Faster Service and Higher Customer Satisfaction Increasing the Demand for POS Systems

With the internet, the way in which we do business has immensely changed. From retail stores, we came towards online trading and marketing. Shopping online has become the buzz of the day with many new companies opening up or shifting to e-commerce. Since then, technology has only gone forward, improving the accuracy and time taken to do business online. Today, on an average, every 11 hour a new technology is cropping up in different parts of the world.

The improvement in connectivity across systems has helped us to go paperless in almost everything that we do. Sales also has transformed itself into its new avatar- that of POS. It is the new buzz in restaurants and other places where the idea is to go for less manpower and at the same time, more accuracy and a faster speed. The POS or ‘point of sale’ system, as it is elaborately known as, makes it possible for the vendor to go up to the client and place the order on the spot, allowing for last minute editing and deleting. This saves the valuable time of waiting, since the vendor does not have to take the order, come back and make the bill, followed by the order going to the kitchen. In POS, the order once finalized is immediately update to the kitchen as well as the bill counter.

Since it is a new system, the employees need to be trained on the use of different hardware systems that together make up an efficient POS system. Connectivity among the POS hardware systems is of utmost necessity, as the efficiency of the system depends on this only. A break in connectivity can not only oppose the very objective of POS system, but also lead to complexity.

The collection of POS hardware essentially includes the following items:-

(i)                 POS terminal, which may be touchscreen

(ii)               Receipt scanner

(iii)             Receipt paper

(iv)             Barcode scanner

(v)               Cash drawer

(vi)             Credit card reader

(vii)           Customer display

(viii)         Payment terminal

The above are the basic essentials that have to be connected through a wire or wireless connectivity system using a server. The intranet system, thus developed, maintains the sequencing of events on the different terminals, thus enforcing cohesiveness among the stakeholders. It is, however an easy thing to control. After initial installation, a short training can make the employees get used to the intranet and server system, and items and functions can be edited, added or deleted by an employee only. The master control can be with the manager or employer.

Besides the above listed POS hardware systems, there can be certain more equipment that may be added to make it faster and efficient. These are basically required for bigger enterprises where a large floor area is to be covered or the number of employees and clients are huge at a particular time of the day. Large retail stores, jewelry and boutique houses generally employ these like signature capture pad, MICR check reader, and scale or POS cash register system. With growing demand, these equipment are getting cheaper and cheaper in order for the small and medium enterprises to go for them.