Point of sale technology has come a long way in the last ten to fifteen years. Before the ultra-simple and sleek, plug-and-play systems that we have available today, there were typically only a couple of big companies that provided POS systems, which were far more expensive and had to be installed by professional technicians.
A new POS system like Clover, on the other hand, costs far less, has a lot more features for small businesses, and can be installed and set up by just about anyone within a couple of hours.
Clover has this down to a science, and a wonderfully simple science, at that. Check out this breakdown of how it works and see how friendly their system is to small businesses.
On Par with Any Leading POS Payment System
There is definitely no deficiency in the payment capability of Clover POS. To ensure that there will never be an instance when a customer is unable to pay, due to an unaccepted payment type, they can use any type of payment.
Accept any credit, debit, or gift cards, as well as checks or cash if needed. Not only that, but the system also supports contactless, chip, and mobile payment types. Clover POS is set up for NFC, so there’s never an issue with those types of payments.
If you interface with customers at the counter, on the floor, or out in the field somewhere else, they will always be able to pay simply and quickly because you can have a counter POS device installed and also one when you’re mobile. Tipping and receipt options are built-in, and those options are accessible to the customer either at the main POS interface, or on your handheld device.
For additional security, you can also allow PIN entry and customer signatures at the time of payment. Last, but not least, when you order the POS system, it comes “payments-ready”, making it quite literally a plug-and-play system.
Even More POS Features
One of the greatest advantages of getting a cutting-edge POS system like this is that you can build the one that you need for your specific business.
You won’t be forced to buy some full standard package that comes with all kinds of hardware and services that you won’t even use, but instead, you simply select the devices that you need and only add the apps you’re going to use. Once you’re up and running, which won’t take long, you can manage every aspect of the system and do it from anywhere.
Managing Orders
To manage your orders, just bring up the dashboard on any of your devices. Whatever you decide to offer for your customers, you can set up for in-store, pickup, or deliver orders and monitor them all in real time, as well as review them later at any time.
For restaurants, track all your tables and tabs, manage open and closed orders, split up orders easily, or combine orders as needed.
Maintain relationships with your customers
One unique feature that can be extremely useful is the ability to create personalized profiles for customers, so that you can use that information whenever you interact with them to show that they’re important to you. You can add things like birthdays, purchase history, phone numbers, and email addresses.
Set up loyalty and rewards programs, too, to encourage repeat business. You don’t need to be pushy about it of course, but once you have some unique information about each customer, you can send out occasional promotional materials to them, or even just wish them a happy birthday in an email.
The same POS can be used for managing staff
Employee shifts and schedules can be organized and viewed via the POS. Administrators can also set up users and permissions for each employee to segregate access and functionality for them as needed.
When you get everybody in the system, admins can then track activity for employees, including things like daily sales, tips, refunds, and other items.
Get Apps & Integrations to Cover All Your Bases
This is the feature that arguably makes Clover the best POS provider because you can run so many different things on one centralized system. There are a great variety of apps you can use with the Clover POS, and here are descriptions of a few of them.
“Feedback”
As feedback from customers is so vital to growing and improving your business, this is a fantastic app to have because it lets you ask for feedback from customers directly at the point of sale. This is a great way to keep negative feedback off the public review sites because they’re instead giving it to you, directly. You can also add any comments they give you as notes that are attached to their order, to make sure none of them get lost or forgotten.
“Shifts”
An essential app for staff management, Shifts adds a time clock feature, so employees can clock in and out right from the POS, which you can check anytime from your dashboard. Also report and track cash tips and print reports for the day’s shift information, sales, tips, etc.
“Rewards”
Rewards is a completely free app that is designed to help you optimize your loyalty and rewards programs. In a very short time, you can create custom loyalty programs that cater to your customers. The feature works through email, text, and the Clover app to make sure your customers get their discounts as soon as they earn them.
So, those are some of the main apps that you’ll probably end up using, but there are also quite a few more available with the Clover POS. Some others include, Register, Happy Hour, Promos, Clover Dining, and Customers.
Track Everything with Comprehensive Reporting
Track every bit of revenue that comes into your business by viewing easy-to-understand reports from your dashboard. Analyze specific metrics (automatically compiled from your POS data) such as busy times of each day of the week, and broader metrics like monthly sales trends.
Do all your tracking and analysis from wherever you are, either using the online dashboard or via the mobile app.
Clover POS is one of the most user-friendly, fully-featured, and competitive systems available today. If you do decide to order one of these systems, you will certainly not be disappointed because you can essentially accept any kind of payment instantly, from the counter in your store, or anywhere else when you’re mobile.
Not only does the system have every feature that your small business needs, but the devices also look beautiful and function possibly the best of any similar system out there.
Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.