The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryCustomer Service

Tower Systems regional meetings a hit with small business retailers

July 4, 2017
1 Min read
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Too often POS software companies hide from customers, offering little in the way of face to face engagement.

Tower Systems is different. We actively participate in trade shows, group conferences and more. Plus we host our own sessions around the country – l capital city and regional centre face to face sessions were our POS software customers can meet with us, learn more about our software and provide feedback.

Over the last two weeks we have run sessions in Tamworth, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns.

Its was terrific to see so many customers as well as many prospective customers there. We had a terrific time exploring the new software, the new web strategies and plenty more in the open forums and discussions that followed.

We are an engaged POS software company. We believe in the value of personal contact supporting personal service.

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Security warning for small business retailers

June 27, 2017
2 Min read
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2017 has seen an extraordinary spike in attacks on computers and on websites. Our ability to help will depend on the care you have taken. Our advice is that you use a cloud backup service, like the Tower Backup service we offer. It works in the background, backing up without you having to do a backup. If your business is attacked, getting back to a clean and safe place is easy. Any reputable backup service should be able to offer similar to you.

Please do not put this off. Get protection for your business and your business data. You don’t want to be the person who does this after you have been attacked.

At the very least, backup every day, onto a USB stick for that day. While this is an old-school approach, it is better than nothing at all.

But let’s be clear, cloud backup is our recommendation. Our service provides you with a local backup and an offsite backup, in the cloud. This gives you two backups, excellent protection. We monitor the backups to ensure they are working. If we find an issue, we proactively call you. This is rare from a cloud backup service provider.

Here at Tower Systems we take data security seriously. We provide best-pracie advice. Our customers are welcome to use our service or another, our recommendation, however, is that they do something – to be protected.

Too often small business retailers think about data security after they have been affected. Hence this advice here and in our weekly emails and elsewhere in our touch points with customers.

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Stock file updated for small business POS software users

June 21, 2017
1 Min read
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Last week we released updated and tested stock files for retailers using our POS software:

  1. Big Balloon June 2017
  2. Spirit Publishing June 2017
  3. Newsink June 2017
  4. Hallmark June 2017
  5. Henderson Greetings June 2017
  6. Ancol Mid Year Promotion 2017 Catalogue
  7. GNS Officesmart May – July 2017 Catalogue

These and more stock files are accessible from ur website.

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Queen’s Birthday public holiday

June 13, 2017
1 Min read
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Today is the Queens’s Birthday public holiday in Australia. Our office is closed but our after hours network including management escalation is available for urgent matters.

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POS software update feedback

June 11, 2017
1 Min read
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We are thrilled with the feedback we are receiving for our latest POS software update. Here is one message we received this week.

We love the update. Thank you for acting on our suggestion. When I put it on Software Ideas and saw others voting it made me feel good, that other people using the software liked my suggestion. I love that you listen to us.

Software Ideas is a publicly accessible place where our customers can make suggestions for software enhancements and have others vote on these suggestions. This is an exclusive platform of which we are most proud.

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More retailers using our POS software integrated websites

June 1, 2017
1 Min read
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We are thrilled to welcome more websites that are integrated with our small business POS software, offering real-time stock on hand data.

Each new site we bring on enhances the portfolio and further demonstrates our capabilities of linking online and offline retail and bringing to life facilities small business retailers look to offer from their websites:

  1. Online LayBy, interest free.
  2. Paypal payments.
  3. Click and collect.
  4. Single stock data feed, showing g real time in-store stock.

Mastering these and other facilities for single store and multi store situations is a powerful solution. Doing it also for multiple businesses to one site is stunning.

This is all part of the Tower Systems web development / POS software integrated solutions package. It is another Tower AdvantageTM.

Note, all our web development is done using e-commerce platforms that are widely used. Indeed, the three we use account for three quarters of retail e-commerce sites in the world.

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Office based POS software help desk open

May 27, 2017
1 Min read
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It’s just gone 7:30am and our office based POS software help desk is open for business. Being office based enables the level of service to be more comprehensive as they have access to the full suite of tools.

Customers love our office based Saturday support.

This service is in addition to our easily accessed multiple mobile phone based after hours support.

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Why our POS software help desk is open at 7am

May 18, 2017
1 Min read
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Our office based POS software help desk is open from 7am every day so we can help our customers with start of the day queries.

While we have a mobile phone based 24/7 help desk service run by our professionals, the office based help desk is where the heavy lifting is done.

We have opened at 7am for office based calls for as long as we can remember. Customers rely on it.

Frankly, we don’t understand how POS software companies can justify opening later or closing at a regular 5pm time.

We do the hours we do here in the office because we think it is the best way to serve the needs of our 3,500+ small business POS software customers.

The 7am calls are terrific as we have customers starting their day and we can usually help them with something that was bothersome and get it resolved quickly.

Good customer service is a thrill to provide. We appreciate our customers reaching out early in the day for our help.

Some days, like today, we are in even earlier enjoying quiet time to get some other tasks of our own done/

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Helping small business retailers deal with the global ransomware attack

May 14, 2017
1 Min read
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We have shared practical advice with our small business POS software customers this weekend to help them protect their businesses from the global ransomware attack that started two days ago.

Our advice is comprehensive and consistent with international best-practice. Our messaging is being repeated to ensure maximum reach in our big user community.

WARNING RE GLOBAL CYBER ATTACK.
The global cyber attack story has been dominating news services over the last 24 hours. The best way to ensure you are not hit is to follow our computer use advice. The fastest way to recover is if you use our Tower Systems cloud backup service. Be careful. Be proactive. Make sure everyone who uses your computers are aware.

We share the advice by email and are supporting it with personal advice through our help desk and business management teams.

Any internet computer is vulnerable. Here at Tower Systems we have been on the front foot with advice for our small business retail customers on steps to take to reduce the opportunity of attack and harm to the business.

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Closed for ANZAC Day

April 25, 2017
1 Min read
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ANZAC Day is an important day of commemoration. We are closed today. Any customers needing help with urgent issues can call our after hours numbers.

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One POS software user travels twelve hours to attend face to face user meeting

April 7, 2017
1 Min read
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Just about every day recently we hear a story of wonderful customer engagement with our POS software and services we provide.

Today we have a story about a customer who drove for twelve hours for the free training we provided at a recent face to face user meeting. They did this to tap into the training, to learn more about the software, ask questions and help plan the next steps for their business through the software and services we provide.

The commitment of a twelve hour drive is extraordinary. We are grateful for this.

We learnt so much from such a unique and remotely located businesses. Plus we were able to add value by training them in parts of the software they had time to investigate. It was a terrific joint experience.

This story shows the commitment of a good POS software / user relationship, how both parties benefit and respect each other through time and others commitments.

Here at Tower Systems we love the passion of our customers. Our commitment is to serve and help…

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The value of one on one training for small business POS software users

April 4, 2017
1 Min read
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This photo shows a group from our Perth POS software user meeting late last week. Like all our sessions we had a good group of retail businesses represented. This works well as people learn from each other.

The latest round of face to face POS software user meetings have provided us excellent feedback on the latest software update and insights into next steps as well as wonderful learning opportunities for customers ho attended.

Offering these face to face user meetings its a genuine point of difference for us.

That we continue to offer the sessions today speaks to us honouring our commitment to our customers as well as our focus on providing personal customer service.

Too many POS software companies hide from their customers and make contact difficult. We don’t. We embrace are real human to human contact. The face to face user meetings are a good example of this and our commitment.

We appreciate the support form our customers and support for face to face training and engagement.

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POS software office hours that matter to small business retailers

March 31, 2017
1 Min read
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Another way small business retailers can compare POS software companies is by the hours they keep.

Here at Tower Systems, our office is open from 7am Monday to Friday and 7:30am on a Saturday. Our office closes at 6pm Monday to Friday and 3pm on a Saturday.

Outside these hours our help desk team is accessible by mobile phone along with our leadership team.

Retailers need extended hours support access and that is what we provide here at Tower Systems.

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Tower Systems launches more free POS software training for small business retailers

February 27, 2017
2 Min read
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Here at Tower Systems we love providing free training opportunities for our small business retailer customers. Thanks to customer engagement, here we a4e years after starting the service maintaining it, week in, week out.

The training sessions are often more like business mentoring discussions as it is not so much about how the software works but more about how to leverage greater business success using the software.

Here is the training for March:

How to discount easily for seasonal sales

Wednesday 1st March 2:00pm

Quickly and easily setup automatic discounts for seasonal sales using catalogues

How to prep for a meeting with a supplier

Wednesday 8th March 2:00pm

Be more informed than the supplier rep, make fewer mistakes, get more from the relationship.

Loyalty Programs. What works best for you.

Wednesday 15th March  2:00pm

There are 4 ways to do loyalty in retailer. Find out which will work best for your business.

10 ways to save time and money using Retailer

Wednesday 22nd March 2:00pm

10 different ways you can free up time and  money in your business using retailer.

How discount vouchers work

Wednesday 29th March 2:00pm

Come with us on a deep dive into discount vouchers and assess whether this fresh approach to loyalty is right for you.

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POS SOFTWARE USER MEETINGS OFFER FREE TRAINING AND SUPPORT

February 24, 2017
1 Min read
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We are thrilled to SHARE details of our first batch of face to face user meetings for 2017. We have scheduled sessions for Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne, starting March 27, 2017. We will demonstrate the new look and feel of Retailer, our Shopify / Magento and Woo Commerce integrations, our Xero integration and much more. Plus there will be time for your questions. Free training. An opportunity to pitch your suggestions. This is an excellent chance to leverage more from your relationship with us. Click here to book and see venue details. Yes, we will announce more dates soon.

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Tower Systems POS software customer service opportunities

February 21, 2017
2 Min read
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Tower Systems provides these touch point services to all customers using our POS software. They are services we have found small business retailers appreciate and enjoy. These services are provided at no additional cost:

  1. Theft check. A business data assessment and analysis to determine if employee theft is occurring in the business. We have people who have been used by police and prosecutors to testify as expert witnesses in successful prosecutions.
  2. Business check. One of our senior analysts researches the data being cultivated by the software for the business. A report is prepared on what can be seen in the data. The goal of this assessment is to provide insights the retailer might otherwise not have seen for themselves.
  3. User meetings. We host two cycles of user meetings each year – in the first and second half of the year. These are in capital cities and major regional centres. The user meetings provide free training and an open Q&A session. They are always attended by senior management from Tower Systems.
  4. Online training workshops. These are held for all Tower customers. Access is free. They can connect and participate from anywhere in the world.
  5. Tower Systems has a structured approach to escalation of any issue about which a customer may be unhappy. This facilitates getting the issue outside the help desk and in front of the leadership team for more independent assessment.
  6. Supplier engagement. Tower Systems has a structured approach to working with suppliers to facilitate seamless connection when it comes to business data. This process sees many suppliers already participating.
  7. One-on-one training. Unlimited personal individual training each year.
  8. Knowledge base. This is a self-service facility with access to articles, videos and more that help our customers learn how to use the software. It is like a living and evolving user manual, but much better.

There is an extraordinary difference between Tower Systems and others. Our commitment is consistent and absolute. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve.

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How our POS software company uses Facebook to help small business users

February 20, 2017
1 Min read
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Tower Systems embraces a range of touch points for connecting with small business retailers. One such touch point is Facebook. We have a private group where our users can ask questions and talk through opportunities. We use this platform to share support and other announcements.

The Tower Systems user private Facebook page is proving to be a useful touch point, transparent too.

Customer service today requires change and here at Tower Systems we embrace change happily.

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Ready for the sneak peek at our latest POS software

February 16, 2017
1 Min read
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We are excited to be a couple of days away rom showing off new-look POS software. This will be at the Reed Gift Fair in Sydney this coming weekend.

The result of extraordinary effort by our development and design teams, this new look software is fresh and exciting. It provides small business retailers a new experience.

For us, the new look software is like a retail business doing a shop fit. The result is similar.

We are excited to be bringing this to the marketplace.

This latest refresh continues our commitment to keeping it fresh for o8ur customers.

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Here is a key Tower Systems difference, in one video

February 13, 2017
1 Min read
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One of the things that separates Tower Systems aside from other retailers is that we are retailers too, and have been for many years. We walk in the shoes of our customers in a way that other POS software companies don;t and can;t This video is an example of the value of on show as we speak about sales growth at one of our retail stores:

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In a cloud environment what happens when the Internet is unavailable? The offering is for an external cloud provider, can we leverage our own cloud provider? How are hosting charges calculated, i.e. data storage charges?

February 9, 2017
2 Min read
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Our Tower Systems POS software system is very configurable. Users have the ability, if they wish, to run without being hosted. This solves any Internet stability questions, particularly for rural/regional Australian where this may be an issue.

The other challenge with cloud is the costs. Our experience is some small business owners are not happy with the monthly hosting cost for a cloud service.

These are the reasons we have configured our software to suit whatever situation a customer prefers.

Alternatively, if users want, we can host the system in the cloud. This can be hosted on our secure dedicated infrastructure (additional costs will apply) or on infrastructure of their choosing. We will provide guidance on the configuration so the ideal environment is created.

If hosted on our infrastructure customers are charged on a per user per month basis.

If the user runs in a hosted environment and the internet drops out the user can switch to a facility we call Outpost Mode.

Outpost mode allows for basic trading, scanning sales, until such time as Internet access is restored.

This is another example of the help we provide to our customers for a broad variety of situations in which they find themselves.

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How Tower Systems helped its customers save money on support fees

January 27, 2017
1 Min read
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For the first time since 2014, Tower Systems is increasing its software support fees. The increase will be less than 7%. The 2014 increase was the first in four years.

Following the fee increase, Tower Sys6ems customers will be paying considerably less for software support in real terms than seven years ago.

This is an extraordinary saving for thousands of small business retailers.

We announced to our customers the plan to increase fees a month ago and provided them an opportunity to lock in the old fee prior to the increase taking effect at the end of this month.

This advance notice of a support fee increase is rare in the POS software marketplace. We did it out of respect and appreciation of our customers.

We are proud to be in a position to help our customers save money year on year on software support coverage.

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