Chances are, you’re very excited about the benefits your retail or restaurant operation will reap as a result of migrating from a cash register to a computerized point of sale system. However, the same may not go for at least some of your employees.

In order for a customer loyalty program to be truly effective, it must be targeted to your best customers. Contrary to what you may assume, these shoppers aren’t necessarily the ones who frequent your store or restaurant most often. For example, in many instances the most regular visitors to retail stores come primarily or almost entirely in search of “bargains”, seldom pay full price and often return their purchases.

Tick tock…is it time to upgrade your retail or restaurant point of sale system? While the answer is not always cut-and-dried, here are a few indicators that this is indeed the case.

Just as all retailers aren’t created equal, neither are point of sale vendors and the products they offer. Asking a few key questions when selecting a point of sale system is essential to making the right choice and maximizing your return on investment. These questions should include the following:

As if that weren’t enough, you can utilize historical point of sale information to set minimum and maximum “stock-on-hand” levels. This will prevent overstocks and, in turn, minimize the need to ever tell a customer that you are “out” of a product or menu item.

Nominated for consideration by Mercury Payment Systems, pcAmerica won the award for their installation with low calorie frozen dessert chain Tasti D-Lite. For this installation, pcAmerica and Tasti D-Lite collaborated to utilize Restaurant Pro Express POS software to integrate social marketing with their customer loyalty program.

Remember, haste makes waste. Don’t be so eager to find a VAR partner that you overlook or discount negative information rather than thinking twice about whether the company is the right fit for your retail store or restaurant. It’s better to be without technology for a short time, than to be stuck in a relationship with the wrong VAR.

Be a ruthless reference checker. It goes without saying that VARs without a proven track record of customer satisfaction should be avoided at all costs. However, “investigations” must go beyond this point. When checking references, don’t just ask contacts whether they liked the VAR in question and if it provided “good” customer service.

Remote log-in program. Once this type of program is installed, you can access your store, restaurant, or home computer from the software provider’s Web site by entering your user name and password. This type of software can be provided by pcAmerica.

Internet security solutions, including antivirus software, antispyware software, and firewall software. The antivirus piece ensures that your computer cannot be maliciously destroyed by outside hackers. With antispyware, unwanted ads will not pop up on your screen. Most importantly, firewalls prevent outsiders from stealing your data.