeting cards, magazines, or garden supplies, implementing a ‘coffee card’ style discount can foster customer loyalty. An offer like “buy nine, get the tenth free” provides a clear path to savings on habitual purchases, encouraging repeat business and making essential or regular buys more affordable over time.
4. Unique Value Through Product Bundling: Create exclusive product bundles that offer a combined value proposition shoppers won’t find elsewhere. By curating complementary items into a single, attractively priced package, you can highlight savings compared to purchasing each item individually, providing a unique and compelling reason to choose your store.
5. Savings Through Volume Pricing: Implement volume pricing strategies where the unit cost of an item decreases as the quantity purchased increases. This directly addresses the desire for savings, allowing customers to economise by buying in larger amounts while simultaneously encouraging increased sales for your business.

These five strategies represent just a starting point. The Tower Systems POS software for small business retailers provides a comprehensive suite of tools to help you systemise your approach to pitching value. Consistency in these efforts is paramount to their success, reassuring customers that your business is mindful of their financial pressures.

Tower Systems is committed to offering more than just technical POS software support. We provide business management advice, like these insights, to all our customers. Our aim is to extend our help desk experience beyond the software itself and onto your shop floor, empowering local small business retailers to maximise the value they gain from our systems, especially during challenging economic periods.

This week we are hosting two forums for our customers. We shared the details in our regular customer service emails:

Customer forum: Tuesday May 27 @ 11am.
Please join us online this Tuesday at 11am Melbourne time as we talk through the AI tools in the software, preview some software enhancements coming your way and answer all your questions on all topics. Everyone is welcome.

Web development forum: Tuesday May 27 @ 2pm.
If you are considering having a website developed for your business, join us this Tuesday at 2pm Melbourne time. We’ll talk through the process, what’s involved, the costs and we will answer all of your questions.

As usual, we will record the sessions and make these recordings available to all customers.

Tower Systems is proud to provide live POS software help desk support on Saturdays as a standard part of our comprehensive support coverage. This service has been an integral part of our offering for many, many years, and there are no extra charges associated with accessing our support, including on Saturdays.

Our Saturday support is delivered by our dedicated help desk team, offering full service assistance, not a limited on-call arrangement.

Here’s what some of our small business retail customers have shared about the value of our Saturday POS software help desk support:

“Saturdays are when I get time to work on the business. Your availability means I can get the help I need then, rather than waiting until Monday.”

“One of the reasons we chose Tower Systems was because we were tired of waiting days to get in touch with support for our previous software.”

“I appreciate that I can call on a Saturday and speak to a real person who listens to my non-technical explanation and provides assistance, right then and there.”

“Our weekend staff aren’t as familiar with the software, so their ability to call your help desk allows us to have a smoother weekend operation.”

“Software issues don’t adhere to Monday to Friday office hours. Having access to your help desk outside of these times is incredibly beneficial for our business.”

“It’s what small businesses value – local support that’s easily reachable when we need it.”

“I’m always delighted when I email a non-urgent question on a Saturday, expecting a Monday response, and instead receive a reply or even a call on Saturday. It’s fantastic.”

We take pride in offering a level of after-hours POS software help desk access that is truly distinctive. While the majority of our customers may not require it frequently, its availability and ease of access provide crucial support when needed, setting us apart and demonstrating our commitment to our customers.

A less effective approach to Saturday POS software help desk support is through offshore call centres. We believe this does not offer the same level of understanding and service.

All members of our Tower Systems POS software help desk team possess in-depth knowledge of our software, understand the nuances of local retail, and can converse in a way that resonates with local business practices. They are skilled in engaging in meaningful conversations rather than adhering strictly to scripts.

Ultimately, we recognise that Saturday POS software help desk support is a genuinely valuable resource for local small business retailers.

In the context of AI, “hallucination” refers to an AI model generating false or misleading information, presented as accurate, due to limitations in its training data or design.This is a real problem. Hallucinations undermine trust in AI models.

Hallucinations in AI results are more common in open AI models, models with a low cost and that draw knowledge from not only the expertise of the business offering access to the AI chat.

Here at Tower Systems we have offered AI chat solutions for years and are grateful to leverage that experience and the leading-edge customer service specific AI LLM that we have partnered with for quite some time now. This LLM has only beed trained by us. It is closed too, meaning that it is not drawing any knowledge or experience outside of that in which we rain it.

The approach we have taken is more expensive and more complete, more certain.

For well over a year of using this professional help desk model we have reviewed responses and used what we have learned from the human review of responses to further train the AI to provide even better responses.

Being years into live use provides us with an advantage for which we are genuinely grateful.

The pay off for us is when we see fewer responses from the AI that could be improved.

None of this detracts from our human delivered personal customer service. We love talking with retailer, chatting retail and learning from how we can better serve their needs. What the AI does is provide access to support in the middle of the night covering all manner of queries from the simple to the complex. Its;s track record in offering this help is excellent. It has a record of accurate resolution we are proud of and that customers have let us know they are grateful for.

While many websites offer chatbot access, the majority today are not using a closed LLM such as what we pay to access. In our case we looked at the best practice approach of AI facilitated customer service. The quality of what we deliver matters more than the cost of delivery as we know this is what our customers will appreciate. We are glad to see no hallucination in our AI chatbot responses.

Requests from schools, charities, and other local community groups can be a challenging for a small retail business. We know of retailers who are asked daily for a cash or product donation. Often these requests come from people unknown to the business.

If you don’t have a structured approach, you’ll end up giving away a lot for little or no return.

The advice we share here is advice we first offered our customers many years ago. It has been refined over time.

Here are our tips on handling a donation request from a local community group or charity:

• Manage your philanthropy like any business activity. Decide how much money (or commercial value) you are willing to donate each year, and then stick to that budget.
• Get on the front foot. Write to community groups at the start of the year and ask them to submit a proposal if they’d like your support. This way, you can choose the groups that are a good fit for your business and your community. It also gives you a response when you are asked for support.
• Support the groups that support you. Look for groups that have members who are also your customers. This way, you’re helping both the group and your business.
• Let your shoppers choose. If you offer discount vouchers, you could let customers donate their vouchers to a local group. This is a great way to get your customers involved in your community giving.
• Reward engagement. You could offer a discount to customers who are members of a local group. This would encourage them to shop at your business, and it would also support the group. This is critical advice. There has to be a commercial benefit for your business if you are to be able to help these community groups into the future.
• Educate groups about good engagement. Let groups know that you’re looking for ways to work together to benefit the community. You could ask them to do things like promote your business on their social media pages, or write about you in their newsletters.
• Write about your engagement. Once you’ve chosen the groups you’re going to support, write about it on your website and social media. Don’t be boastful or arrogant, be grateful. This will help to raise awareness of the groups, and it will also show your customers that you’re committed to giving back to the community.

Your giving should serve both your heart and your business. By following these tips, you can make sure that your donations are a valuable investment for both you and your community.

Here are some additional tips:

• Be clear about your expectations. Let groups know what you’re looking for in a partnership, and what you expect from them in return.
• Be professional. Even if you’re dealing with a small community group, it’s important to be professional in your dealings with them.
• Be grateful. When a group partners with you, be sure to thank them for their support.

By following these tips, you can build strong relationships with community groups and make a real difference in your community.

Our customer service chatbot is providing terrific advice and customer service 24/7. Relying solely on what we train it and with no external knowledge access, this chatbot is made for Tower Systems customers. It frees our terrific help desk team for support calls that require human knowledge and experience. This is what our customers are loving too.

The chatbot answers the query and provides links to the knowledge sources on which it has relied to provide the advice.

Here are some live chatbot examples (without the source details included for this public post):

Customer query: No retailer data found.

Chatbot response: The “No Retailer Data Found” error typically occurs when your computer can’t connect to the MAIN/SERVER computer or is looking in the wrong location for the data. This is often due to network issues blocking the connection between PCs.
To resolve this:

Check if you can access the internet on both your PC and the MAIN computer. If not, try restarting your router/modem.

If internet access is working, the issue might be with the IP address settings on your POS/CLIENT computer. To fix this:

• Open Retailer Backup on the CLIENT PC
• Click Settings -> Database Settings in the left menu
• At “Server IP or Name”, enter your MAIN/SERVER computer’s name

If these steps don’t resolve the issue, you may need to perform more advanced network troubleshooting or contact our support team for assistance.

Customer query: Cash drawer not opening.

Chatbot response: There are several reasons why your cash drawer might not be opening. Here’s how we can troubleshoot and fix the issue:

Check your receipt printer: The cash drawer is typically triggered by the receipt printer. Make sure it’s turned on and printing correctly.

Inspect cable connections: Shut down the computer, then check the cable connections between the till and the printer at both ends. Ensure they’re firmly plugged in and not damaged. Unplug and replug if necessary, then restart the computer and try again.
Verify Retailer settings:

• Go to Setup -> General -> Pay Types tab. Ensure appropriate payment types are ticked to open the cash drawer.
• Go to Setup -> Point of Sale -> Terminals tab. Check that the current terminal has a till ID ticked to have a cash drawer (verify under Till Setup).
Confirm Retailer configuration:
• Click Setup -> Point Of Sale -> Terminals tab
• Note the Till ID for the highlighted row
• Go to the Till Setup tab
• Tick ‘Cash Draw’ for the noted Till ID
• Save, close, and restart Retailer

If these steps don’t resolve the issue, please contact our support team for further assistance.

Customer query: export customer list from Retailer.

Chatbot response: We offer multiple ways to export a customer list from our Retailer software. Here’s how you can do it:
Using the Export Data utility:

• Go to Utilities -> Import/Export Files -> Export Data
• Choose your export options (Basic or Advanced)
• Select the customer fields you want to include
• Click Export and choose where to save the file (TXT or CSV format)

Using the Customer Listing Report:
• Go to Reports -> Customer -> Customer Listing
• Select customer categories and sorting options
• Run the report to view or export customer information

Using Marketing Tools (if you have the Marketing module):
• Go to Marketing -> Marketing Tools
• Create a new template or modify an existing one
• Generate your customer list
• Export to CSV or Excel, or use it for SMS campaigns

Choose the method that best suits your needs. If you need more detailed instructions for any of these options, please let me know.

Customer query: My eftpos is not connecting

Chatbot response: I understand you’re having issues with your EFTPOS not connecting. Before we proceed with troubleshooting, could you please tell me which EFTPOS provider you’re using? This information will help me provide more accurate and specific guidance for your situation.

Customer response: NAB

Chatbot response: To troubleshoot your NAB EFTPOS connection issue, we recommend the following steps:

Check your internet connection: Ensure both your computer and the EFTPOS terminal have a stable internet connection. If not, try restarting your router or modem.

Verify cable connections: Shut down your computer, then inspect the cable connections between the EFTPOS terminal and your computer. Make sure they’re firmly plugged in and not damaged. Unplug and replug if necessary, then restart your computer and try again.

Restart the EFTPOS terminal: Hold down the Function and Clear buttons to restart the terminal. If it doesn’t restart automatically, hold the Enter key until you see the start-up screen.

Check Retailer settings: Go to Setup -> Point of Sale -> Terminals tab. Ensure the current terminal has the correct EFTPOS settings.

Update Retailer software: Make sure you’re using the latest version of our software, as older versions may have EFTPOS-related issues.

If these steps don’t resolve the issue, you may need to contact NAB directly for further assistance, as they handle the EFTPOS integration on their end.

Customer query: emails are not sending.

Chatbot response: There are several reasons why your emails might not be sending. First, check the Mail Queue Manager (Tasks -> Mail Queue Manager) to see the status of your emails. Here are some common issues and solutions:

If emails have a ‘Failed’ status:

• Check the Response column for specific error messages.
• Common issues include incorrect username/password, expired credentials, or authentication problems.

If emails have a ‘New’ status:

• You may need to complete the email setup.
• The Mail Queue service might have stopped responding.

If emails have a ‘None’ status:

• For Gmail users, redo the Email Setup and ensure you tick ‘Send email on your behalf’ during the login steps.

To fix these issues, you can try:

Re-entering your email password in the setup.

Restarting the Mail Queue service.

Resending failed emails by right-clicking and selecting ‘Resend Email’ or ‘Resend All Failed Emails’.

If problems persist, updating to the latest version of Retailer may help resolve email authentication issues.

Our Tower Systems POS software has offered an international barcode lookup integration for two years. Retailers using it love it for the time saved and the accurate data they can access.

There is a difference between the various POS systems in the market and a difference between the various POS software companies in the marketplace. Only someone who has used the various systems can truly know the difference.

We can’t speak for what our POS software does compared to another, just as they can’t for us.

What we can speak to is what we focus on for differentiation, what we offer and what we do to stand out, be talked about positively and to be loved. Here are some areas of differentiation we pursue:

Human service. Call us, and a human answers. For POS software customer service you can speak with a human, someone skilled in retail and skilled in using our POS software. They will chat with you to understand your questions. They will answer without following a script. It’s a conversation, between humans. Better still, you can. speak with the leadership team of the company for any escalation.

Your voice matters. You can promote software changes and have other users of the software vote on them. Suggestions on this transparent voting platform are considered and reviewed prior to finalising the content of each software update. Every update has some of the suggestions addressed – demonstrating that we listen.

Small business focussed. Not selling to big groups or chains means that each customer is equal, each voice as important as the other, none of our customers get lost in a crowd of monsters and ants. In our community everyone is equal, and respected as such.

Proactive change. Thanks to regular software updates the POS software itself evolves as the needs of retail evolve, sometimes faster – ensuring that the software is a commercially valuable solution in a rapidly, changing retail landscape.

No hidden fees or costs. Tower approaches pricing with transparency. We make our money from renting access to the software. There is no required payments platform, no fee per transaction in customer businesses.

Learn your way, in your time. Thanks to an awesome library of training videos that is regularly expanding and a wonderful library of knowledge base articles and that these are brought together through structured learning paths, staff in retail businesses using our POS software can easily learn, for themselves and the business they serve.

These are some of the ways we seek to differentiate at Tower Systems.

When it comes to your retail business, smooth operations are everything. Especially when it comes to your point-of-sale (POS) system, any question can bring things to a halt. That’s where a local reliable help desk comes in, a help desk where calls are conversations rather than strict script driven.

Tower Systems is Australian based. All of our help desk colleagues have retail experience. They don’t follow a script. You are not required to detail your query within strict parameters. It’s a conversation, something familiar in local small business retail.

An Aussie help desk will understand the nuances of your questions and be able to troubleshoot issues specific to Australian regulations and business practices.

When a POS system in any retail business crashes or does not perform and you expect, you need help fast. An Australian help desk operates in the same time zone as you, meaning you can get in touch with a real person during regular business hours. No waiting for an overseas team to wake up halfway across the world.

Here at Tower Systems customers set their own contact priority when they reach out to us. This determines the urgency. They are in control.

We cater to the specific needs of our retail communities: jewellers, garden centres, gift shops, bike shops, toy shops, newsagents and more. Folks on our help desk have a deep understanding of these local systems and the challenges you might face. They can provide tailored advice and solutions that are relevant to your business.

We see each of our POS software customers as a valued customer, not just another ticket number. Individual businesses matter. All of our customers are small business retailers. We don’t serve big business retailers. We take the time to understand your business and develop a relationship with your team. This can lead to faster resolutions and even proactive support to prevent future problems.

We also provide easy to access forums, like user meetings, where every voice is heard.

If being able to access useful and understandable customer service about your POS software matters in your business. Tower Systems is here for you. Locally made and supported POS software for local specialty retailers.

Decades ago software companies like us would run user meetings around the counter. They provided an excellent forum for dialogue between software users and developers.

We have continued our commitment to user meetings. Today, they are run online. They are an open and inclusive as ever. We find them invaluable.

In a few hours we are hosting our next POS software user meeting. Our 4th so far this year. we are grateful to customer engagement with these.

We have just completed a project working with customers that we could see were not backing up their POS software data daily.

This is customers not running in the cloud – customers who prefer to run on computers in their businesses. There are plenty of situational reasons where this is required.

Anyway, we did a deep dive and found a group of several hundred not following our advice to backup daily. So, we engaged with each of them, reminded them of the importance of daily backup, offered easy access to automated safe cloud backup and urged them to do something.

The whole project resulted in a different type of engagement with our customers – proactive with us reaching out to them to say hey, things don’t look right here.

Customers loved it.

You don’t want to discover that you need a backup when you don’t have one.

Hardware failures, natural disasters,cyberattacks, accidental deletions, and even power surges can all lead to irreplaceable data disappearing. This can be catastrophic for a business, causing delays, damaging reputations, and incurring significant financial losses.

That’s where daily data backups come in. Regularly backing up data creates a safety net, ensuring you have a recent copy of your information readily available in case of disaster. Here are some reasons why backing up your data every day is crucial:

• A data loss event can bring your entire operation to a grinding halt. Daily backups allow you to quickly restore lost information and get back up and running with minimal downtime. This keeps your business productive and prevents lost revenue.

• Ransomware attacks are a growing concern, and businesses are prime targets. By having daily backups, you can avoid paying hefty ransoms to retrieve your data. Simply restore from your latest backup and continue working.

• Human error is inevitable. Accidental file deletions or system malfunctions can happen to anyone. Daily backups ensure you have a recent copy to restore, saving you the heartache and hassle of data recovery.

• Disasters can strike at any time. Floods, fires, or even power outages can damage hardware and destroy data. Daily backups stored offsite guarantee you have a copy of your information safe and secure, enabling you to resume operations quickly.

Our advice to any POS software customer is to ensure you are backing up daily.

24/7 support is vital for retailers using POS software like that we offer from Tower Systems. Over an extended break like Easter, which starts tomorrow, we have opportunities in place through which our customers can easily access knowledge and support to answer questions and resolve queries.

Via our website, our POS software customers have access to an enhanced chatbot experience. This chatbot has been comprehensively tested over the last two months with many different queries and scenarios put to it. It passes with flying colours. It has the ability to draw on knowledge from 900+ knowledge base articles and other technical content about the capabilities of our software.

Our customers also have access to our vast knowledge base as well as a large and growing library of training videos.

All of these resources are unique to Tower Systems and its community of POS software customers. Better still, the resources continue to evolve. Take the training videos, we have added more than forty this year already.

Backing all of this leading-edge tech up is our human team, they are accessible too, including through to leadership team escalation.

This is the type of customer service that sets us apart.

Tower Systems prides itself on offering comprehensive support to its customers. This includes after hours service for those times when a critical issue arises outside of regular business hours.

To access support after hours for any urgent issue: call 03 9524 8000 and our phone system will automatically transfer you to the available after hours support personnel.

What we know, though, is that two thirds of all after hours calls can be answered via the website chatbot or a knowledge base search. This self serve access is faster. It also helps users of the software better learn the software and this enhances their efficiency.

By combining after hours support with their self-service options, Tower Systems ensures its customers have the resources they need to get the help they need, whenever they need it. This is POS software customer service in 2024 – providing help for retailers in a cost effective way.

We are grateful to our customers who help us continue to evolve the customer service experience.

Have a wonderful Easter break.

We’ve all been there. You punch in the numbers based on the menu options they provide, you think you’re at the right place and it turns out you are no, so you have to start again. Or, you say what you are looking for, and the computer on the other end thinks you have said something else. Or, you send an email like they want and there is no response, ever. Or you use their customer service chat bot that provided a response that bears no relation to your query.

Accessing customer service today has become messy as plenty of companies seek to save money on this most vital part of their business.

Real-life situations rarely fit neatly into pre-programmed options that companies dictate.

Real-live situations like we encounter at our POS software company start with a conversation, often some distance from an error message or a description of the actual query.

There is the issue of local slang, too. An Aussie customer service rep, on the other hand, can understand the nuances of your situation, whether you’re having a “shocker” with a faulty product or your internet’s gone belly-up. They can grasp the emotions behind your enquiry, be it fair dinkum frustration or a bit of larrikin humour, and tailor their approach accordingly. This not only gets you the solution you need faster, but it also shows that the company values you as an individual, not just another barbie on the snag.

There’s a certain comfort and level of trust that comes with interacting with a human, especially if they are in the same country as you. A friendly voice with a hint of a Queenslander twang or a broad Melbourne drawl can go a long way. A skilled customer service rep can build rapport with you, crack a few jokes, making the experience more positive. This is especially important when you’re dealing with a complex issue that may not make sense to you. Having someone who can empathise with your situation and actively work towards a fair dinkum resolution makes a world of difference.

The Power of Flexibility and Thinking Outside the Box

While chatbots and automated systems can be great for handling frequently asked questions, they often struggle when faced with unexpected situations. A human rep, on the other hand, has the flexibility to think outside the shearer’s shed and come up with creative solutions. They can access a wider range of information and resources, and use their judgement to find the best course of action for your specific needs. This can save you time and frustration, and leave you feeling like your problem has been genuinely addressed, not just swept under the barbie.

A human on a help desk can agree with out that something does not make sense. A bot is unlikely to do that. A computerised phone system won’t even let you get that far.

Sometimes, a simple apology or acknowledgement of your frustration can go a long way. A human customer service rep can offer that human touch, a sense that someone genuinely cares about your experience, whether you’re a bloke in the bush or a city slicker. This can turn a negative interaction into a neutral, or even positive, one. After all, when you feel like you’ve been heard and understood, you’re more likely to be a loyal customer and sing the company’s praises down the pub, not whinge about it to your mates.

Technology can certainly play a role in customer service. Here at Tower Systems though we make talking with a human easy, in any part of the company. We publish direct email addresses and phone numbers for different team members in the company from help desk, admin, accounts and the leadership team. This is important to us when we are customers, we know it is important to our customers.

It is a differentiator for our POS software company. Access to us is easy and content we publish is fresh. This speaks to our relevance in 2024 we think.