Running a successful small to mid-sized business is infinitely easier if you have the right help. Just ask good old Santa Claus. After all, he’d be sunk without the constant support of an army of elves, not to mention those famous reindeer and the dedicated Mrs. Claus. Now more than at any time of the year, your store needs competent assistance, and it can be yours from an unexpected source: your smart payments terminal.

What is a smart terminal?

No doubt, you already have some combination of hardware and software that allows you to accept credit card payments from your customers. However, if you’re still using the same point of sale (POS) solution that you began to lease a decade ago, you’re missing out on a plethora of features that go far beyond the mere transmission of data back and forth from you to your processing company. In fact, the word “smart” has been added to describe modern solutions because they are designed to streamline a wide variety of your day-to-day processes while simultaneously transforming the increasingly-important customer experience you offer. 

By definition, a smart terminal is the customer-facing hardware component of a unified payment system that interfaces with both your POS solution and your payment gateway. One of its primary purposes is to transmit payment directly to your processing company, storing the information off-site in a secure cloud-based system and removing the burden of security compliance from your shoulders. Because of its link to modern POS software, your terminal can also do a lot of the other heavy lifting necessary to run your retail operation. Here are just some of the ways the right smart terminal can help boost sales and spirits during the upcoming busy holiday rush.

1. Up your employee management game.

During the hustle and bustle of the season, just paying attention to your customers and addressing their needs is a herculean task in itself. Equally important, however, is employee management. At the very least, you need to keep your finger on the pulse of these vital elements:

• Schedules.
• Vacation and other types of time off.
• Time clock management, including tardiness.
• Performance metrics, including who is succeeding and who is struggling.
• The individual talents and strengths of your workers, particularly who is mastering the selling of a particular product line.

With a smart terminal, you have ready access to an entire dashboard of worker-based information. For instance, your system can effortlessly email work calendars to everyone each week. With a few clicks, you can obtain not just vacation details and the number of hours worked but also specific information about the areas in which a particular employee is excelling or where they may need extra help. Armed with this intelligence, you can schedule efficiently, reward excellence, and provide training opportunities that can transform the lackluster into the superior.

2. Gain control of inventory management.

With supply chain woes continuing to plague businesses of all stripes this season, you cannot afford to be in the dark when it comes to your product availability over the holidays. Instead, you need to put systems in place that will enable you to preemptively order popular items long before the last one flies off the shelf. By the same token, you want to know which stock is failing to sell so that you can either change your marketing strategy or stop carrying those items. No matter how you slice it, you need behind-the-scenes assistance.

That’s where your smart terminal will work like a champion for you. The magic lies in its ability to connect with another piece of hardware (your barcode scanner) and software in the form of your POS’s database function. As soon as a new shipment of products is delivered, you and your staff need to scan each item into your inventory system so that it can be recorded and added to the count. By the same token, a smart POS system will record when that same piece of merchandise is sold, updating the stock count in real time.

Many advantages come with having precise inventory management. For one thing, you always know exactly how many of any given items you have in stock. As the busier portion of the pre-Christmas season approaches, you can use past years’ records to estimate whether you have sufficient stock to ensure that customers who enter your store or go to your website will get what they want without hearing the disappointing news that you will not be able to get the product back in stock until after the holidays.

Additionally, maintaining vigilance over your inventory enables you to more effectively spend your finite financial resources. When you can predict what should be bought in greater quantities and what you can scale back on, you will be in a better position to allocate your money to the parts of your business where it is most needed.

3. Deepen your relationships with your valued customers.

Today’s buyers have countless choices. They can spend their money across town or across the world and have instant access to a comprehensive set of data about the best bargains and options. For these reasons, you need to set yourself above your rivals by fostering a dynamic relationship with the shoppers that help your business to flourish.

Once again, this is where your smart terminal shines due to its ability to seamlessly interface with other aspects of your POS solution, in this case your customer relationship management software and database functions. Incentivize customers to provide you with just a few pieces of information such as physical and email address, date of birth, and hobbies and interests, and your fledgling customer loyalty program can take off surprisingly quickly. When you reward your valued patrons for their frequent business with coupons, discounts, freebies, and members-only perks, you will likely warm the heart of even the most harried holiday shopper.

Buyer loyalty initiatives are just the beginning. You can also leverage the customer-related details in your database to come up with tailored marketing campaigns that captivate your customers and draw them in. When shoppers feel specifically nurtured and cared about, they are far more likely to come back, as well as to refer their family and friends to your physical or online store.

When you have productive employees who are given the training and tools they need to thrive, their enthusiasm will be contagious. Just as happy customers are more likely to give positive feedback and praise a sales associate who goes the extra mile, staff members who are content with how they are treated in the workplace will bring an upbeat attitude into everything they do each day. For you, this combination will mean higher sales, more contented employees, and satisfied customers who will spread the word about what you have to offer.

It’s never too soon to plan for the Christmas rush. This year, talk to your payment processing partner to learn how upgrading your POS solution with a smart terminal can help to take your retail store a few steps ahead of your competition. We’re sure that Santa, one of the best delegators we know, would be one of the first to approve.