From Reservation to Tip: 4 Best Practices

In addition to being a place to shop (and pick up online orders), your physical locations can become a hub for experiences and meetings. You can attract customers by offering services they can’t get online, and in turn, you open up a new avenue for rewarding and retaining your employees.

With a little planning and the hong kong telegram data right tools, you can give your customers a reason to keep visiting your store, no matter how eCommerce evolves.

In this article, we will talk about:

• Why should you offer services and what types of services could you offer?
• How to From Reservation  manage services, from making appointments to getting advice, etc.

Why should I allow tipping in my store?

2021 was a strong year for retail; the National Retail Federation estimates that retail sales reached $4.56 trillion in the United States , as strong summer sales fueled the economic recovery. But even as in-store sales increased, eCommerce grew as well , with seemingly little to no slowdown in the increased in-store activity.

It’s true that strong e-commerce sales aren’t a problem. Success across both in-store and online channels can only benefit your business. But some customers need a reason to visit you in person. They need something in your store that they can’t get online.

A study by retail consulting firm BRP found that 79% of consumers consider personalized service when choosing their store. Add to buying or renting equipment which is the best option this the fact that brick-and-mortar stores can accommodate services that online stores can’t, and you have a recipe for keeping your store relevant, even as eCommerce grows.

There’s another reason you should consider offering services: tips. Adding optional tips to your service payment flow allows your customers to thank you for the services they receive and allows your employees to know they’re appreciated. Happy employees are more likely to stay with the company—anecdotal evidence and studies confirm this— and tips give you a way to make your employees happier. 

From Reservation to Tip: 4 Best Practices

What types of services do customers expect from retailers?

No matter what industry you are in, there is always a service you can offer your customers.

Clothing and shoe retailer? You can offer tailoring and shoe repair services, or arrange appointments for personal styling or group shopping sessions. Do you sell pet products? Partner with a dog groomer to offer their skills on-site. If you stock makeup or beauty products, offer product demonstrations to customers.

If you’ve never offered a service b2c fax before, it’ll take a little time to get your business up and running. Fortunately, with the right cash register , you won’t need to invest in a second system; you’ll just have to see what you can do with your current one.

Here are four things to keep in mind to make your interview appointments go smoothly.

From Reservation to Tip: 4 Best Practices

1. Manage appointments via your cash register

If you offer services in your store, you must allow customers to make appointments.

To ensure appointment management doesn’t feel like extra work, look for a system (like Lightspeed’s visit scheduling tool) that integrates with your POS system. Integration means you don’t have to juggle multiple platforms and have access to all your customer, sales, and appointment data in one place.

Booking appointments doesn’t necessarily mean turning away walk-ins (although some services require too much planning to accommodate walk-ins), but encouraging walk-ins means you can:

• Adjust shifts as needed. If you have multiple service appointments scheduled on the same day, you may need an additional employee on the floor. Encouraging appointments allows you to plan ahead.

• Collect valuable data. Which days are most popular? Which services excite clients? Is there a trend in group sizes for appointments? You can more easily collect this information by using a formal appointment scheduling system.

• Make service appointments more personal. Musical instrument retailer Virtuosity uses the Visit Scheduling feature to manage musical instrument consultations, meaning each appointment is linked to the customer’s profile and wish list for more personalized recommendations.

2. Use your cash register to track and bill services

Since services are another way for your business to generate revenue, their sales should be managed in your POS system just like physical goods.

For services like makeup appointments or personal errands, you can create inventory items with the service priced by the hour or half-hour. Then, when it’s time to pay, your employees can simply scan a barcode and increase the quantity based on the length of the appointment.

On the other hand, services like alterations and repairs involve multiple steps—consultation, hardware adaptation, repair, and assembly—and are best handled with a different workflow. You should manage this in your POS system so everything is in one place. Retailers using Lightspeed can use work orders in their POS system to track repair status, expected completion date, and labor charges per service.

3. Allow tips at the checkout to reward your employees.

Adding services to your store adds an element of excitement for customers, a reason for them to stop by and get personalized attention they can’t get online.

But there’s a second benefit: rewarding your hard-working employees. While tips are relatively rare in retail, tips for services are more common. Now that you offer them, your employees should have the opportunity to earn tips for services rendered.

Because tipping is relatively uncommon in the retail industry, some retailers find accepting it a bit complicated. Not all payment processors support tips, and tip jars aren’t a secure way to track tips.

Fortunately, this is a hurdle that can be overcome by turning to your point of sale, not your payment processor. This means you should be able to: