POS System Training
Learning to use a new POS system can be daunting, particularly for new employees lacking experience.
If you're not sure where to start, don't worry - we have it covered!
We'll discuss the essential features of POS systems and offer expert suggestions on how to train staff.
From retailers to restauranteurs, read the useful tips below for clear and effective employee POS training.
POS Training Essentials
Whether you are new to POS systems or switching to a new POS system, it is critical that your managers and floor staff are fully trained to avoid any disruption to your business flow, customer frustration, and lost sales.
What Is A POS System?
First off, let's clarify what a POS system actually is.
POS stands for 'point-of-sale' and a POS system comprises software and hardware, such as the cash register.
It features technology that records all purchase and sale transactions for your business and can even be used for keeping track of inventory and employee hours, gathering customer information, and creating a plethora of useful reports for your business.
POS systems are used in all sorts of different businesses where sales are made, such as retail businesses, restaurants, bars, and online stores.
What Are Essential POS System Features?
There are many POS providers out there and the specific POS software and hardware required by a particular business may vary a little, however, there are some essential features that businesses should ensure their employees are trained in for smooth running of routine tasks.
Sales
The POS system records all purchases and sales for the business each day. Employees must feel confident in using the POS system to process sales.
This includes basics like using the POS system to correctly scan or enter an item to be purchased using the cash register, taking payment by cash, debit or credit card, or digital wallet, and issuing a receipt. Knowing how to handle common problems such as declined credit cards and refunds is also vital.
The POS system can be used for sales reporting where management can create various reports to monitor sales, profits, items sold, and various other aspects.
Inventory Counts
Another important feature of POS systems is keeping track of inventory. If your business uses a handheld inventory scanner, relevant employees should be able to use this feature to ensure accurate inventory counts, keep track of product locations, and know when to re-order items for the store.
Customer Information
Whether you have a restaurant or retail store, having an excellent relationship with your customers is critical for all businesses.
A good POS customer management system can help you efficiently record customers' transactions and information, in view of identifying regular customers, targeting promotions, and running loyalty schemes.
Training employees should include how and when to gather this data.
Employee Management
The employee management features of POS systems let you keep track of the hours worked by your employees, analyze their performance and sales, set targets for sales, and plenty of other functions.
Employees should know the basics of how to clock in and out and view their sales targets. Management staff must be able to monitor the employees using this POS feature.
POS Training Tips
Whether you are running a retail business or eatery, there are plenty of potential problems you can avoid through proper staff training. Next, we offer some top tips for POS training so your staff feels confident with using the POS system.
Offer Direct Training
Hands-on experience is best for getting the hang of using a new system or for new employees in a retail store.
Many POS providers have excellent training videos, which are great in providing an overview of the various processes, however many employees find completing the process for real is a more valuable learning experience.
Train staff directly on the POS system they will be using and they will be more likely to remember what to do.
Offer test POS transactions to practice on and provide instant feedback and allow any specific questions from the retail staff to be addressed then and there.
When the employee feels ready, let them have a go at real transactions with real customers in-store so you can iron out any issues or concerns with using the software and hardware of the POS system.
Offer Enough Training Time
Offering hands-on training is great, but you have to ensure your employees have had enough time to practice before they handle real transactions and have real interactions with customers.
Learning how to use a POS system can be a steep learning curve, particularly for new employees who have minimal point-of-sale systems experience, so patience is necessary.
Simulate Common Problems
The last thing you want is an employee to be stuck with the new system and not know what to do causing a long line of angry customers to build up.
Think about common problems employees might run into in real life, offering the solution and how best to proceed with that particular process or transaction.
Build these common problems into the test transactions so they can get first-hand experience of how to resolve the issue. For example, in a retail business, employees should know how to handle declined credit cards.
You might also want to direct employees to training videos and the POS vendor website for troubleshooting. Also, consider having a 'common problems' guide on hand.
Allow Historical POS Data Access
This is relevant if you are switching to a new POS system. There is various software that can import data from your old POS system.
Ensure your employees have access to their relevant imported data such as customer information, sale targets, hours worked, and so on.
Respond To Employee Feedback
Once employees have completed training on the new system, it is a good idea for retailers to get employee feedback on their POS system training and act on it if it is appropriate.
You don't want to get to the final hour of the training process only to find you have missed a critical POS training feature or spent too much time on the more straightforward aspects of the process.
This can help you save time for future training and helps with building a good relationship with your team if they feel their opinions are valued and listened to.
In Closing
Point of sale systems offer retailers and business owners efficient solutions to various aspects of running a business. With a whole host of software and hardware options available the list of functions and features available in modern POS systems is huge.
There are many things you can do to ensure POS training goes smoothly for your business, be it an online or in-person store. Our top tips are aimed to help you identify and avoid potential problems with your POS training, so your business can run without a hiccup.
Tim Postlethwaite
Contributing Author
