You are all set with your business. Your shop is ready. Your staff has been hired. You have even finalized the launch date. You have a decision to make. A small decision with big consequences. A simple choice now that can complicate matters later. Your choice of POS!
Not any POS but the right one. Every POS may look the same. Don’t let that deceive you. Choose the right POS, you could be the boss. Choose the wrong one and your business goes for a toss!
Here is a simple guide to choosing the right POS for you. A helping hand to let you know what’s good, where to notice and how to select.
1. Study Your Business Needs First
Let’s take a look at where you are before we get into the first signboard.
- Have you grown weary of having to reconcile the whole data every day?
- Does your local POS software still consume manual effort, just as it does with manual billing?
- Are you using the best POS software but hardly using it and reaping no benefits?
If YES, then it’s the right time to hunt for a POS software that fits exactly what your business needs, just like everything else in the business. Choosing the right POS system is about knowing exactly what it needs in order to run smoothly.
Tip: The best POS system has the capability to manage small stores to huge chain businesses.
2. Link The POS Features With Your Business Needs
A good POS system should offer a complete set of features for managing a business – from the purchase of goods to delivery to the customer. This takes a load off your staff’s shoulders. Here are a few essential features a POS should offer:
Inventory management: Inventory is the biggest investment for small businesses. Having complete control over it avoids losses and safeguards your investment by preventing pilferages.
Security management: POS data is your business’s biggest treasure. Safeguarding it from ransom attacks, internal threats and corruption is a ‘must be’ feature in POS.
Reports: Businesses must analyse where to focus and where to improve, and this can only be done by analysing the performance of the business, as a report on POS does.
Loyalty and offers: Customers are the lynchpin of your business. Retaining them and increasing their engagement is the key to growing the business. Choose a POS that can manage well your loyalty and offers.
Integrated accounting:Accounting software with regular GST updates eliminates double work in calculating GST and other taxes separately.
Tip: The best POS provides the freedom to work from POS software installed on desktop (On-premise) or in browser (On cloud).
3. Pay As You Grow
Selecting a cheap POS will save you money in the short run but in the long run, there is no guarantee it will safeguard your margin and secure your success. Also, selecting a POS that overloads you with tons of features that will be untouched is better than implementing it later once it’s needed and saves you a lot.
Tip: The best POS offers the flexibility of adding a feature in the future, based on your business needs.
4. Realize How POS Takes Your Business To The Next Level
POS with the mobile application is a boon to store owners. Mobility solutions become an all-rounder of sorts, performing all operations of the POS within a handy mobile. Integrations make the POS work ahead of its boundary. Integrating with E-commerce sites and third-party payment vendors boosts the business by managing everything in a single platform; with no additional investments.
Tip: The best POS with mobile application makes the business grow smarter, faster, and saves time.
5. Know More About The POS Vendor
A good POS deserves its position based on what the company does and how strong the company has laid its foundation. Also, the company will have a higher level of credibility and trust if they have a track record of more than 10+ years serving customers by providing them with long-term solutions to ease day-to-day challenges.
There is no successful brand without happy customers. There are also no customers who give positive feedback about a company unless it benefits them in some way. A POS provider with a strong customer base would have at least 1 or 2 of their customers in your locality. You can also reach them so you can hear their experience about what they faced with the company you are going to partner up with.
Tip: The best POS vendor will have a portfolio of customer stories and growth tales.
6. Know How POS Vendor Offers Support
Regular updates and support are the two supporting pillars for good POS software. POS providers’ relationships should not end after the installation. If it’s in that way then you are definitely not in a healthy relationship. Regular updates keep your business stay in tune with market trends. And reliable support helps in reducing downtime and runs your business successfully round the clock. Self-help resources are a bonus for POS users which reduces the dependencies of POS providers and helps you to solve your queries and issues easily.
Getting a POS without training yields no benefits. Proper training helps you understand the product better and tackle challenges after implementation so you can run your business smoothly.
Tip: The best POS provider offers 24/7 free customer support either through chat or mail.
7. Experience Free Trial And Demo
Once you are satisfied with their features and benefits, experience them with a free trial or a live demo. Most of the companies offer free trials almost with all the features and you can get it from their website. You can also experience their free demo where you can interact with the company representative to understand all the business benefits of their software and experience it live in your business.
Implementations are the final part which you should look at before your decision. The building of a successful business doesn’t happen overnight, but setting up a POS and starting billing the same day will make your business more successful.
Tip: The best POS provider can set up your POS and make you bill in hours.
There you are. Follow these signboards, you are bound to reach the right destination; and make the right choice of POS. To traverse the path of business you need to select the perfect POS, that passes through the above-mentioned milestones.
Happy journey!
