A point-of-sale system enables your business to quickly process payment transactions. Systems accept cash, credit, debit, and mobile payments, offering convenience to customers no matter how they want to pay. A quality POS system also offers other benefits such as improved customer satisfaction, increased sales, inventory management, and overall increased productivity thanks to streamlined business processes.
With so many options available, it’s important that you thoroughly research available POS systems. This way you can find a POS system that meets all of your business needs. Here are seven tips to help you find the best POS system for your business.
1. Features & functionality
The best POS system for your company is one that offers all of the features and functionality that address your business needs. Today’s POS systems offer varying levels of functionality, so you need to find the one that best meets those needs.
For instance, there are some POS systems that are able to track purchases in real time. These systems then use that data to manage your inventory. Items that have been purchased are subtracted from your company’s inventory list. This ensures that you have a 100% accurate count of how much product you have available.
If you’re running low, the system will let you know and you can put in a timely order to re-up your inventory. Inventory management is an especially useful feature for restaurants, retail stores, food trucks, and other companies that sell items.
2. Usability & user experience
The POS system that you choose for your business not only needs to offer all of the bells and whistles, but the system also needs to be designed with ease of use in mind. The user interface should be highly intuitive and easy to understand. You shouldn’t have to spend weeks training employees on how to use the system.
Choosing a POS system that’s overly confusing to operate can lead to frustrated employees and frustrated customers. An overly complicated system can slow down service, which means longer lines and fewer completed sales per hour.
A simple and user-friendly POS system should offer features such as inventory lookup, bar-code scanners, touchscreens, and quick keys.
3. Associated costs
As a business owner, one of the most important things you’ll want to consider when finding a POS system is the associated costs. No matter if you’re a small or large company, it pays to know exactly what you can expect to pay upfront and on a monthly basis to operate a POS system.
The many costs that you’ll need to consider include:
- Installation costs
- Upfront or monthly hardware costs
- Additional fees such as receipt printers, tablets, cash registers, and accessories
You’ll also want to be aware of the fees of accepting credit cards. Typically, POS systems that allow you to swipe the card are less expensive than those that require manual card-number entry.
4. Hardware requirements
POS systems have different hardware requirements. Some can use existing hardware, while others offer a complete software and hardware bundle. When researching hardware requirements, you’ll want to consider your budget. If you want to own the entire system, you’ll need to buy outright all of the necessary pieces of software.
Other POS system vendors offer the ability to lease hardware. While this means little to no upfront costs, at the end of the day you may end up spending twice as much as you’d have spent to own the system.
Consider the present and long-term costs of POS-system hardware before making a final decision.
5. Security
When choosing a company to purchase a POS system from, you want to ensure that the vendor has a clean record in regard to data breaches. POS systems collect and store confidential and personal information that you don’t want to have accessed by someone who shouldn’t see it.
It’s crucial to find a company that offers state-of-the-art security protections. Access and permission settings are important but you also want to find a POS system company that follows PCI DSS standards.
6. Technical support
Even if you purchase the newest and most advanced POS system, the fact is that technology isn’t flawless. System crashes happen, and though they can be frustrating, you want tech support to get the system back up and running. No matter if you need help setting up the POS system or run into operational issues, it pays to have access to professional vendor support.
It’s ideal to purchase from a company that offers 24/7 support. Being able to reach a live person when facing system problems gives you the peace of mind that the issue won’t have a measurable impact on sales and profits.
7. Live demo or free trial
You never want to blindly buy a POS system. In order to make the best choice for your company, you want to see the system live in action. Ask the vendor for a live demo or a free trial so that you can get an in-depth look at how the system looks and functions.
Most POS-system companies are more than willing to accommodate requests for a free trial. This allows you to spend some time testing out the system to ensure that it meets all business needs.
Conclusion
Using these seven tips, you can ensure that you’re able to find the best POS system for your business. No matter your industry or business size, there’s definitely a POS system out there that will streamline your company’s operations.
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