Be yourself
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Happy Easter
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We’re on Easter break, returning April 11. Our after hours numbers are available for urgent queries. Our self-serve online resources, including videos, advice sheets and our awesome knowledge base are available all through.
If you’re on a break too, have an awesome time. If you’re working, we’ll be available for urgent matters.
Happy Easter!
Our POS software pitch video has passed 80,000 full views
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Aussie made and supported POS software for local Aussie retailers
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This is us, and what we do:
- Bike shops. $185/month.
- Gift shops. $159/month.
- Garden centres. $185/month.
- Produce / farm supply businesses. $199/month.
- Fishing and outdoors businesses. $185/month.
- Jewellers. $185/month.
- Pet shops. $155/month.
- Toy shops. $155/month
- Health Food shops. $155/month.
- Newsagents. $185/month.
- Firearms dealers. $185/month.
- Game shops. $155/month.
- Sewing shops. $185/month.
- Pool Supplies and Maintenance. $185/month.
- Charity / op. shops. $99/month. (Giving back)
- Doll / Bear / Collector shops. $155/month.
- Antique Dealers. $185/month.
- Music shops. $145/month.
- Mobility Scooter businesses. $185/month.
- Computer Shop / repair businesses. $185/month
Here’s what’s included in the monthly rental cost: software licences for unlimited computers in the location, help desk support (by phone or email) 6 days a week (including Saturday), access to a comprehensive support knowledge base, after hours support call access for urgent system down queries, access to our Shopify, Xero and other integrations, access to our supplier invoice import tools.
- Aussie customer service, in Hawthorn, VIC. No call centre.
- Call us, and a human answers.
- Email us and a retail knowledgable human responds.
- Our office is open Monday through Saturday.
- Month to month rental – no lock in contract.
- No lock-in EFTPOS contract. You choose the EFTPOS that’s right for your business.
- Self serve training videos and knowledge base.
- Low cost training for those who want it.
- The listed prices include GST and are genuinely monthly – not annual paid up front.
Tower Systems currently serves more than 3,000 local small business Aussie retailers.
It may be that our software is not right for you. The best way to find out is through a personal live demonstration by Zoom. We can organise this for you, record it with you and give you a copy so you can show colleagues and others you’d like to consult.
If we think we are not a good fit for your business we will say so and wish you all the best.
Email us: sales@towersystems.com.au.
Call us: 1300 662 957.
Today, we have a crew of awesome software developers, caring customer service people and a business support crew skilled in serving local indie retailers. Our community of thousands of retailers is a deal well from which we draw strength.
Thanks for reading and have an awesome Wednesday.
Tower Systems helps small business retailers ensure better security for customer credit card data
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One of the biggest costs of hacking of businesses is the access achieved to data that should not have been stored in the first place, data that was no longer necessary to the business.
Software too often has not been designed to protect the data security interests of shoppers, those folks handing over their data.
In our POS software made for local specialty retailers we now even better protect the customer.
When we found the extent to which customers were storing credit card numbers through our software we felt there was no choice to act. This benefits the customers of our customers and makes our customers themselves less of a target as valuable data like credit card numbers is not available.
We let our customers know about this a while back …
In the past, we allowed you to store customer credit card data for various convenience related reasons. However given recent hacks etc it is no longer feasible to allow you to store this data against customers in Retailer. In version 3.2 this data is permanently deleted as part of loading the update.
If you are still using the stored credit card data you will need to migrate this data to another service that can store this data securely before loading the update.
Our recommendation is that you use Stripe (https://stripe.com/au) We use this service ourselves and have found it to be easy to use and very secure.
Anything we can do to help retailers be less of a target and be less exposed to themselves enabling the stealing of valuable customer data is good in our view.
Too often we see software, especially in big businesses, storing data that is not needed beyond the one off use, data that is valuable to criminals who can either on sell it or use it themselves in fraudulent transactions.
Our role as software developers is to provide tools that are useful and socially responsible. The increased incidence of hacking means we need to be more vigilant than ever, to protect our customers and to enable them to protect their customers.
The work we have done in this area of customer data protection goes beyond what we write about here today.
Aussie made and supported software for jewellers
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Have you needed software support and struggled to get through to a human, or at least someone based in Australia?
Is EFTPOS costing you too much?
Has the cost of your software gone up in the last 2 years?
Is selling online challenging?
Tower Systems offers software for jewellers, made in Australia, supported in Australia. If you call or email us, we answer. You’ll always know the name of the person you are specking with.
We don’t lock you in for EFTPOS. You choose what’s best for you.
We don’t force you to pay up front for training you may not need.
Our jeweller software costs $185.00 a month for unlimited terminals (inc GST) and you pay monthly – not a year in advance.
You can cancel any time.
Our jeweller software evolves based on user suggestions.
We don’t pay any marketing group a commission for endorsement.
We provide personal business advice to help you leverage this software.
POS software should help you thrive.
See more of what we do at www.towersystems.com.au/jewellers. Or, call us on 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au.
Here are some other benefits of the Tower Systems jeweller software:
- Jeweller stock management, including stone details.
- Club pricing: Helps you attract community group members.
- BOGO: Increase sales with buy this and get that bundling.
- Warranty: Track details and leverage this for customer service.
- Sell anywhere: Using our Retailer RoamTM sell anywhere app.
- Seasonal reordering: Reorder inventory based on seasonal sales.
Using this software for jewellers, you have access to:
- Loyalty facilities through which you can genuinely differentiate your business, … shoppers respond to the levers you can pull.
- Sell online, easily. Our Shopify integration is seamless, official and easy to use and manage.
- Special orders: sell in advance of having physical stock to sell.
- Repair facilities through which you can track and manage repairs.
- Secondhand goods. Easy accurate record keeping.
- Colour / size / style: smart and efficient inventory tracking.
- Event marketing through which you can create contact lists of customers based on anniversary, birthday and other life event dates.
The rental can be cancelled at any time. There is no annual payment.
We are grateful to the hundreds of jewellers in our community who have guided us and continue to be a tower of strength in our service is local independent jewellers in Australia.
Pet shop software made for indie pet shops
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Local retail
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We’re pitching Easter cards in our own retail shops, where we use our POS software
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POS software ChatGPT OpenAI integration saves retailers time
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Early this month, Tower Systems released new software for retailers offering an integration to ChatGPT from OpenAI, the world leading AI tool.
In this first cut of AI integration in local small business POS software, using the optional integration, ChatGPT can generate for extended product descriptions and web descriptions. This is based on the product title that you enter. We have tested it with a range of products. It is a significant time saver.
Retailers who want to type their own descriptions can. The integration is for those looking for product descriptions likely to capture the attention of shoppers, especially those shopping online.
AI is impacting business is many ways, faster now than a few months ago, and it will be faster in a few months than today. Every business will be impacted, whether they know it or not.
While publicly the stories have been about ChatGPT doing homework or passing exams or writing blog posts, there are plenty of smarter business-case uses, like what we have done here.
The Tower software development team has more AI integration options being prepared as this technology offers many business benefits.
There is considerable debate about AI and its use. “We don’t see our job as being a controller of access. We build tools and right now this is a tool more businesses want to play with. Hence, this integration.” Mark Fletcher CEO of Tower Systems commented.
“It’s important that we provide retailers with tools they can use to be more efficient, more competitive. AI offers such tools in a rapidly changing retail landscape.”
Also included in this new version of the Tower POS software is new business insights and management tools targeted for retailers keen to grow their businesses. One insight helping retailers is: what am I missing out on?
By tracking product supply and sales history, the Tower POS software is able to quantify the cost of out of stock situations, guiding retailers to address gaps or bumps in their inventory supply chain.
In a trial of this tech the software identified several thousand dollars in certain revenue one retailer could have achieved had they had stock in-store of easily accessible products. Having a hassle free tech prompt to ensure smooth sales can be a money maker for retailers.
Tower Systems serves thousands of local retailers with POS software.
The loyalty program that shoppers and retailers BOTH love
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There are loyalty programs and then there are loyalty programs that actually work for both shoppers and retailers. And, yes, we have a conflict because we offer this type of loyalty program in our small business focussed POS software.
But, first, we also offer the traditional points based loyalty. Yes, it’s what most have. It’s old. People love it. But, what’s a point really worth? No one knows.
In our small business focussed POS software we offer another loyalty program, in addition to points. This is a smart program, one that helps retailers and customers benefit through mutual support and assistance.
In the current economic situation with shrill news reports about interest, rent and inflation, our loyalty program alternative helps shoppers save money and retailers attract more shoppers than usual. It’s a money maker for both, a differentiator, and real win!
They key to the success of our loyalty program loved by shoppers and retailers is that the reward is shown in money, currency, the amount available for people to spend in the shop. You can look at the voucher and know immediately the amount you have available as a reward. If you see 150 points it is likely you have no idea what they are worth whereas when you see $4.50 you know it is worth $4.50.
Our smart POS software works out the reward amount based on what you tell it. You are in control at all times and can make immediate adjustments. Setup can be done in a couple of minutes. Then, you have access to excellent reports that show how shoppers are using the loyalty program. Nothing to spend. Nothing else to do other than engaged with shoppers.
Discount vouchers genuinely differentiate your business.
- You name the voucher anything you like and can change this at any time.
- You set the rules on how the value of the voucher is calculated.
- You set the rules on what the voucher can be redeemed for.
- You set the rules on expiry dates.
Male shoppers are more likely to spend the voucher immediately and many customers use the voucher to purchase items more expensive than the items in the initial purchase made. Customers see the voucher as cash, often commenting that they like the direct approach better than a points-based system. They like the transparency and simplicity.
This loyalty program can help you:
- Get customers spending more in a visit.
- Bring existing customers back sooner.
- Attract new shoppers to your business.
- Drive impulse purchases at the sales counter.
All of this is about a win win – for customers and for local retail business owners. Since 2013 this loyalty program has been in good and wide use, and loved.
Retail business cash flow advice: using POS software to improve your position
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Every day in local small business retail it is vital to focus on cash flow, vital to know where you are at, how you are tracking and what you are doing to maximise your position.
Poor cash flow = poor business performance and rocky roads ahead.
Too often, local small business retailers leave tracking business cash flow to accountants and others who may not be in the business on a day to day basis.
Managing cash flow in local small business retail is a day to day task.
Using the smart POS software from Tower Systems you have access to tools and facilities that help you navigate to a better cash flow performance for the retail business. You don’t need to be an accountant or someone with good financial skills. What do you need to be is an engaged retailer.
In our POS software we help you:
- Make better business decisions. Decisions like inventory purchasing, shop floor placement, trading hours, loyalty rewards and more.
- Identity poor performing inventory. Knowing what is not working can stop you reporting that mistake.
- Knowing when you are likely to sell out. Many retail businesses bmiss absolutely for certain revenue by not having in stock inventory when shoppers wish to purchase.
- Do more business with more valuable suppliers. Tracking suppliers by financial benefit helps you make more money with and from them./
- Motivate employees. Employees can make better decisions for your business if you empower them with knowledge.
- Calibrate business settings to benefit cash flow. When you open and close, who you roster, when you discount, when you price inventory at a higher price … these are all decisions that can be informed by data collected and curated by smart POS software.
These are just some of the ways the Tower Systems POS software can help a local small business retailer improve their cash flow position.
The real benefit when it comes to cash flow and our POS software is the business insights and advice we can provide to those interested. We have hands on retail experience and we will gladly engage this with and for any retailer in our community keen to improve their position, including their cash flow position. We will talk with and work with, one-on-one, with any retailer in our community to help them.
We’re a full service POS software company helping thousands of retailers, and we love it, every day!
Free POS software
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If you are looking for free POS software, Tower Systems is not the right company for you.
We don’t offer free POS software.
Typically, free POS software comes with payment made in other ways, such as being required to use a particular EFTPOS platform or service or being committed to some other cost in the business.
So, you can see, free is not really free. There is no such thing as free POS software.
What any retail business really wants / needs is the best POS software for their business. The best POS software will provide benefits in time and money that make the POS software truly valuable for the retail business.
Now, to be clear, we don’t know if our Tower Systems POS software is the best POS software for your needs. Only you can know that by comparing what our software does to what it is you need from POS software.
Our message today is buyer beware. Don’t get suckered in by a claim of free POS software because, for sure, it will not be free, and it may not be best for you.
We mention this today as we see many retailers in Australia searching for free POS software. It is worrying because every bad experience someone has with POS software.
Here at Tower Systems we want relationships with value at the core. We want to partner with customers we value, and who value us. This mutual respect helps both businesses prosper and if we do prosper then it’s the classic win win. That can’t happen with free as the starting point.
Software developers and help desk professionals cost money. And, you want that because you want good outcomes for your business. These good outcomes flow from good POS software that ids backed by good customer service.
If you look at it from a retail business perspective, you want people in your shop prepared to pay money for what you have on offer. If they don’t have money they are not customers you want. If their wage growth is flat their capacity to spend more is non existent.
All of this feeds into what is a circular economy.
But on price, we are fair, with a modest cost, which has not changed since 2019. So even though we do charge for our POS software, it’s modest and reflective of what we think the good businesses in our target marketplaces can afford.
5 ways small business retailers can deal with high EFTPOS fees
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EFTPOS fees are a cost in retail since you pay your EFTPOS provider, often your bank, a fee for every transaction paid for by a card.
These EFTPOS fees tend to frustrate retailers, especially small business retailers. They eat into revenue, and they impact profitability. This is especially true for the cards that deliver a higher frequent flyer or similar points value to the shopper. Where the shopper benefits the retailer carries the cost.
While retailers can add a fee to any transaction that includes EFTPOS costs, to cover the costs for the business, in this small business retail advice from us today we share 5 ways small business retailers can deal with high EFTPOS fees. This is actionable advice regardless of the POS software you run. It’s based on years of retail experience and in the belief that the best success we can drive for ourselves in local small business retail is that built on a series of reliable small steps, rather than one big step.
Here are our 5 ways small business retailers can deal with high EFTPOS fees
- Price creep. Look at her you price items. Consider shopper psychology. Consider what people will pay for items. Consider your loyalty program and the value you give back to your shoppers. Often times, considering these factors, retailers can find some modest price increases they can achieve to bank margin that pays for EFTPOS.
- Grow the basket. Look at your shop and counter configuration. Ensure that you are doing everything possible to guide shoppers to add more to their basket than planned for that visit. Each time you help a shopper spend more than intended is margin dollars you are backing to pay for EFTPOS fees.
- Bring shoppers back more often. Run a limed based loyalty offer where benefits expire in a few weeks. Give them a reason to come back sooner, more often than they might otherwise come back.
- Buy better. Embrace settlement discounts where you can. never pass on a discount you receive to shoppers through lower prices. Use data collected and curated by your POS software to spend less on slower turning items and more on faster turning items. The faster the turn the more value you achieve.
- Review your roster. Next to occupancy cost is the cost of labour in local small business retail. Either trim the roster to reduce costs or reconfigure how labour is used to derive more value for the business.
In making these suggestions we are encouraging local small business retailers to be more active in business decisions, to take a broader view in an effort to reduce any pain felt because of EFTPOS fees.
Sure, it is easy to complain about the EFTPOS fees and look for a cheaper bank – and that may provide relief. More valuable longer term relief will come from better business management and this can be driven by deeper engagement with your POS software.
It is important that you understand the total cost of EFTPOS fees. Sometimes costs can be hidden. For example, it may be that you get a terminal for free and a promise that all fees are surcharged to shoppers, but that may have a business cost, turning off shoppers who do not like surcharged added at the point of sale.
Here at Tower Systems we make POS software for local small business retail, specialty retail. We back this with personal service designed to help retailers deal with the every day, like EFTPOS fees.
Change in local retail is an opportunity we can help you levera
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We love looking at good local retail, like Labour and Wait in London
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Here’s an easy local small business retailers can better connect with their community
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Community connection is vital in local small business retail, authentic community connection at a level that is loved by folks in the community.
Back in the day, sponsoring a local sports club, donating prizes for a raffle or helping the local Rotary or Lions were the go to ideas for retailers. And while those ideas continue today, there are another local small business retailers can engage in providing community support that is funded buy the community itself.
Through our loyalty tools and, in particular the discount voucher tech we offer, local small business retailers can reward shoppers and they can offer in store a way for these shoppers to pay it forward, to support a local charity or community group organisation.
The Grill’d burger chain was an early adopter of something similar with their bottle caps and giving customers the caps to vote for one of three local charities the store would donate cash to.
Our suggestion is to invite shoppers to donate their discount voucher to one of several local charities in your business, which you could have every month or so, accruing the value of the vouchers for a gift card donation to the charity, or you making a cash donation of a portion of the voucher value to the charity.
It pitched well this could see people who support the local charity shopping with you so that funds are raised for the charity.
We know form years of data that around 20% of all vouchers handed out to shoppers are used by those shoppers within 28 days. This means there are other vouchers that expire unused. A nuanced campaign in-store connected with loved local charities and community groups could drive engagement, do good in the community and show the business as community connected in a fresh and loved way. That is the goal here.
Of course, the execution will be different in each location. Our job as a tech company is to provide opportunity. Our job as retailers ourselves is to share what we have seen work well, and what we have learned.
Your job as a local small business retailer is to make decisions that are right for you and your situation.
Using the discount vouchers generated by the software in this way, to support loved local community groups and charities, could be the reset you want, the engagement driver the business needs. The beauty of it is that it is low cost, self funding and truly community focussed.
We are grateful to the feedback from our customers and this has guided our own activity in this space of local community group connection.
Join us on a visit to Marby and Elm, a wonderfully unique stationery shop in London
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6 best-value insights that will benefit any local small business retailer
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Retailers in local small business shops can feel alone sometimes when working on their business. They can sometimes get lost in a cave of thoughts without seeing a way out.
We thought about this and considered the thousands of different retailers in our POS software user community, and we developed the Insights Dashboard in our POS software, to deliver easy access to local small business retail insights that any retailer could leverage, regardless of size, location, specialty area or setting.
We wanted to ensure that what we delivered would be useful regardless of level of business management literacy and financial management literacy. We wanted to deliver the insights without the retailer having to seek them out. We wanted to genuinely add value to what a local small business retailer could gain from using our POS software.
So, via the Insights Dashboard in our POS software, we provide insights in six broad areas – with the insights delivered visually.
Where Are We Today
Gives you a snapshot of the overall sales & liabilities as it stands today.
You can access additional options by clicking the … symbol next to Todays Sales.
- Date Range – Expand the sales period covered by changing the start & end dates.
- All Locations – Multi-store locations can use this option to include/exclude other locations from the sales figures.
- Show Gross Profit Values – This option will show / hide GP values in the Daily Sales Dashboard, which you can access from the Point of Sale screen by pressing [Ctrl] + [D] on your keyboard.
What’s Not Selling
This gives you a visual understanding of what is not performing in your business. Deadstock in any business is lost cash. This report gives you the ability to make decisions on this underperforming stock whether it be discounting or other stock reductions strategies to unlock this lost cash.
You can click any stock item listed to show a graph of sales of that item broken down by month.
There are a number of options available to filter the stock items that appear in the list:
- Date Range – Limits the list to stock that has not sold in the amount of time specified.
- Listing Bottom – Maximum number of items to list.
- Rank By – Determines the order that items appear on the list in.
Click the … symbol for additional options:
- Departments – Select between showing stock from all departments or tick the desired departments from the list.
- Suppliers – Select between showing stock from all suppliers or tick the desired suppliers from the list.
- Exclude Recently Added Items – Exclude stock items that were added to your system inside the time period chosen in the drop down box.
What Am I Missing Out On
This give you a list of items that have sold out and potential missed opportunity. The visual sales history will assist in ensuring the right items are restocked to ensure future revenue is not missed out on.
You can click any stock item listed to show a graph of sales of that item broken down by month.
There are a number of options available to filter the stock items that appear in the list:
- Date Range – Limits the list to stock that has sold more recently than the amount of time specified.
- Listing Bottom – Maximum number of items to list.
Click the … symbol for additional options:
- Departments – Select between showing stock from all departments or tick the desired departments from the list.
- Suppliers – Select between showing stock from all suppliers or tick the desired suppliers from the list.
- Exclude Recently Added Items – Exclude stock items that were added to your system inside the time period chosen in the drop down box.
What Sells With What
This gives you an insight to consumer basket analysis. Through this you will see exactly what stock items sell with other stock items and from this you will be able to leverage upsell opportunities, co-location and promotion opportunities. This also shows the sold alone percentage so you can see item upsell efficiency.
You can change the period of time in the Date Range to limit the data to the period chosen. The ten items displayed are the ten best selling items by quantity for the selected time period.
Is Theft An Issue
This provides a in-depth visual overview of all the retailer audit log records by reason, number of occurrences by time day. This will assist in identifying staff theft/training issues that may need to be addressed within the business.
You can change the date range to limit the data to the time period chosen. Changing the time increment alters the lengths of time each day is broken up into.
You can view more complete records by using the Audit Log directly. Please contact Tower Support for help using the audit log.
When Are We Busiest & Quietest
This is a visual overview used to detect any quiet or peak times in your business by displaying over the week as well as detailed by hour.
You can change the week ending date to see data from other weeks. Next to chart value type, you can choose to measure by sales value or number of sales.The top graph shows sales broken down by day of the week. You can change the type of graph used to display this data by clicking the diagram type in the bottom-right. The bottom graph shows sales broken down by time of day. You can change the type of graph used to display this data clicking the diagram type in the bottom-right. You can also view this data as a table by clicking the table symbol in the top-right.
Join us on a visit to Hunca Munca’s, an awesome toy shop in Beacon, New York state
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Aussie make POS software severed local Aussie retailers
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Tower Systems adds ChatGPT AI integration to POS software.
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We have integrated ChatGPT from OpenAI with our Retailer POS software.
In this first cut, using the optional integration, ChatGPT can generate for extended product descriptions and web descriptions. This is based on the product title that you enter. We have tested it with a range of products. It is a significant time saver.
AI is impacting business is many ways, faster now than a few months ago, and it will be faster in a few months than today. Every business will be impacted, whether they know it or not.
While publicly the stories have been about ChatGPT doing homework or passing exams or writing blog posts, there are plenty of smarter business-case uses, like what we have done here.
This ChatGPT integration is in our next update. Businesses will need an OpenAI account. Cost wise, there are multiple models, each with different capabilities and price points. Prices are per 1,000 tokens. You can think of tokens as pieces of words, where 1,000 tokens is about 750 words. This paragraph is 35 tokens.
You can configure a usage hard limit in your billing settings, after which they will stop serving your requests. You may also configure a soft limit to receive an email alert once you pass a certain usage threshold.
We stress – this integration is optional. For us, it is a starting point. We see plenty of opportunities for AI to save time for you and increase the value you leverage from using our software.
There is considerable debate about AI and its use. We don’t see our job as being a controller of access. We build tools and right now this is a tool more snugnesses want to play with. hence this integration.
Tower Systems launches weekly POS software user Q&A session for all
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Tower Systems is grateful to be able to launch a weekly POS software user Q&A session fort all comers, all users of the software, from any business using the software.
This session is a natural progression from our regular live Zoom sessions for customers. It not schedules as weekly’s every week of the year, so customers have certainty that it’s on.
Each session will be open for at least 45 minutes every Thursday. One of more of our POS software specialists will be in the Zoom room to answer questions and share insights. The goal is for open two-way discussion. Having the right people from our team there will drive the value of the sessions. We will demonstrate local retail knowledge and the value of local support compared to offshore call centre support.
We are open to covering POS software training, answering support queries and exploring enhancements in our POS software.
By offering the sessions via Zoom with no cap on attendees we demonstrate, again, our openness and transparency and the ease of accessibility for all of our customers regardless of location, support coverage status and more.
By making this open to everyone, those who like to listen to the queries of others and the answers provided will be satisfied. We think this openness will help us explore topics way beyond what me might set if we were in control of the agenda ourselves.
The goal is an enhanced customer service experience, something unique among POS software companies.
We know the closer we are with our customers the better the experience for them and the better for us. This is why our leadership team will regularly be available for these sessions, as they have been for our other customer Zoom meetings.
These weekly customer meetings will differentiate our Aussie POS software company and offer our customers another free training opportunity that will help them get more from their investment in our technology.
People participating will not have to register or jump through hoops. Accessing the session will be easy, fast and secure.
Tower Systems serves several thousand local retail businesses today. This new weekly customer free training and Q&A meeting initiative is another way we are demonstrating our commitment to engaged and easily accessible customer service.
Loving POS software updates
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In addition to the usual email outlining what is in a POS software update, often, different colleagues here at Tower Systems will create a video of what they like in an update. Here is one such video for an update we provided to our customers a few weeks back. We share this to show the engagement of folks here at Tower Systems in what we make and support:
Tips on common pitfalls retailers make when having websites developed for their businesses
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Too many local small business retailers make common mistakes when having websites developed for their businesses. We see this often when called in to fix issues with a website created elsewhere. Our web dev team provides a thorough honest assessment of websites and lays out a pathway to a better solution for the customer.
It surprises us to see some awful websites, built on plenty of mistakes that stem from poor outlines of requirements.
For what it’s worth, here are the top 7 mistakes we have seen retailers make when setting up a website for their business.
- Not knowing the target customer. The target customer for a website connected to any shop should not be considered to be the person walking through the r=front door. rather, it should be the person you want to reach, the person who would never walk past your shop. Knowing who they are, where they are and what they could be looking for is key.
- Making the website a copy of the physical shop. If you copy what you sell in your shop online you are not likely to find new customers and the best website for a shop is one that finds new customers for the business. Nice is best. Niche is appealing and easily found through online searching. Stand for something – not not everything you currently sell.
- Thinking it is easy and once the site is live you are done. Creating and maintaining a website is hard work, relentless work. Think of a website and a hungry beast, and you have to feed it.
- Believing a web developer knows what is best for your business. Web developers are not retailers. They may have opinions about what looks good or works well, but do these opinions match the needs of your business. It is best to find a web development who genuine understand your type of business and what you want to achieve online.
- Failing to understand the total cost of ownership. Paying for a website to be developed is on thing. What is the cost of maintaining it. be sure to have this documented before you begin because once you are into it you are on the hook for future costs. Knowing this upfront is key.
- Different is good. Too many retailers are lazy, loading images and product descriptions from suppliers. Search engines see this duplication and mark sites down that copy others in terms of content. The more of your own content the absolute better for you and for your business. Sure, this is hard work, but it pays off.
- Your website is not a destination. Okay, it is a destination for online shoppers, hopefully. But, it is not your online end point. The website will have to evolve and, eventually, be replaced. Go into it knowing it will not be your final online presence, that it is, rather, a stepping stone on a pathway.
Take your time to figure out what you want, but not too long as what you launch will quickly change as change is critical in retail business websites.
Footnote: we know about this because we have created plenty of websites for our retail businesses and for hundreds of our retail POS software customers. The most useful ones have been those that failed. The successes are terrific. But it’s the failures that are educational.
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