The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
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:
In years working with small and independent retail businesses, the team at Tower Systems has learnt plenty including the indicators of in which retail businesses theft is more likely to occur.
Our experience is that theft is more likely to occur in businesses where stock is not managed properly.
By not managed properly we mean where:
Our advice on reducing the cost of employee theft and customer theft is simple – follow our advice, manage your stock and without a doubt the cost of theft in your retail business will be lower than it would have been.
If you think the cost of managing stock is too great, think about the cost of $25,000, $50,000 or even $250,000 in theft. Yes, we see this all too often in retail businesses – where stock is not managed.
Managing your stock = less theft and less theft = increases product and increased profit = you get more when you sell your business.
Tower Systems proudly partners with Hewlett Packard, HP, for hardware for small business retailers. We have been a HP partner for years. There is a good reason for this : SERVICE.
Service matters to small business retailers.
The HP computers we sell are retail business specific. They are not computers you’d buy for home from Harvey Norman, JB HiFi or elsewhere. No, our HP computers are designed for busy retail environments.
The HP computers we recommend are fast.
The HP computers we recommend are backed with a genuine 3 year on-site warranty.
The HP computers we recommend are backed by us too.
The is the difference with HP gear through Tower Systems – it is a perfect partnership delivering excellent advantages to local small business retailers.
When it comes to computer hardware for your small retail business a wise investment once is better than multiple less wise investments over time.
We use HP gear in our own retail businesses. Our own experience backs the marketing claims for this wonderful gear.
All sales to new customers of the Tower Systems POS software have membership to the Tower AdvantageTM support membership included in their package.
Tower AdvantageTM is what we call our support service. We trade marked it because it is unique to us.
Our small business retail support is 100% local, managed out of our Hawthorn, Victoria, office with support staff located there as well as at several interstate Australian locations.
The office based help desk is open from 7am to 6pm Monday to Friday and from 7:30 to 3:30 on Saturdays – AEST. For urgent support outside these hours we have a mobile based after hours telephone support.
Help desk access is backed by access to our escalation process whereby customers have access to our Customer Service Manager then to our Chief Operating Officer and then to our Managing Director. The direct numbers of each point of escalation are provided to all of our customers.
Each week we run online training interactive courses covering subjects with a business outcome in mind. These programs are run through our WebEx platform and Customers can attend as many of these courses as they like. We would also be happy to develop along with ARL, some ARL specific training courses if wanted.
All customers also have access to our online personal training. These sessions booked in advance deliver one-on-one training on any desired subject. We do not cap the amount of one on one training time a customer can book.
At the end of the first year customers are invoiced for support for the next year. Customers have the option to pay monthly or pay up front for discounts on multiple years of access. Our support fees are optional, meaning if a customer chooses to not be supported they can revert to a pay per call for access to the help desk.
Customer service is important to us. We know that delivering good service is as important to us as it is to our customers. We are committed.
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.
We are thrilled with this in-house produced marketing video. We are using it on a range of platforms in different forms.
Inner weekly customer service email we include advice and insights beyond what is usual for POS software companies. Here is one example from a recent email where we shared visual merchandising insights seen recently bye a Tower team members in Europe:
Adding value to the various touchpoints we have with our customers is important to us as it helps our customers to benefit beyond the software.
We are not your average POS software company.
Our team in Adelaide has had a busy time over the weekend and today at our first major trade show of 2017. On show was our latest produce business software and our pet shop software. We are grateful for for the opportunity to meet with plenty of existing customers as well as to make connections with prospective new customers.
Having new software to show off was a treat.
Tower Systems is thrilled to be participating again in the Sydney Reed Gift Fair in a couple of weeks. On show at this wonderful event will be our Gift Shop Software. Indeed, we are launching new software at this very special event.
Tower Systems has been participating at gift fair trade shows for more than ten years and as a result have many hundreds of gift shops as customers using our Aussie developed small business software.
This year is especially editing because of what we have to show. It is fresh, exciting and innovative – aimed to help small business retailers better connect with and sell to gift, homewares and related product category shoppers.
This will be a terrific event. We are excited!
Tower Systems takes a best practice approach to helping small business retailers to integrate their POS software with their websites. The company offers multiple opportunities:
Each of these is a beautiful and seamless solution from Tower Systems, cost effectively serving small business retailers.
Our in-house web development team makes it easy for small business retailers to establish a beautiful,s successful and professional website, directly and live linked to the Tower Systems POS software. We have plenty of small business retailers for whom we have done this, plenty of reference sites.
All done in-house by us.
We are thrilled to have two local development teams in our business that can deliver: web solutions and desktop in-store solutions.
Our business management advice today is to get the best tech solution for your business. the rewards will be more online and offline sales.
Tower Systems is thrilled to serve hundreds of locally owned small business independent gift shops with specialist Gift Shop Software. We make the software ourselves, serving the specialty retail needs of our customers.
As a service to its 3,500+ small business retail customers, Tower Systems offers disaster planning advice. This advice is regularly revisited and revised to ensure its appropriateness.
Here is our current small business retailer initial steps disaster planning advice. We call this initial steps as there is more to be said, more help we provide, but were will keep that for a more confidential discussion with our customers.
How protected is your retail business in the event of disaster? Since we are a software company, our interest is more to do with data and technology.
Are you as protected as you can be?
This is an easy topic to ignore and most small business retailers do. Those most likely to plan for a disaster are those who have gone through it. Once bitten, twice shy as they say.
Insurance. Insurance coverage is vital to helping overcome any type of disaster. In addition to ensuring that your insurance policy covers all disaster situations of concern to you, including flood, theft, water inundation, fire, earthquake, riot—be sure to carefully read the policy, ensure that your insurance policy / policies cover payouts for the following:
Ensure that the value of stock, fixtures and fittings covered by your policy is an accurate reflection of the real value of these items. Use your POS system to track all stock movements in and out. The stock on hand in your software should be your coverage.
Ensure that your insurance policy protects for the seasonal nature of your business Data Protection. Business data is a valuable asset. Follow these steps:
Disaster Planning. Here are some general suggestions on planning for a disaster in your business property.
The disaster planning help for small business retailers from Tower Systems reaches way beyond what we have shared here.
Here at Tower Systems we help our customers beyond what is usual for a POS software company. One example of that help can be seen in our free weekly live online training workshops. These popular sessions offer business management advice. Take a look at three sessions from now to the end of this month:
Over the course of 2017 we will deliver more than seventy free training workshops for our customers through our professional live online platform. This is in addition to capital city and regional user meetings and one on one training sessions.
The topics range from the technical to the business management – as these three sessions for the rest of this month show.
We are grateful to our customers for their encouragement and support of the broad range of training we offer. Their support and feedback drives us.
The Tower Systems installation and training team and the customer service post sales support team both help our small business retail customers to reduce paperwork with practical business focussed advice.
From more efficiently managing regulatory obligations to managing internal business management paperwork, Tower Systems through its software and its people can help.
Our advice is founded in our own experience running successful retail businesses for more than twenty years. There is no doubt that using our software in our own businesses makes a big difference to the practical value of the advice we provide. It separates us from POS software companies where the advice is more tech focussed.
Cutting paperwork for us is more than a marketing pitch, we offer practice help in achieving this so resources in the small retail business are freed for more valuable activity.
Our company motto is we’re here to help. Our focus on paperwork is one example of how we pursue this for our customers.
Our Aussie company, Tower Systems, believes in making it easy for our small business retail customers to influence the direction of the software and to access free training, long after the system has been installed.
Last week, we launched our first round of free face to face user meetings for 2017. We will host 60 of these this year, starting later in February.
Already, some of our recently announced line online workshop sessions have filled. Not to worry, we will add more. And, for those who cannot make scheduled times, we offer one on one training in the topics covered.
When it comes to POS software training, Tower Systems serves small business retailers.
Our company develops POS software specifically for: gift shops, jewellers, bike shops, toy shops, fishing/outdoors businesses, garden centres/nurseries, pet shops, produce stores, firearms businesses and newsagents.
Each user meeting includes training, a preview of the next update and plenty of Q&A time.
You would be most welcome at any of these face-to-face events. Click here to book.
We are proud to have formally launched for live use MakeMyAppointment, our own cloud based appointment facility.
Following thorough testing, in-field experience and client consultation, we are thrilled to bring this new productivity software to small business retailers fir whom customer appointments are important.
A good Point of Sale system pays for itself every day by helping retailers increase customer spend per visit, bring customers back more regularly, reduce the cost of slow or dead stock, reduce mistakes and make better business decisions.
Australian POS software company Tower Systems is grateful for the opportunity to help Pet and Produce stores in the country and city leverage more benefits from being part of the group. See our pet shop software and our produce business software.
Consistent stock files, electronic invoices, easier business-to-business comparison and more targeted business development assistance are just some of the benefits you can expect from a more consistent solution.
But being independent businesses we understand you need a computer system over which you have absolute control and security within your business.
That is what the Tower Systems solution offers – locally run software for your type of business in your business over which you have control yet that can be run in a manner that helps the group help you.
Tower Systems has a strategy for helping groups in the pet and produce space at a group level and at a store level.
At a store level, here are some of the benefits you can expect from using the Tower Systems software in your pet or produce business:
Our software does much more than what is on this list though. To find out about the features and facilities, please contact one of our retail experts and they will be glad to discuss your needs in detail.
We have shared an updated COMPUTER USE POLICY with our customers to reduce the opportunity of attack own their systems:
We have been covering software support on Saturdays using our after hours team since Christmas as we have done every year due to less call traffic. Today, the office based Saturday service restarts – though all our office numbers. We are open now.
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.
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.
Tower Systems is seeing more small business retailers download and use the free shop local shop small business marketing collateral we have available to anyone to use from our POS software website.
Our amazing in-house creative team developed our initial shop local support and marketing collateral for retailers years ago. We have been adding to it ever since. Access is free, no questions asked!
We are grateful to those who have used the collateral and appreciative to those who have provided feedback. This encourages us to continue to invest in helping small local retailers to pitch their messages effectively to their local communities.
What does this have to do with POS software? Plenty, we say, plenty!!! Supporting the businesses of our customers is mission critical to us here at Tower Systems. We embrace opportunities to show our support beyond the software, beyond what is usual for a tech. company. That’s what this work is about – us showing our support and encouragement to help make a stronger and more successful small business retail community in Australia.
Tower Systems is proud to have supported the JAA, Jeweller’s Association of Australia, for the last fifteen years. This service has been practical, engaging and helpful for hundreds of small business jewellers. The JAA kindly sent us this certificate in honour of our fifteen years of service.
Using our jeweller specific software, jewellers can be confident they are running their businesses using software that is finely tuned to the specific needs specialty jewellers have in serving customers and connecting with suppliers.
Yesterday, we announced to our small business POS software customers a suite of terrific free live training opportunities for February 2017. This training goes beyond what people expect from their POS software company as it draws together best practice retail business management and other retail strategy insights in the context of how the software can help.
Tower Systems is proud to offer access to free live group training and business management inspiration every week. It is a differentiator for us.
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