The One Thing Missing at Your POS Terminal to Increase Sales

Improving customer service can have a dramatically positive impact on a retailer’s bottom-line. The happier consumers are; the more brand’s benefit.  Exactly how significant is the customer experience? Let’s take a look:

• Customers were nine times more likely to be engaged with a brand when they evaluated the service as courteous, willing, and helpful. Gallup Group
• A customer is 4 times more likely to go to your competitor if your problem is service-related versus price or product-related. Bain & Company
• 86%of customers are willing to pay up to 25% more to get a better customer experience. RightNow
• By the year 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. Customers 2020 Report

While retailers would be wise to inspect all customer-facing channels of the business, an integral aspect of proper customer care relies on the transaction. Customers are impatient once they’ve finished shopping; they want to pay and head home.  Understanding this, many retailers have invested in point-of-sale (POS) systems to improve speed and efficiency at check-out.  And retailers that want to serve their customers even better and get more ROI from their POS systems are turning to Performance Support technology.

Using visual recognition technologies, the Performance Support system “sees” the POS screen and constantly monitors the cashier’s activities to provide real-time guidance.  It can be designed to display balloon tips that are relevant to the cashier’s open and active window. These tips guide the cashier on what to say to the customer, what questions to ask, troubleshooting, and can also include alerts for critical fields or wrongly entered information.  More sophisticated systems such as Leo Performance Support, also offer automation.

Here are three ways Performance Support can help retailers improve customer service while increasing sales at the point-of-sale:

1. Provide customer data WHEN and WHERE it is most needed

In today’s information age, data is king.  Successful retailers know their customers and their buying habits. POS systems are well-known for their ability to gather data into robust back-end reporting that provides quality insight into customer buying habits and recent purchases.  Performance Support places that data where it is most needed (at check-out) and in the right hands (cashier).  The system also identifies sales opportunities by analyzing the customer profile and eligibility for possible promotions to provide the cashier with next-best-action sales recommendations that may increase the size of the purchase.

Also read: 3 Ways to Boost Retail Sales with Performance Support

2. Create a positive shopping experience all the way to the register

The point-of-sale is where companies ask the customer to part with their hard-earned money.  How many times have you made it to check-out only to decide at the last minute that you could probably do without this or that? Just think about all the discarded items that tend to litter the aisles and countertops closest to the register. While most retailers invest in training their floor sales clerks on how to sell and provide superior customer service, the cashier is often overlooked. With a Performance Support system in place, the cashiers are able to join in to provide helpful and personalized customer service as well as up-selling and cross-selling opportunities – so shop owners can rest assured that their customers are getting the best care every step of the way!

Also read: 4 Ways to Increase Sales to Existing Customers

3. Break up those long lines

No one wants to be THAT store that everyone avoids because of the dreadfully long lines. An impatient customer, who has to wait too long in line, will most likely turn into an upset customer.  Performance Support decreases the time customers spend at the register by expediting the check-out process.  The Performance Support application works with any POS system to guide the cashier through the check out process quickly and efficiently.  Faster and seamless transactions will keep customers happy, while generating more business.

Also Read: Give Your Customers More Reasons to Shop In-Store This Holiday Season