The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
We had another dog day in the head office of our POS software company on Wednesday of this week. Plenty of team members brought their cute pooches in for the day, mixing with each other and with our team members. It was a thill.
Here are some of the cuties we hosted.
We love dog day for the opportunity to play with the dogs and be reminded of the pet retail marketplace, an important marketplace for us.
While we are closed for the Australia Day public holiday today, our after hours help desk numbers are live as is our escalation team supporting them. With plenty of retailers open today we are ensuring we are here to help.
Software user manuals are out of date. Years ago Tower Systems switched to a user searchable online knowledge base. This resource is regularly enhanced, along with the software.
In our weekly email we let our customers know about the enhancements. Here are some of the POS software knowledge base enhancements from a week ago:
We publish a list like this most weeks in ur weekly customer service email.
When a small business retailer or staff member calls the Tower Systems POS software help desk they get to talk with a human. There is no automated phone system.
The human they talk with engages in a conversation. There is no script for them to follow.
They listen to you. There is no set of hoops to jump through as they navigate a computer system that controls the call.
The Tower Systems help desk is a personal service help desk. It offers personal service to small business retailers using the Tower Systems POS software.
The approach by Tower Systems is considerable in the POS software space. The people answering the calls have personal experience using the software in retail. They have context. Their prime job is to listen to the customers and from listening to gain understanding. This is the start of every good support call.
The personal and human approach by Tower Systems is unique. It is another advantage offered by Tower Systems to small business retailers.
Being able to get help in using POS software outside usual business hours is vital for any small retail business.
Tower Systems makes tis easy. The company has a network of mobile phones that are accessible. There is also a layer of management phone numbers and email addresses for escalation if necessary.
The ultimate demonstration of customer service commitment is that the personal mobile number of the owner of Tower Systems is readily available to all customers.
Here is a copy of a recent support card posted to all Tower Systems customers. This is customer service best practice.
May 2017 be a year of new traffic, higher GP, less stress and more enjoyment in your small business shop.
Here at Tower Systems we will work hard to support and help you achieve your goals.
Plenty of small business shops are closed this week which makes for a quieter week on the help desk. We have been taking the opportunity to attend to some housekeeping here in the office. It is always good to have time to work on your own infrastructure. This is especially exciting given the plans for 2017. We are excited and 2017 is still a couple of days away.
Today we close at 5pm. Based on past years the help desk traffic will be minimal by this time.
Even though Christmas holidays are in full swing, the Tower systems customer service team is on deck and helping retailers.
One retailer about to sell their business needed help yesterday to finalise data prior to the settlement with the new owner in less than a week and we were able to help. In this case the help was in the form of business advice more so that POS software specific advice.
We are grateful for the opportunity to help our retail business owner customers beyond the software. It is what we are here for. As a POS software company with practical retail experience, our help often goes way beyond what people expect from a POS software company.
As our motto says: we’re here to help.
Thanks to our cloud based small business retail BI platform we get to see comparative sales data for a range of independent retail businesses.
Christmas 2016 has been strong from what we see. Good businesses marketing themselves well outside their four walls are seeing good year on year growth.
The BI platform we have developed helps our customers track key performance indicators remotely and easily. This is a wonderful benefit to help these retailers see trends, represented visually.
We are thrilled to be helping retailers achieve this.
Fast access to POS software support is key this week. Retailers are busy. retail employees are under the pump. Every question to any POS software company help desk this week is urgent. This is why we are all hands on deck, making sure every query is treated with priority and resolved quickly.
From the first calls early in the morning to the last calls late at night, our help desk team is here helping small business retailers have a more enjoyable Christmas trading period. This is part of our customer Christmas gift.
The types of calls our POS software help desk receives in the week before Christmas changes. This week, calls will all be about quick resolution, the calls will be about the now rather than with an eye to the future.
Retail businesses will be busier this week than any other week of the year in most situations.
To serve the needs that we know will be unique to this week we have our help desk team focussed and our processes tuned to serve our customers, to provide the best possible outcome as quickly as possible.
We understand time is especially short this week. We have structured our approach to ensure we meet the expectations of our customers.
We have a fully staffed help desk. We back them with our escalation team and senior management.
We want this week before Christmas to be happy and valuable for everyone!
We are thrilled to be personally helping retailers this very busy Saturday with easy access to POS software customer service through our office based help desk and backed up by our after hours team. They are all backed up with easy access to the leadership team of Tower Systems.
We take providing easy access to good customer service seriously.
Tower Systems is planning its free weekly live POS software training schedule for 2017. This process includes considering the engagement for 2016, talking with customers about training they would like to see and planning sessions on topics we anticipate will be hot to serve the changing needs of retail.
Training is more important that ever as small business retailers seek to get more value from their technology investments.
We are grateful to all of our customers who have engaged in the free training this year. The 100+ sessions we have run have been a wonderful opportunity for direct customer contact and through which we can add value to the customer relationship.
Our training program is a point of difference for us. But more important, it is a point of difference for our customers since it helps our customers to leverage the training for delivering better outcomes in their own businesses.
Every one of our customers has access to the training. Better still, every one of our customers can guide the development of the training topics – ensuring we serve broad needs and not just those we think are important.
Our fist workshop topics will be announced prior to Christmas.
We are thrilled with the announcement from our EFTPOS partner Tyro on the release of their dynamic surcharging facility, a facility that makes it easy for retailers to charge a surcharge appropriately. This is good news for retailers. especially small business retailers where some card fees are a serious post on small margin products.
How often have you struggled with surcharging? The new RBA regulations will make it even more complicated.
That’s why we have upgraded all Tyro EFTPOS terminals with a dynamic surcharging option, it will recommend surcharging rates to you based on the RBA’s regulations and your card transactions in the last 12 months. You can easily review and alter these rates at any time. Check out Dynamic Surcharging and see how it works.
This announcement from Tyro to our customers is part of a broader communication strategy from the company and supported by us in educating small business retailers about greater flexibility thanks to tyro.
Xero skilled accountants are loving our free service of listing them on our POS software website as Xero accountants.
This service is another way Tower Systems is helping small business focussed accountants with Xero skills to connect with potential clients looking for help with managing the accounting requirements for their software.
We are grateful of the opportunity for differentiation.
We are grateful to have the resources to be of service to small business retailers and accountants who serve them.
The latest version of ur small business POS software is gaining a terrific reaction from our customers. We are getting calls, emails and messages from customers grateful for the update and that we have introduced enhancements they have suggested.
Here are some of the feedback notes we have received:
Our process of determining the content of software updates is transparent and inclusive. From online forums to calls to emails to face to face user meetings around the country we talk with our customers as we develop each software update.
We are grateful to our customers for their engagement in the crafting of each software update.
We are thrilled to have shared with our customers another update to our POS software in time for Christmas. This update contains some bonus facilities, previously unannounced.
Surprising customers with unexpected enhancements has been common this year as we have delivered more valuable retail focussed tools across each of the specialty marketplaces we serve.
Our customers received a comprehensive email yesterday with details of the latest fresh retail software for: gift shops, jewellers, bike shops, toy shops, fishing/outdoors businesses, garden centres/nurseries, pet shops, produce stores, firearms businesses and newsagents.
A newsagent called us this morning out of desperation. They use software from another newsagency software company and have been unable to reach them for help – despite claims from this other company they offer support on the weekend. The experience of the newsagent is otherwise. Calls to the help number and a call to one of th owners resulted in no returned call.
We have helped them get their system up and running and business transacting. We have done this without obligation or pressure for them to switch to us.
Our marketing claiming we are open for business over the weekend is true. Customer service matters to us.
We have posted two of these POS software help desk contact cards to our customers – to ensure easy access to our team when staff in a retail business need it.
This business card size card is part of an integrated campaign to ensure easy access to information on how to contact the Tower help desk.
In addition mailing two copies of the help desk contact card, the company sent a print newsletter with news on our latest software update, free training opportunities and other news for our 3,000+ retailer partners.
We are thrilled with the feedback from our customers for the unique Christmas marketing tips we published in our customer email last week.
We sought to provide tips from left-field, tips retailers would not expect. Feedback suggests they like what we pitched and some are trying the tips for themselves in their businesses.
Tower Systems is not your usual POS software company. We engage with our customers in a unique way and appreciate the opportunities to do this.
We are thrilled to have brought on stream a new member for our help desk. Roy has been with us for close to two weeks and has now started dealing direct with customers. He brings wonderful experience as well as a respected university degree to his role with the business.
We are thrilled to be providing free face to face training for small business retailers on the Gold Coast today through another of our social media masterclass sessions.
This training fits well with our POS software and its opportunities for helping retailers to attract new traffic shoppers.
It leverages our experience in starting and running several successful social media presences for small retail businesses we run ourselves. The session draws on that experience and demonstrates live how we are using social media to attract new customers to our own businesses.
This free training is another way we put the Tower Systems message or empowerment for small business retailers out there for more to see and feel.
We projected live coverage of the US election result in a common part of the head office today, so everyone could keep up with the action. The US election has been a popular water-cooler topic in our office over the past year. This public projection today is another example of different and connected work place outside what you might expect for a POS software company.
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