How Your Garden Center’s POS Experience Can Enhance Customer Satisfaction

Your POS system is a vast database, containing everything from inventory to buyer preferences. This data benefits not only your business but also every customer. 

But, what underlies this bidirectional relationship? 

Well, creating a unique, personalized POS experience validates engagement. A positive business interaction leaves an impression, meaning customers are more likely to revisit and purchase again. In turn, you boost retention rates and sustain success.

If leveraging your POS for more than just sales sounds intriguing, come with us as we list six ways to sweeten the buying experience. 

What Is a Point of Sales (POS) Experience?

The POS experience refers to the process associated with checkout. Customers can retain a positive or negative feeling toward your business based solely on this interaction. Sure, your employees provide that human touch, but your POS system ultimately seals the deal. 

With the wealth of technology available at their fingertips, customers expect your business to be equally user-friendly. Let’s say your system only allows manual data entry when ringing items. Imagine the frustration of watching a cashier type each barcode into the computer for fifty items! A wild guess would be you’d never go back there again!

Hence, we see the significance of a seamless, streamlined POS experience. A beautiful window display of in-season flowers will only get you so far—ensure the rest of the shopping trip is enjoyable, too! 

Why Is It Important?

As a garden center owner, you likely have frequent inventory turnover, seasonal specials, and an e-commerce website. Allowing all this data to get lost in the shuffle can lead to chaos at the checkout lane. Instead, investing in a top-quality POS system is pivotal for keeping track of business operations while maintaining customer happiness. 

Eventually, the background work of regularly updating stock, reviewing customer behavior, and simplifying the online ordering process bolsters the POS experience. As a result, you leave first-time buyers with a favorable representation of your store. 

Now, you can utilize data collected at the register (e.g., email, receipt, etc.) to create an individualized experience next time they stop by (we’ll expand on this further below)! Pretty soon, you’ll have a host of loyal customers, eager to continue supporting your business.

A satisfying POS experience has numerous advantages, including:

• Offering personalization
• Promoting customer loyalty
• Boosting online sales
• Collecting data to improve marketing efforts
• Encouraging additional purchases

6 Ways to Improve Your POS Experience for Customers

You’ve dedicated so much time to creating a beautiful storefront, compiling an inventory of gorgeous plants, and training your staff on running a tight ship. Next comes the final touches—bringing that same detail to the POS experience. Focus on your customers, utilizing their distinct habits and interests to craft a successful checkout process. 

1.  Make Checkout Fast & Simple

As briefly mentioned earlier, you want to create an easy checkout experience. Recognize the need for speed! Like you, customers have busy schedules—most simply don’t have the extra time to waste at a register. In fact, surveys show that 82% will avoid a store if they expect to encounter long lines. 

Don’t lose valuable business by skimping on your POS system and optimization. Take proactive steps to ensure everything runs smoothly, from when customers approach the counter to when they walk through the door.

Here are a few ways to keep customers happy at checkout:

• Accept multiple payment methods
• Invest in a faster POS system
• Use barcode scanners (NOT manual entry!)
• Use fewer form fields
• Effectively train staff on your POS system
• Establish a reliable WiFi connection

2. Offer Receipt Options

Everyone has a different opinion about paper receipts! Some like them, others think they’re a nuisance. I won’t lie, my car cup holders are a graveyard for crumbled and forgotten receipts… 

Another way to individualize the POS experience is to offer various receipt options. With growing environmental concerns, many visitors may be against paper altogether. Ask customers for their preference, whether printed or emailed. Show them you care about their input!

Better yet, you can use these emails to tailor marketing campaigns and promotions based on purchase behavior (if they agree to email outreach, of course!)!

3. Utilize Omnichannel Solutions

Why let your super awesome e-commerce website lay waste?! Create an omnichannel POS experience your customers can utilize to make purchases. For example, consider curbside or in-store pick-up. Buyers can place orders online leisurely without adjusting their schedules to fit a long shopping trip. 

This simplicity encourages continued business by offering convenience, which can be invaluable when crammed with work, chores, and other responsibilities. Just ensure your website is optimized for mobile compatibility, speed, and navigation! 

4. Personalize the Experience

Recognize your customers as individuals, not just part of a collective group with similar interests or characteristics. They all have unique preferences, personalities, and histories with your business. 

An integrated POS system stores whatever data customers provide, including birthdays, past purchases, and specific shopping habits (e.g., only buying X flowers during X month). 

Based on these insights, your team can offer personalized POS experiences. For instance, cashiers can make product recommendations that complement a previously bought perennial or soil mix. You can even incorporate these suggestions into your online shopping interface or email campaigns! 

5. Set Up Reward Programs

Honor loyalty with rewards and buying incentives! Instead of only having an online sign-up form, make the process quick and painless at checkout—this way, they won’t forget! 

But, do reward programs benefit business owners, too? Of course!

Most loyal customers will happily share their online activity and buying preferences to receive individualized discounts and promotions (up to 87%!). So, while consumers reap the awesome deals, you can collect and leverage their data to further enhance the online and in-person POS experience!

6. Ask for Customer Feedback

Never stop seeking improvement! You can’t find a better way to improve the POS experience than asking customers for honest opinions. Ask them what they enjoy most and what really grinds their gears (hopefully, they have nothing to complain about!). Incorporate their suggestions into management moving forward, whether re-evaluating register layout, adding a “promo code” form for e-commerce, or even considering self-checkout lanes.  

Check out these ways to gather customer feedback:

• In-person request forms
• Automated emailed surveys after purchase
• Social media polls
• Online chatboxes

In Conclusion

The POS experience is not to be overlooked. You can have the prettiest garden center in town, but you can scare customers away with poor checkout etiquette! Keep your biggest supporters satisfied by individualizing and uncomplicating the buying process. In the end, everyone benefits! 

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