Ditch that cluttered receipt drawer for comprehensive business analytics with a smart terminal.

If you’re like most business owners, you likely have a file cabinet or drawer where all your spreadsheets and purchase records go. When you’re called upon to delve into that space, either because you need to reconcile an expenditure or because of impending taxes, the results aren’t pretty. But what if we told you that you can use a smart terminal to eliminate all of that jumble and disarray once and for all while making more intelligent, data-driven business decisions. 

What is a smart terminal?

In this day and age, you no doubt already have some sort of point of sale (POS) solution that you use to read and process customers’ credit card payments. However, if you have not upgraded it over the past few years, that’s pretty much all your hardware and software can do. Meanwhile, technology has now advanced to such an extent that the capabilities of terminals have expanded by leaps and bounds. Today’s systems feature everything from the ubiquitous contactless card reader that lets you accept payments without any physical touch between you and your customers, all the way to an employee, customer, and inventory management powerhouse that will transform the way you do business.

Defining data analytics.

Your company flourishes thanks to the high-quality products and services you provide, but these are not the only drivers of your success. Contained within a modern smart terminal is the potential to gather, store, and interpret data. We are speaking here of information pertaining to your customers’ contact details, your employees, your sales metrics, and more. Instead of relying on that hodgepodge of clutter in your cabinet or drawer, it’s time you harnessed the tools that a smart terminal can bring to your physical or online retail store.

Pinpoint your decision-making processes with data.

When you are deeply involved in the day-to-day operation of your business, it can be difficult to free up time and energy for that all-important long-term planning. Having data at your fingertips can take a lot of the guesswork out of this necessary but time-consuming process. The revelations it brings come from the 360-degree view analytics can give of your customers: their past behaviors, wants and needs, and priorities. As trends and other conditions continue to evolve, your access to dynamic data enables you to remain fully aware of your buyers, allowing you to create targeted marketing campaigns that are in sync with current and even future preferences.

Moreover, you can tweak your marketing campaigns per information revealed by your smart terminal’s analytics tools. By learning which segments of your audience are responding to your initiatives and which ones are clicking away, you can begin to understand not just the nature of your current customers but also the direction to take to ensure your future success. 

Enhance the effectiveness of your customer service.

Whether your marketing strategies result in more sales has everything to do with the holistic shopping experience that you provide. Instead of just having a bland copy of a receipt on hand to act as a record of a purchase, your smart terminal’s data analytics provide you with everything you need to personalize each shopper's individual buying journey. On the most granular of levels, you can dive into a particular customer’s history to learn their preferred items, times of year when they spend the most money, and even whether they have referred friends and family to your store. Whether you then send targeted emails, make personal calls, or interact with individual customers on social media, your system has given you everything you need to make each customer’s relationship with you and your brand one-of-a-kind.

Streamline your operations.

Coming to rely on analytics removes many of the missteps and waste from your product orders and marketing campaigns. When you have a true sense of your inventory in real time and can see who is buying which items and at what time of the day, month, and year, you are in a much better position to re-order intelligently and plan for new product launches that are based not on supposition but on noticeable trends that you can take advantage of. Thanks to analytics, you can also cut down on the unnecessary expenditures that occur when advertising and marketing campaigns don’t hit their mark.

Bolster your connection to your employees.

While you are behind the scenes taking care of operational details, your employees are in direct contact with your customers. The extent to which each of them is a present, fully engaged, competent brand ambassador will determine the trajectory of your sales success.

Fortunately, your smart terminal will come through for you once again in this arena. With this system in place, you can effectively create, tweak, and convey schedules to workers, track each employee’s productivity and attendance, observe and reward success, and provide instruction in the event that someone is falling short of the mark.

Without happy and productive staff, your business’s chances of thriving are significantly diminished. Even the most innovative products will languish on the shelves without passionate sales associates committed to meeting your customers’ needs and communicating the unique features of the items on offer. Because effective use of analytics data provides that vital bridge between you and your workers that facilitates communication and positive reinforcement, they will become better stewards and ambassadors of your mission, functioning as liaisons between you and your valued patrons.

The reality is this: Data can help you to gain precious insights about your store’s progress toward business goals, as well as whether you are doing a good job understanding and meeting the needs of your customers. Best of all, you don’t need to hire a fancy consultant or take extensive classes to gain access to this practical information. Simply sit down with your merchant service provider to discuss how you can incorporate a smart payment device into your existing operations. You will be amazed at how quick and seamless it will be. Before you know it, you will be acting upon the valuable insights this technology has helped you to gain!