In many independent retail businesses, one person knows the software properly. Usually the owner, sometimes a long-serving staff member.
Everyone else knows enough to get through a shift. They can process a sale, take a payment and usually find a product. Beyond that, they call out for help.
It is a common arrangement, and it is riskier than it looks.
This worries us here at Tower Systems. We want retailers using our POS software to get the maximum benefit possible from using the software.
We love seeing our customers thrive.
What it costs when the software is not understood or known
The obvious cost is interruption. Whoever knows the software cannot get much else done while they are answering questions about it.
The bigger cost is harder to see, because it is made up of things that never happen. A special order not taken because nobody was confident with the screen. A customer told an item is out of stock when the software could have shown it was on order and due within days.
And when the one person who holds the knowledge is away or leaves the business, the shop runs at a fraction of its capability until someone catches up.
Where the gaps usually sit
Rarely at the point of sale screen. Staff learn that quickly because they use it every hour.
The gaps sit around it: receiving stock, handling a supplier invoice, putting a customer on a repair or special order, using loyalty properly at the counter rather than skipping past it, and checking whether an item is on order rather than guessing.
Practical steps
Start with an honest audit. List the ten tasks that matter most in the business and note who can do each one without help. The picture is usually more concerning than expected.
Assign one facility per person per month. One person owns loyalty, another owns stock receiving. They learn it, then they teach it. This works better than a vague instruction to get better with the software.
Use the free training that comes with the software. New staff can attend a webinar or a customer meeting at no charge. The e-learning library and knowledge base are available at any hour, which suits a team that cannot all be free at the same time, and one-on-one telephone sessions can be booked as often as needed.
Make it part of onboarding. A staff member trained properly in week one never develops the habit of calling out for help.
Write down what is specific to the business. Tower Systems covers the software knowledge, but only the shop knows its own local decisions. How laybys are handled here, or which discount applies to which customer group. That belongs in a short internal document.
Rotate the tasks now and then, so the knowledge does not settle back into one head.
The result
A team that knows the software serves customers faster and interrupts the owner less. People who understand a system also notice earlier when it is telling them something is wrong.
Tower Systems provides free training, including sessions suitable for new staff. See our library of training videos made specifically for this purpose. Access is free and they can be watched anywhere.
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