Bernard Zimmermann's blog

My recent post on refund caused some people to ask how you mark those sales made with special conditions. This my previous example was a broken item, sold cheaply as an "AS IS."

This we call transaction tracking in our system. It's an incredibly sophisticated system worth going through, but here is a brief look at how to use it.

When you do a transaction, there is an item on the screen. *Change Description*. Press this, and you will see onscreen another option *Attach as Note*.

Here I wrote, "IT WAS BROKEN" see where the red arrow is.

The saved transaction will have full reporting and analysis available. 

To see it, go to find register transactions, look at it. Now after calling up the transaction, click show details. Now examine the items in red circles below, one by one.

Another example of how our POS Solutions software is giving retailers more.

Suppose your scanner plays up a bit and seems to be getting worse.

The first point I would check is, does it have a dirty lens. Retail environments are messy places. On the scanner lens, often fingerprints, smudges, glues from sticky tape, etc. collects. What can happen then is that you have to position your scanner over time. This is to get the laser beam to try to make its way through the dirt.  Soon over time, your scanner rate will slow down. 

So try cleaning the lens before buying a new scanner. 

Be careful as you do not want to do is scratch the lens. 

Unless you have a good reason for cleaning the lens do not clean them. 

If you decide to clean your scanner, do the following.

1) Unplug the scanner from everything. Do not pull out the wires from the computer and power as you will need to use them after the clean.

2) Use a soft, lint-free cloth, like a microfiber cleaning cloth, and give the lens a good wipe. 

3) If you see that the glass has streaks that are not removed, use a reading glass cleaner wipe. 

4) Then dry with a dry microfiber cloth lens.

5) Now plug the scanner in and test it.

A good scanner well treated should last you for many years.

One of my clients got in some trouble recently over a "'No refund on sale items" sign. A lawyer who is one of their customers told them that they were "misrepresenting rights available to consumers." 

So if you wish to put up a no refund sign, use one from your state consumer affairs sign such as this example from VIC above. 

One worrying point is that many merchants do sometimes unload at significantly reduced prices goods that are defective. They admit that they are flawed and so sell it with an AS IS and NO Return clause.  I doubt legally this is correct.  You may want to check this situation if you do it a lot. If you get an answer, let me know.

Studies have shown that if you are reducing a price, you are better off using a price-off amount rather than a percentage off. 

People are suspicious of the vague statements of discount percentage. Also, many cannot bother or unable to calculate a percentage off discount. 

Instead of announcing a price reduction of 10% on a $10 item, you are better off announcing a price reduction of $1. 

In both cases, the price was reduced from $10.00 to $9.00, but the $1 is real, 10% is not. 

Here is how you can do this at the point of sale. See the diagram above where the red arrow points. This discount can be set up to be preset, so it is one button handling.

Note if in changing the prices you mucked it up and want to start again,  press the F7 button.

Is Tyro coming to replace one of your terminals? 

Check the address on the email they sent you!

It appears on some that their trading address in the Tyro system is incorrect. 

Also, as some with problems have told us, they have not received a collection email. 

If there are any such problems, please contact Tyro support on 1300 966 639.

Plus

1) Do not remove any of the Ethernet or power cables attached to the unit. You are going to need them for the new unit.

2) Keep track of all the expenses that this has cost you.

Status updates are available here.

In 2020, one point shown was nothing works to motivate customers to buy as effectively as VIP points.  So if you want to drum up business, pick a slow time and widely announce a period of double or triple points for customers. 

It is easy and quick to set up with our software. 

To get it running 

Go to the Main Menu> System Maintenance> System Setup 

Once the page is open, select the Loyalty tab.

See the value set for the Redemption value per point option. See circled in red.

When you run your happy hour, set this to a meaningful figure, at the end of the happy hour, put it back. 

Make it easy for people to join your VIP club, the more that join your club, the better for you. We find email addresses for identity works well. 

Correctly done VIP clubs are said to add about 2% value to a shop.

See how you go!

Now is an ideal time to see how you are going.

To do this, retailers often measure their performance by the current to last year's figures.  Although many do this by months, working in quarters, here is better. But if you prefer months, work through this example with me now and then once you grasp it, do this analysis by months. 

What this will do is show you how financially COVID hit your business. It will also give you insights into the health of your business. Everyone I have talked to about this has told me that their current financials look weird. 

The report itself is elementary and straightforward to do with our system and will only take you a second to do. 

Go to 

Main Menu > Cash Register > Register Reports > under the Select Report tab, expand the Stock folder > select the report "Dissection Family Class Period Sales Comparison."

Then you will see this screen.

Now put in the left side.

From dates 01/10/2019
To Date 31/12/2019
 

On the right side 

From dates 01/10/2020 
To Date 31/12/2020
Congratulations! You have completed a Q4 analysis.

Now you have much to think about, I am sure.

Many of our clients use Tyro. So on their behalf we made enquires what is happening about the current outage. I have been told about 15% approx has been affected by the recent outage for a couple of days. The problem has been found. The fix is taking time to resolve, a few days. If you want to follow the progress of the outage, click here.

There is a statement about it released to the ASX here.

Update:  08/01/2021