Personalize Experiences, Gratify Customers in the Moment

It's harder than ever to gratify today's consumers. Shoppers make purchases anywhere, anytime—and increasingly expect delivery within an ever-shrinking window, whether in-store or on their doorstep. The same principle holds for the hospitality industry. Armed with a growing range of options on their mobile devices, guests expect to order quickly and receive high-quality fare quickly, exactly as they ordered it. If you fail to do so, chances are they won't return.

Line busting is another way to turn frustration into gratification. Whether at a store or restaurant, faster transactions can save sales and encourage consumers to return frequently. Modern POS speeds transaction times, and EPOS software adds a powerful line-busting tool to your arsenal. In fact, research shows that more than half (52 percent) of retailers are arming store associates with mobile technology—and another 26 percent plan to do the same.

Gain a 360-Degree View of Customers

In a recent research, Retail in 4 Dimensions, 65 percent of consumers surveyed say personalized offers and promotions are most important to them in their shopping experience. When you know your customers, you can provide a more personalized—and gratifying—experience. For example, a modern POS system can turn checkout into a clienteling opportunity. By empowering in-store associates with a customer's purchase history, online browsing, and cart abandons, POS can increase basket size and same-store sales, even as you drive loyalty by exceeding customer expectations.

Likewise, gift and loyalty programs—whether for retail, food and beverage, or hospitality customers—can turn payment into a personalized guest experience in which you reward customers, run targeted promotions, and gather key data on preferences and behaviors. That's probably why 65 percent of US consumers are members of at least one food and beverage loyalty program.

Unite Front- and Back-end Systems

Even when POS was more narrowly focused on managing payments, it was an important source of financial and inventory data. But with the advent of modern POS, it has become much more. Today, POS systems are a vital hub that orchestrates the customer-facing front end with the operational back-end. The result? You optimize all kinds of business transactions and processes—providing consumers with what they want when they want it, while driving higher margins at each step of the way.

For hospitality, that means connecting the register (plus mobile devices and kiosks) with staff, facilities, and inventory to:

• Speed service
• Enhance food quality
• Reduce errors
• Track kitchen performance
• Page staff, and more

For retail, it means seamlessly connecting the POS system with order-management, order-brokering, and customer-engagement systems. Only in this way can you bridge the gap between online and traditional POS functionality to provide true omnichannel capabilities

Beyond customer fulfillment, modern POS integrates all kinds of business processes—from HCM to financial analytics—to drive higher margins.

Watch the video: Why are restaurant operators moving to Simphony Cloud? (2:09)

Retail and Hospitality POS

Retail and hospitality industries require a modern POS that supports the following critical needs:

• Speed ordering and financial transactions
• Support personalized customer interactions
• Integrate seamlessly with fulfillment systems
• Support mobile POS and self-service kiosks
• Provide targeted promotions
• Support loyalty programs
• Accept all kinds of payment methods
• Prevent losses
• Gather data for reporting and analytics
• Enhance employee productivity
• Secure customer data