POS—himself a former coffee shop owner—adds security and
maintenance to the list.
SECURITY, LOYALTY, EASE
All of those issues impact business at JP's Coffee and
Espresso Bar in Holland, Mich., according to owner Jack
Groot (a columnist for this magazine), and the shop's manager,
Sherry White.
"For us, security for credit and debit card customers; ease
of reporting, which covers things like employee hours, loyalty
programs, and inventory; and ease of modification are major
concerns," White says. "We need to be able to modify things
like pricing and inventory on our own and with ease."
"The upkeep, cost, maintenace and speed of the equipment
are all concerns," Groot adds.
POS vendors are tooling their systems to address those issues.
SelbySoft, for example, is a hybrid system with many
cloud-based features. "The data is still controlled and, more
importantly, owned by the customer, but we have cloud-based
backups, reporting and gift cards available," Spence says.
"This gives our customers the best of both worlds. SelbySoft is
competitive in our pricing, and we offer a full year of software
support with every system. This is a comprehensive plan that
includes training, support and upgrades."
ShopKeep POS addresses what Richelson calls "very real
pain points for merchants" by offering a system that is iPad-
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based (alleviating virus worries) and cloud-based (significantly
reducing pricey server maintenance costs).
"It's a great value for what you get in terms of full inventory
and employee management and the servicing that we provide,"
Richelson says. "Also, because our swipers are encrypted,
merchants are never storing customer data on the iPad,
ensuring maximum security of customer information."
MORE PLUSES
Control, flexibility and customer service are other pluses.
"With ShopKeep POS you can use almost any credit card
processor, and you can collect customer information to build
out a customer database and market to them later," Richelson
says, adding that customer care—available every day via online
chat, e-mail and phone—is another selling point.
Rowland says his company's systems have order-taking
features designed specifically to help shops easily build and
modify specialty coffee drinks. Integrated mobile and online
ordering, integrated self-serve kiosk ordering features, no-fee
pre-paid cards, and extensive loyalty options are other benefits.
"Reporting designed specifically for the coffee industry, such
as our cup-count analysis, are just a few of the features that have
evolved over many years of working exclusively with coffee shops,"
he explains, adding that Coffee Shop Manager's technicians "are
focused exclusively on our product and the coffee industry, so
they have a high level of understanding of our customers' needs."
