There is no time of the year where payment processing is more important to your business than the holiday shopping season. It is make-or-break time for most businesses, retail or restaurant alike. This means if you are thinking of upgrading your POS system, the safest time to do it is after the holiday rush.
It’s important to take note of the pains you experience with your current system. The holiday rush will most likely test your businesses efficiency more than any other time of year. Keep a running list of issues or ideas for improving the existing system. Then after the holidays, once the craziness has died down you can start researching system upgrades that would alleviate the pains you felt during the holidays.
The more options you offer your customers for payment, the easier it is for them to make purchases. However, introducing new options during the holiday season can become chaotic. Customers’ patience is often wearing thin and your staff may feel equally stressed. Rolling out new payment processing options after the first of the new year will benefit your customers as well as your employees.
One way to introduce new payment options is to upgrade your POS in the new year. This will likely lead to faster transactions and more satisfied customers. The upgrade will also save your business time and money on bookkeeping when your new system includes integrated accounting software.
Another benefit of upgrading your system is that it can become fully integrated. This cuts down on the likelihood of discrepancies between your bank account statements and sales reports for each cash register.
A POS upgrade also makes it easier to schedule employees effectively. It can help you determine when you need the most and the least amount of staff on duty at the same time.
While these benefits focus on employees, they also tighten your focus on your customers. The newest systems can keep track of relevant data for each customer. This can help you build customer loyalty for your business. It will allow you to offer individual customers the perks of shopping with you that they will appreciate the most. As a result, you can customize each customer’s experience with your business.
The beginning of any year gives your business a chance to improve over the last. By upgrading your system after the holidays you avoid potential problems with merchant services. You also avoid having your business run inefficiently during the holiday season. At the same time, you can implement fixes to issues and inefficiencies found during the holiday rush after the craziness has died down. You’ll be well versed in your newly upgraded system by the time the next holiday season comes around. This prepares you for the coming year in terms of merchant services and preparing for future holiday shopping seasons.
