Loyalty cards and Epos

[Sarah Atkinson]

I run a pet supply store, been open nearly 5 years and would like to start offering loyalty cards to my customers, currently we have an Sam4s sps2000 cash register that runs a barcode scanner on and has been adapted to hold over 1000 items. I don't particularly want to have the expense of purchasing another register if mine can be adapted to run more efficiently and cope with a loyalty system. Can anyone suggest somewhere I won't get ripped off and will make sure I get the best for my shop and where to look for purchasing loyalty cards and the program needed, as I'd prefer one that links to the till rather than just a data base if possible so I can see what my customer buying habits are like to best target with offers.

Thanks

 

[Nexus]

Hi - this may sound like a strange question, but do you have an integrated Chip and PIN system linked to the till, or is it a separate PDQ?
The reason I ask, is some card payment solutions have an option to add loyalty and gift card systems.

The till hardware you have is running proprietary entry-level EPoS software. i.e it's not running Microsoft windows as the operating system. The issue here is you can't go out and buy a Windows based loyalty system and bolt it on. I am not aware of a Loyalty system that will work with Sam4s either.

You could maybe install a new EPoS system over the top of Sam4s, that has Loyalty capabilities but there would of course be a cost for that.

Regards, Stuart

 

[Sarah Atkinson]

Hi Stuart, Thanks for the reply,
At present we have a stand alone chip and pin machine.
I didn't think I'd be able to add on a program to the existing system, but you never know until you ask.
It's difficult trying to work out the best route for us now, I've seen some web based loyalty systems that start up costs are low £299+ vat so need to find out running costs and how much new cards etc cost to see if that's a viable route to go down, my only concern with this is not all members of staff have access to computer and I'm not in everyday, it's the small details like that which is why I'd much prefer a system integrated.

Is it possible you can point me in a good direction to speak to someone regarding purchasing a new system, that can accommodate my old system/ scanner, till drawer Please

Kind Regards
Sarah

 

[Nexus]

Hi Sarah,
An integrated system has a lot of advantages and probably wouldn't cost much more overall. The hardware might be re-usable with another POS solution.
I'll have a look into the hardware a bit more and see if I can recommend a route to go down.
How do you run your accounts at the moment? i.e do you have an electronic system such as Sage or does your accountant do it for you?
Regards, Stuart

 

[Talay]

Having gone through this process, don't waste time, effort and money to create a shoehorned solution which has limited scope for the future. Spend the time to find a system which can do all you need now off the shelf, can operate a decent CRM and offers (perhaps optionally) features you can build into in the years ahead.

 

[Adam Hogwood]

Hi Sarah, take a look at Key Points and see if they can do something easier to use. We have a terminal from them (very similar looking piece of kit to our e-top up machine) which we enter the amount of points to go on the card manually. When the card is full, the customer can redeem it for £5 credit.
This won't help with data collection, but may save money allowing the savings to go towards further epos kit.
Whether Key Points can integrate to POS is something I haven't investigated.

 

[LMDServicesUK]

Hi Sarah

As mentioned by others your best bet would be to invest in a windows based EPoS solution with a Loyalty software package. This would be far easier to install and train your staff on, than to try and shoehorn a additional s/a system alongside your current environment.

Also moving to a Windows environment would make it far easier to expert data from the Loyalty card system to undertake further analysis as you have suggested would help with customer marketing.

Also depending where you are on the life expectancy of your existing systems / ongoing maintenance costs, leasing a new system which does everything you need would make a lot of sense. We have worked closely with ICR Touch s/w and a number of h/w vendors and got some good results for our customers whereby they now have a full Windows based solution with Loyalty and all can be managed / interrogated remotely as required. To put this into perspective the running costs on a 3 year lease ( with support contract) for a single system with a Loyalty system with cards would be in the region of £ 175 PCM. You could even integrate your PDQ facility if you wanted without the need to pay for an additional external s/w gateway.

At the end of the lease period the system would be own outright.

Hope this herlps and please PM if you would like more information

 

[Bartholomew Hearn]

I think that jacking what you have will take you way more resources and effort, than to find and adapt another solution imho.