Recent research by Barclays and Barclaycard reveals that two-fifths of Britons refuse to queue for longer than two minutes and two-thirds regularly abandon purchases. It is suggested that deploying contactless payment systems, which by doing away with the need to enter a pin code, reduce transaction times by over a third. However, it is not just contactless that can speed up the payments. A well maintained EPOS system can improve transaction time. Richard Cottrell, Sales and Marketing Director at Vista Retail Support, provides five top tips to help businesses ensure they are working with the right maintenance partner:1. Collaborate and consult
Retailers should collaborate and consult with their EPOS service partner to help reduce their EPOS downtime through preventative maintenance and call reduction strategy. This begins with preventative maintenance programme to ensure that potential problems can be detected, contained and ultimately resolved before they become a major business revenue reducing problem.
2. Response time
Retailers should look at the overall structure of their EPOS service provider and their ability and readiness to respond. The EPOS service providers' activities regarding instore store systems should be profiled with a priority assessment and technical screening.
3. Flexibility and availability
EPOS service solutions can be tailored to suit multi-vendor environments, geographical location(s) and availability/risk mitigation requirements. An adequate logistics infrastructure that can assure correct allocation of resource is imperative. Rapid response and effective allocation of urgent calls will work in harmony with ample spares stock availability and the field service engineer locations.
4. Statistical analysis
The vendor should also be able to provide statistics each month on the number of call outs, the type of call out, time spent etc. This will allow the retailer to assess how the hardware is performing, how stores compare and ensure that the vendor is meeting its SLAs.
5. Counting the cost
It's important that retailers discuss requirements, in detail and in advance, to control their maintenance and long term costs. For example, the cheapest deal up front can often cost more in the long run. The maintenance vendor should be able to advise a business on when to upgrade, when to hold on or when to replace. Many vendors may be happy to simply keep fixing the equipment, while providing little expertise. Retailers need to choose relevant cover. They may need focus over peak periods in the year through using mixed service delivery models and flexible service level agreements.
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