Picture the last time you won a big competition — whether it was sports, academic or some other miscellaneous challenge — didn’t it feel amazing? The truth is, we all love to win, so why not put that same zealous energy into improving your business? Challenge yourself to become the next mobile POS champion, because ready or not, the mobile era is upon us and the race is on.
A mobile POS is a wireless point-of-sale system that enables customers to pay for goods and services on the go. It's used to process sales transactions, record and track inventory, provide analytics and reporting, manage employees, and keep your business running smoothly all while improving your customer experience.
Investing in a mobile POS is a great start, but to take full advantage of all that it has to offer, there are several steps you have to take to optimize your new payment processor. Here are a few tips to give you a head start in the mobile POS game. Ready, set, go mobile!
The most important piece of winning mobile POS game is having a device to operate on. This can be a smartphone, tablet, laptop or another mobile device. All you have to do is download POS software (a mobile app) and you can turn your device into a fully functioning mobile POS terminal.
It is also important for you to carefully consider what mobile POS system you are choosing, its price, and the features that come along with it. Take the time to do research, understand what your business needs, and ensure that you select the right fit for your business.
Every mobile POS system comes with unique benefits, but there are some must-have features all systems should include.
For starters, your mobile POS system should provide tools for sales reporting and analytics. This will boost sales and offer unprecedented transparency into your business data.
Inventory management is another key feature of a mobile POS system. It automates repetitive manual inventory counting and takes care of reordering. This will save you time and money in the long run.
Customer management is something many businesses struggle with, but that doesn’t have to be the case -- at least not with a mobile POS system. It gathers valuable customer information for you so that you can effortlessly communicate with customers, launch appropriate loyalty programs and rewards, and more.
Mobile POS systems also provide employee management. They deploy software to keep track of employees schedules, hours and payroll. It’s one less thing for you to worry about and removes any room for human error.
At the very least, every mPOS needs to have checkout tools that improve accuracy and efficiency at checkout.
For many, a mobile POS is an entirely new system, which means your employees require adequate training. You have to ensure that you and all of your employees know how to operate a mobile POS efficiently and can even troubleshoot when problems arise so that you payment processor never has to go down.
Proper training is essential because your business won’t be able to streamline the payment process and reap the benefits of a mobile POS if you and your employees don’t know how to operate it correctly.
With so much confidential consumer data being entered in your mobile POS system, it’s imperative that your terminal is secure and protected from unauthorized access, cyberattacks, mobile malware, or hacking the backend. Security should be among your top priorities.
The goal is to operate a mobile POS application in a secure, reliable way, and install safety measures to prevent attacks before they even happen. Your software must have strong POS security technology in addition to a reliable security monitoring and incident response service.
These security measures should alert IT personnel when there is a breach, and also monitor mobile POS application-related activities, detect and tag threats, and provide real-time responses to any other security issues that may arise.
It’s always good practice to establish your initial best practices and guidelines that explain how you want your staff to use the mobile POS devices in your business. You have to be clear about your expectations and how your employees should be using the mobile POS.
Get in the habit of updating these guidelines often, as you learn what works for your business and what doesn’t. You can implement these guidelines into your employee training to make sure that your employees understand and have an opportunity to ask questions and learn ins and outs of the software.
After reading this, you might consider altering your mobile payments strategy. Your business may require major changes, just a few adjustments, or you might already even be a rockstar dominating the mobile POS arena. Regardless of what stage your business is currently at, there is always room for improvement and these are helpful tips to give your business a competitive edge in the mobile POS world.
You invested in a mobile POS because you want it to improve your business and enhance the customer experience that your business provides -- but it’s up to you to deliver this. These changes won’t happen automatically, you have to put in the time, energy and work -- but the rewards are worth it.
You have to take control, educate your employees early and often throughout the implementation process, choose the best system, and set your business up for success with a mobile POS.
Want to learn how to take your business to the next level with a mobile POS? GoSite’s Payments is an excellent example of a mobile POS solution that can grow your business by allowing you to accept payments on the go, wherever your business ventures take you.