EPoS Software - Making the difference in tough times
Improving staff effectiveness with retail technology
With the outlook still looking pretty grim, we can expect tough times on the high street. So what is an independent retailer to do? One approach is to batten down the hatches and hope the cold winds of recession will pass over. An alternative, more proactive approach is to use this time to make the business stronger, more efficient and better equipped to deal with the changing competitive climate in the years to come.
In the first of a series on this blog I will look at how retailers can improve business efficiency though EPoS software and retail technology. The reward for those who get it right is a thriving and more profitable business when the economy turns upwards again.
Good news stories are few and far between at the moment. However one area of retail that has taken big leaps forward in recent years is technology for independent retailers. Computers are now cheaper and powerful than ever. Retail software has moved far beyond EpoS software (Electronic Point of Sale) into comprehensive tools to help manage a modern retail business, and many have point and click screens making them easy to use even for computer novices.
So, how can technology help? Well one key area is improving business efficiency. And the best places to start are the big 3 costs areas: Staff, Property and Stock. In the coming issues we will look at each of these starting here with Staff Effectiveness.
Staff effectiveness is about working efficiently
Working effectively means getting the most out of your time. Good time management really helps. A time management technique used in many successful companies is the Urgent / Important grid. This grid allows you to identify which tasks are urgent and which are important, and then you can prioritise accordingly. If you have not seen this before the results may surprise or even scare you a little!
Urgent tasks are deadline based like those pressing tasks that must be completed immediately. Urgent tasks are not always important. Important tasks give a positive answer to the question; “Will the activity I am about to participate in make a significant and long lasting impact on my business?”. The grid below shows an example for a retailer.
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Urgent
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Not Urgent
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Important
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Quadrant 1: Important / Urgent
· Serve customers
· Manage customer returns
· Discounts
· Stock replenishment
· Place orders
· Receive orders
· Tidy shop
· Cash up
· Keeping the books
· Manage website
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Quadrant 2: Important / Not Urgent
· 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
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Not Important
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Quadrant 3: Not important / Urgent
· Trivial requests from others
· Apparent emergencies
· Ad-hoc interruptions and distractions
· Accumulated unresolved trivia
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Quadrant 4: Not important / Not Urgent
· ‘Comfort' activities, net surfing, excessive coffee breaks
· Chat, gossip, social communications
· Lower value activities like tidy stock room or updating filing
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Figure 1. Time management grid.
The fact is that retailers spend most of their time in Quadrant 1 and 3. Yet it is those tasks in Quadrant 2 that are critical to business success. The problem is there are so many Quadrant 1 and 3 things to be done, a retailer has nowhere near enough time for Quadrant 2. Yet these are the tasks that will change the business for the better.
The answer is that retailers have to get a handle on the Quadrant 1 tasks to make time for Quadrant 2... but how?
This is one area where computers can make a real difference. They are just naturally very good at doing repetitive tasks. They can make it much quicker to manage customer enquiries, discounts, special orders, replenishment, re-orders and minimise book-keeping. They can add control and simplicity and really can put hours back into a day.