Working efficiently with retail technology
How retailers can work do more with fewer resources using a good EPoS system
There are lots of small repetitive processes in retail, and EPoS software is great at doing small repetitive processes. By reducing the time spent on low value, often repetitive tasks, managers and staff can spend time on more powerful activities to really improve the business.
One of the most essential elements of good time management is distinguishing between what is important and what is urgent. Urgent tasks are deadline based like those pressing tasks that must be completed immediately, or those persistent routine demands that take up time.
Urgent tasks often masquerade as ‘important tasks’. However, not everything we do is important. Important tasks give a positive answer to the question; “Will the activity I am about to participate in make a significant positive and long lasting impact on my business?”
By distributing these activities on a grid it is possible to manage them more effectively. An example may look a bit like this:
|
|
Urgent |
Not Urgent |
|
Important |
1 - DO NOW · Serve customers · Stock replenishment · Place orders · Handle customer queries · Managing customer orders · Manage customer returns · Staff issues/salaries · Mark-Ups / Mark-Downs · Tidy shop · Cash up · Last minute bookkeeping |
2 – MAKE TIME TO DO · Range planning for profitable product lines · Sell more to existing customers · Make more of suppliers · Keep customers coming back more often · Find new customers · Sell into more channels such as the internet |
|
Not Important |
3 - REJECT OR EXPLAIN · Trivial requests from others · Apparent emergencies · Ad-hoc interruptions and distractions · Misunderstandings appearing as complaints · Accumulated unresolved trivia |
4 - RESIST OR CEASE · ‘Comfort' activities, net surfing, excessive coffee breaks · Chat, gossip, social communications · Daydreaming, doodling · Lower value activities like tidy stock room or updating filing · Reading irrelevant material |
The tasks in Quadrants 3 and 4 are there to be managed away. Scrutinise these demands. Help people to re-assess their importance. Wherever possible reject and avoid these tasks sensitively and immediately, they are non-productive and de-motivational. Tasks like tidy stock room may be reduced by encouraging staff to keep things tidy day to day.
Retailers spend most of their time in Quadrant 1. Yet it is Quadrant 2 that is critical to business success.
There are so many urgent and important things to be done. What then happens is that nowhere near enough time is given to those activities in Quadrant 2. Yet these are the tasks that will change the business for the better. But because they are not urgent, it doesn’t seem to matter if they slip a day. And one day leads to the next and they don’t get attention.
Retailers have to get a handle on the Quadrant 1 tasks to make time for Quadrant 2, but how?
EPoS systems really can take away a good percentage of the repetitive tasks. They can make it much quicker to manage customer enquiries, mark-up / mark-downs, special orders, replenishment, re-orders and minimise book-keeping. They can add control and simplicity and really can put hours back into a day.
This improved efficiency leaves time for quadrant 2, the real area that will strengthen the business. Again, EPoS software can play a significant role in assisting with these tasks.
