If you are in business, there are several things you already know such as the fact that to progress and increase turnover and profit, you not only need to increase your client bank but you also need to optimise your existing and future client banks. Optimising your client bank and optimising your operating efficiency are the only sensible ways forward.

Nowadays, being competitive is not simply a case of undercutting the opposition. It is far more to do with reducing costs just as much as increasing sales revenue. The way you deal with your clients fits into both of these parameters.

By far the most powerful way of cutting costs is through modernising, as well as integrating technology. This is where a POS system comes into its own – it’s all about increasing operating efficiency.

For instance, do you remember the days when there were times within your business when a good few hours trading would culminate in dissatisfied customers queueing at the till because your system took two minutes to process a credit card transaction?

Install the correct POS system, for instance with a swipe and go facility, and you can cut those waiting times right down to say 15 to 20 seconds. Suddenly you have smiling customers who will want to come back to your establishment…… and remember that your customers are far more likely to tell other people when they are dissatisfied than when they are happy – and that’s just human nature.

No one is saying that you cannot develop your own POS system. By all means develop your own spreadsheets, databases and documents as well as an accounting system but you should be happy to know that nowadays you can buy everything ‘ off-the-shelf’ as a fully integrated POS system.

The absolute drudgery of accounting, stock records, sales data etc as well as increasing customer satisfaction, can be all taken care of with the installation of a single system.

Lets look at optimising your client bank. The first question you should ask yourself is are you getting the maximum out of your existing client bank. Could you be selling more to your existing clients? Would you be asking your existing clients to introduce new clients? In other words are you making the most of what you’ve got.

You should be collecting as much information as you can about everyone who walks in through your front door so you can tell them when you have any discounts etc. You can only inform them through being able to reach them. If you don’t do it someone else will.

Running a competition based on say either discount vouchers or goods is a great way of collecting telephone numbers or names and addresses. You know what customers are like when there is a possibility of winning something. Those are the sorts of little details which are possible with a POS system.

If you are restaurant, you are probably asking for a contact number in case there is any problem prior to the booking. Don’t waste it…. Add it to your system.

It’s a self-evident truth that the more people a business comes into contact with, that is to say the more people you see, the more sales you make. Selling is a numbers game and it’s amazing how many business people forget that.

Identifying and capturing loyal clients is very often the difference between success and failure. For instance Revel offers a loyalty card program to its POS customers. What’s stopping you from doing the same to your clients. If you have a POS system installed, it would be extremely easy for you to manage.

This has been all about you adding value to your business but you also need to add value to your customers experience when they come into contact with you.

Customer loyalty and customer satisfaction, through the medium of fully integrated technology (POS) is the modern and most efficient and direct path to sales for small businesses, especially those businesses who don’t yet have a budget for any major ad campaigns.