To gain insight into the customer habits of your restaurant or retail business, you can build a customer data base using your point of sale (POS) system. POS reporting features allow you to learn more about your customers to create more targeted marketing campaigns, spend less on customer retention and develop a strong sense of customer loyalty.

Learning more about your customers can help you in the following aspects:

1. Budget

Marketing is all about finding the smartest way to spend your advertising budget. Customer retention is similar to employee retention in that it is less expensive to keep an existing customer than to gain a new one. However, by learning more about your customers it can become cost-effective to do both. For example, you can use your POS software reporting features to determine the value of your existing customers and, therefore, determine how much you are willing to spend to earn a new customer.

2. Customer loyalty

Launching a customer loyalty program is a great way to build a customer database. When a customer signs up for your program, you can require that they offer information like their name, age, location and email address. You can store that information in your system and then use your POS to track their transaction using their card.

3. Marketing

One of the biggest advantages of building a customer data base is the ability to create more targeted marketing campaigns. The more you know about your customers, the more successful your advertising will be.

Using your POS system, you can track the way they respond (via sales) to each of your advertising and promotional efforts and therefore gain insight into your most profitable marketing ventures. You can also discover how much of your business comes from new vs. repeat customers.

You can also segment your customer database by location or demographics to create promotions for specific areas or age groups, etc. For example, you can target your younger customer base with prom season promotions. The locations and groups that garner the best response will be the most profitable segments of your customer base. These same ideas can be applied to email marketing, if that is part of your marketing efforts.

Stop taking shots in the dark – use your POS system to build a customer database and learn more about your customers, allowing you to make better business decisions.