THINKING ABOUT CHRISTMAS ALREADY?
by Niels Nielsen, GS Systems Managing Director
It seems daft to be talking about Christmas. Why? Well, the schools are just about to break up. Cricket's Ashes are still in full swing. And the football season has yet to kick off. But from talking to many of our clients, we know they are already planning for Xmas.
The fact many of them are putting together their menus for the festive season in the middle of summer makes perfect sense.
After all, Xmas is the busiest and most profitable time of the year and deserves the utmost attention.
By tackling projects like menus now they have the time and opportunity to fine tune their offerings and focus on how they are best presented and communicated to their customers. It's a major undertaking, creating the recipes, sourcing the products and making sure you optimise your profits.
Before anyone shouts out at me that it is far too early to even mention Christmas, just remember that Slade classic - Merry Xmas Everybody. Well, that omnipresent festive single was recorded during a New York City heatwave in August when hanging up stockings, riding red nosed reindeer and hoping snow will fall were the last things of the collective minds of Noddy Holder and Co. Several million sales later in the UK alone makes that decision to plan in advance (or look to the future to quote the song) for Crimbo a very wise and lucrative one.
But it's not just your Xmas food and drink proposition that should be on the menu. Now is also the perfect time to think about your EPOS solution and how you can improve and enhance it as you prepare for the upsurge in footfall and takings in the last couple of months of the year.
Improvements can range from looking at a complete new solution to replace one that may be reaching its sell-by-date or you could be looking to get more out of existing solution with an upgrade or adding extra modules to increase its versatility and functionality.
Two areas stand out for me.
First, loyalty has never been more important. We've recently launched Proactivity, a flexible and versatile loyalty and customer relationship web-based solution, designed for a wide variety of different applications in any retail or hospitality environment.
This is a great marketing tool, even if I am bias as we've developed it in-house based on decades of EPOS experience and our dealings with cutting-edge hospitality and retail clients.
With many new customers visiting you over the festivities, you should be planning how to capture their data at every point of service - and to ensure you have a loyalty programme in place to constantly market your business to new and existing customers. This could be anything to sending then a membership pack to special January offers or introduce a friend incentives. We're always happy to talk about what you can do to drive your footfall up.
Our recommendation is to purchase our Proactivity module now so you've got plenty of time to assimilate it in to your marketing strategy. An alternative is to trial it first.
The second area is to ensure your EPOS system is always protected. For whatever reason, systems can go down and take time to get up and running again without expert help.
Our recommendation is to make sure you always have a current Service Level Agreement in place covering your EPOS solution. It's the same as going on a long car journey without AA or RAC cover. It might not happen but recovery from the motorway can be several more times the cost of an annual subscription.
If you've purchased a system from us and are unsure if you're covered give us a shout and we'll check for you. If you aren't covered we'll give you a quote on the spot.
We tailor our SLA packages to reflect the needs of your business. They are normally paid on a monthly basis so you can spread the cost and operate safe in the knowledge there are no nasty surprises around the corner.
The benefits are clear: you'll get prompt and preferential treatment from us. You can still get help without an SLA although you'll have to queue and you'll be charged by the hour! Even we know as friends of the business, our automatic processes running the service elements isn't programmed to be discretionary!!
With an SLA you'll be able to access online and telephone support as well as being covered for any parts or repairs that need to take place.
If you want to find out more, call Dawn Chapman on 0161 483 5595 or email to discuss existing or new GS Systems Service Level Agreements!
And don't forget, we can provide SLAs even if we didn't supply your system.
Right, who's got the sun cream and the beach towels - Merry Christmas everybody - it's only just begun?
Welcome to our E-Blog
Hello. I'm Niels Nielsen, the managing director of GS Systems, one of the UK's leading independent EPOS providers. This blog is my take on what matters to those of us who use EPOS to ensure their businesses grow. If you want to find out more about anything I'm saying simply email me or call 0800 655 6264.