There was an example of customer relations that comes from the time before electronic payments. A gas station owner gave all the boys that operated the pumps stickers and a marker and told the boys to get to know the customer, and to write their name on the sticker and put it on the inside of the little door that covers the fuel cap. Then all they had to do when the return customer came back was to open up the door and say, “Fill ‘er up, Mr. Jones?” and the customer would feel good, and likely spend more, too.
Getting info and using it is as old a concept as customers themselves. What’s changed today is the number and sophistication of the tools available to us. With the best mobile POS systems (point of sale), you can truly leverage a dizzying amount of cloud-based tech, all of which can streamline and automate your daily operations. It can also help you know the people you serve. When you know a little more about your customer, your business thrives with more efficiency, and your customers end up feeling better too. Here are a few examples of what you can do with data to make your customers—and you—happy.
The right tools can help you with credit card payments for subscriptions. You’ll need to be able to securely store card data, based on the most recent PCI rules. When you do, you will then be able to automatically charge recurring payments, which is absolutely essential for anyone who charges monthly for subscriptions. There are even more little automations that become available with cloud-based business intelligence. For example, you can automatically send notices to update cards before they expire. Customers love this because it’s one less thing they have to think about to keep the many gears of their life turning as they should. You love this because it’s one less thing you’ll have to think about to keep the gears of your business turning as they should.
For invoiced payments that aren’t recurring, it can be a real pain staying on top of every unpaid invoice, and when to follow up about them. If you have 10 non-paying clients, you’d normally have to make 10 separate follow-up decisions, and send 10 separate follow-up emails. This takes time out of your day, and leaves room for forgetting and error. Cloud-based data and optimizations make it so that you simply have to make one decision, and set automated email follow-ups that get sent out automatically after a certain point that you decide. Your mind is thereby clear to make the dozens of other decisions that come with running a small business.
What about brick-and-mortar stores? Your relationship is especially important, because these are people that you see face to face. Just as with the marker and sticker at the gas station, collecting info can help you relate to your customer and tailor service to their needs. You can do this by enabling a rewards program that allows them to enter a phone number or otherwise sign in. You give them a discount or points, and then you in turn are able to see their purchases over times. The result? A better relationship, and an opportunity to check in, and upsell related items they might be interested in. Everybody wins.
The best first step to opening up the world of tech that’s available to you is to make sure you have the best mobile POS system. This becomes the hub of all the other cloud-based tech that your business depends on, and helps make sense of ALL your business sales. Want to learn more? Get in touch with Moolah today.