The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
Here are two new articles loaded to the Tower Systems knowledge base – available to all retailers using our smart POS software:
We are grateful to suppliers for providing us with stock files for testing, approval and sharing with small business retailers using our POS software. The files tested and loaded this week include:
Tower Systems has been helping newsagents today prepare for a major News Corp. promotion of DVDs being given away to help drive newspaper sales. This latest work by the Tower help desk team is a continuation of the good work done by the company in service is close to 2,000 newsagents using its industry standard newsagency software.
Too many businesses treat customer service as secondary to the routine processes of the business. By investing in customer service and getting all your staff to think positively, you will improve your business. The following five suggestions give demonstrations of positive customer service from the point of view of the customer, including some specific examples you can try today:
A greeting doesn’t have to be verbal. An acceptable greeting in today’s workplace can be a head nod or a smile or just eye contact. It can also be a social approach or a merchandise approach. It just requires that the associate make a quick decision on how they will “plug in” to start the energy flowing. The social approach can be something as simple as, “What brings you in on such a gorgeous day?” The merchandise approach could be, “I see you have a roll of film that needs developing. Do you need that in one hour or would you like to save a little money and have it sent out?” Oh, I feel a little spark!
90% of unhappy customers leave a place of business because of inattentive, impolite employees. And almost all of them never tell anyone in management, they tell everyone else they know. The way to avoid that is to start the connection in a positive way. Make eye contact first before you start the conversation. Find out why I am there in the first place before you start to tell me how bad your day is. You see, the customer doesn’t really care about YOU; they want to know how YOU are going to solve their problem. That’s where the “plug” comes in!
Plug in to what I am saying and really listen to me. Be able to repeat back my needs, wants or even my problem so that I know you are really listening. Practice listening with both ears and both eyes. Good listening skills can outwardly show how much respect you have for the other person you are speaking to. I have many choices of where else I can go, so make me feel like you care and you want to help make the connection!
Share your knowledge of your product and services with me. Customers keep coming back based on the trust they have built with you. They know that they can expect prompt, efficient and knowledgeable service. When you have a new system or new products, it helps to inform the customer. When an employee shares valuable knowledge, an “I understand” light bulb goes on in the customer’s eyes!
If a customer likes the connection they have with a business they will come back. But if that energy is powerful, the customer will become that business’ cheerleader! It takes so little time to say, “Thank you for shopping with us today” but those words make a big positive connection in the customers’ mind. Imagine, thousands of happy customers, all cheering for your business and advertising your service through word of mouth.
Tower Systems has invited its newsagency software customers to provide sales data for the September quarter to participate in a comprehensive sales benchmark study on behalf of the entire newsagency channel.
This is another small business service from the company – helping newsagents navigate and enjoy change.
Tower Systems is thrilled to have launched via our website user meetings for most capital cities where we will preview the next release of our software plus share with you news of two new products. These sessions are for all customers, no one particular retail channel. We will cover marketing your business, using MailChimp for email marketing and plenty more. More on these soon. Here are the dates you can book via our website now:
We will add dates for regional centres and New Zealand at a later date and there will be online sessions.
Small business POS software company has launched a POS software integrated web developer service, bringing online and offline together in a common technology platform.
Built around leading e-commerce technologies, the Tower solution enables high street retailers to setup online stores populated with some or all inventory from the high street store.
Developed using best practice techniques, the Tower solution offers small business retailers a fast, easy and appealing route to market for an online store that is desktop, tablet and mobile friendly.
With several e-commerce sites already live, the online retail team at Tower Systems has personal experience they can point to to reference their capabilities as well as business learnings that will be useful to small business retailers.
The seamless and live link between the Tower POS software and the e-commerce site is a winner.
Local small business retailers know this more than most.
Customers like supporting businesses that support their local community. Living and being local is a valuable point of difference for local small retail businesses.
The same is true for software companies serving small business retailers: being local matters.
Tower Systems is local. We develop POS software in Australia and New Zealand for specialist retailers: jewellers, bike shops, garden centres, newsagents, pet shops, toy shops, adult shops, gift shops and firearms retailers.
We support local suppliers, local marketing groups, local industry associations and make our management and software teams available for local business interaction.
Our local relationships help us make better software and back this with better service.
Tower Systems appreciated the opportunity to mix with lottery retailers in Perth last week at the annual Lotterywest conference.
Catching up with many clients using our smart newsagency software as well as talking with newsagents and lottery retailers not using our software, the conference was a terrific business building event where valuable business growth ideas were shared.
Networking with small business retailers away from the software company office is important – from being in the shops of customers to business conferences such as this one.
Tower Systems embraces opportunities to meet with small business owners and their suppliers for it is at gatherings such as this that we explore further enhancement of the software to serve retailers and suppliers.
With more than three hundred customers in Western Australia, Tower is well established in the WA marketplace.
Tower Systems is proud to have its #smallbusiness POS software on show at the Sydney Gift Fair at Glebe Island from this weekend. We are bringing new software and new facilities to the show to share with attendees. It appears from the roster of suppliers that ours is the only Australian designed and developed POS software product on show.
Serving well over 3,000 retail businesses in Australia and New Zealand, Tower Systems is well resourced to serve specialist retail businesses in a range of niche retail channels.
We are on stand P61 at the Sydney Gift Fair.
Here is a new video from us made especially for those who have purchases a retail business that is already running our POS software. This video is one of many new videos we have produced in house for our customers.
Tower Systems updates articles and resources on its Knowledge Base regularly. We advise customer by email, proving links to enhanced and new content. Recent enhancement of the knowledge base included:
It has been a busy two months for small business newsagents as they navigate major IT changes driven by several of their key suppliers.
Tower Systems has been at the forefront of providing assistance by working with suppliers in advance of the release of their changes, ensuring supplier communication reflects the Tower best practice approach for newsagents using our newsagency software.
Back in our offices we have been providing front line support, taking hundreds of calls to ensure newsagents are able to deal with the supplier driven changes simply and with the best possible outcome.
All of this work has been done at no cost as part of our service to this small business channel.
The most complex of changes relate to structural changes in newspaper subscriptions as well as changes as to how data flows to and form newsagents.
Small business POS software company Tower Systems is proud to have launched a new series of free online POS software training for retailers using its specialist POS software.
The latest training continues our commitment free weekly training opportunities for small business retailers. It is actions speaking loader than words.
We launched the training early this week. We are writing about it here after the launch to our customers.
Anyone can announce training. It takes commitment to deliver it week in week out.
We are grateful to our customers for their support.
The smart POS software from Tower Systems offers small business retailers choice when it comes to loyalty options. Our customers can choose from:
Our customers can choose the loyalty options that best serve their needs. We do not presume to dictate which of the loyalty options is best as they all have a place.
That Tower Systems offers these options is of itself a point of difference for us.
We are grateful to our customers who have helped us finesse these loyalty facilities making them best practice and through this helping us win more business.
Have your staff members record sales by using their staff card barcode or some other unique code and report weekly on the sales achieved. Sharing this simple data point will encourage competition and this is good for all involved in the business including customers.
In one business where we guided this implementation revenue growth can be tracked back to the implementation.
We’d love to help any retailer do this.
Tower Systems is thrilled to issue certificates to retail business employees who complete the structured curriculum based training in the use of our POS software.
Across several curricula developed y retail channel and retail business task areas, the training offers an opportunity to develop valuable knowledge not only in the practical use of our software but also in the business application of the software.
POS software training achievement certificates give retail employees a marker of their learning achievement, something of which they can be proud.
The image is of a certificate issued last week to another successful candidate in a business using our pet shop software.
The shop local movement has a good profile. Locals do tend to prefer to shop local. Retailers need to actively and consistently leverage this through a regular reminder but such a reminder is hollow unless you offer local benefits such as community engagement, hiring locally and sourcing locally made products. Actively engaging in the business through locally focussed decisions helps any retailer bring power and strength to their calls for people to shop local.
This is our advice today – if you pitch shop local, live in in your shop every day and show you yourselves believe in it.
Tower Systems helps retailers actively pitch and live the shop local mantra through its POS software and through the business support the company provides in its training and on its website.
Tower Systems has been helping newsagents embrace the Ladbrokes opportunity in-store with support for facilitating a technology solution for selling recharge of Ladbrokes accounts.
While we do not have a commercial relationship with Ladbrokes or Blueshyft, the platform through which the Ladbrokes service is offered, we have been active in helping newsagents embrace the opportunity and undertake appropriate tracking through their Tower newsagency software.
Tower Systems actively supports newsagents across a range of new business growth opportunities.
Tower Systems has been using its time at the Melbourne Gift Fairs, at the Showgrounds and the MCEC to strengthen supplier relationships. Over the last three days we have visited with many suppliers discussing even stronger links between them and the retail businesses we serve. The result will time saves for suppliers and retailers, improved business data accuracy and greater mutual support.
Trade shows provide a valuable platform for exploring supplier relationships through which we can better serve our customers. While we are happy to be the leader here, we are surprised other software companies are not participating.
One of the most important activities for service business is listening our customers. This is what we have been doing this weekend at the Melbourne Gift Fair. We have caught up with plenty of users of our POS software. We have been actively listening to feedback on what they love about us and our software and what we can improve.
It is important for any business to put itself in front of customers for this type of interaction. Hiding from them is not good customer service and will multi,lately see more of them flee from you. We do this regularly at trade shows – sixteen this year. We appreciate the opportunity.
What makes the newsagency software from Tower Systems the best? Here is our answer:
This is one of our own newsagencies. It is a valuable point of difference.
We have owned and operated newsagencies since February 1996. This has provided us with a live testing ground for innovation not only for newsagents but all retailers.
A software company walking in the shoes of its customers is better resourced to serve those customers than any other software company.
Today, more than 1,900 newsagents use our software. We think this is three times any other.
POS software company Tower Systems will be showing off its latest gift shop software at the Reed Melbourne Gift Fair in two weeks.
Our involvement is already being promoted in the thick catalogue promoting the fair – sent to all gift shops, suppliers and other retailers in the gift space.
We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in this fair again this year. We anticipate learning plenty as well as making connections with many possible new customers as we show off what we do pitch the Tower AdvantageTM.
We are especially excited about some surprises we have to share at this marquee event.
Newsagency software company Tower Systems helps Australian newsagents grow relevant businesses. We do this by helping newsagents use data curated by our software to uncover opportunities.
Our help goes beyond traditional POS software help desk support. We extract data, analyse business performance, look for green shoots and explore with the business owners ideas for leveraging these green shoots for a brighter future.
The help provided to newsagents is specific to each business, based on the evidence we see in the data. It can vary from suggestions through to detailed co-operative business planning.
Many newsagencies today are very different to the businesses of a few years ago. Change is good and necessary and we are grateful for the opportunity to help.
Through our work we are seeing newsagents enjoying 10%, 15% and more year on year growth.
The Australian newsagency lives in a new form.
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