Tips to POS (Continued)
To help you choose your POS Software and vendor partner, you should have positive answers to the following questions:

• Does the prospective dealer provide insight into how the POS can help your operations run better? POS dealers are professionals and should be able to provide sound professional advice specific to your retail business.
  
  
• Does the dealer have a project team assigned to your installation? A Project Manager assigned to manage the success and provide business process recommendations, someone who has managed a retail business before, it always helps to work with someone who has been in your shoes. A qualified trainer to teach your staff the features of your new system in terms that you can relate to. A dedicated support staff to help you through your installation. A customer service manager to take care of your ongoing needs.
  
  
• Does the dealer have customer references specific to your type of business? It is important they are willing to list clients that have benefited from their expertise. References can tell you more about the vendor than the vendor can. Ask about service and support received, response time, after hours responsiveness, integrity and professionalism. You may even ask for references who have had some issues – issues do occur in the real world and it is beneficial to hear how the dealer responded.
  
  
• Does the dealer provide a turnkey solution for equipment, maintenance, software, support and training? This demonstrates the vendor is capable of providing support for all of the Retail Management Solutions, eliminating a need for separate support for each component.
  
  
• What is the dealer's focus? Does the dealer understand your business? The dealer's focus should be in your industry . POS is available for many unrelated industries and you want the dealer you choose to specialize in your business focus. A true retail solutions provider should be able to know your "hot buttons", terminology and issues.
  
  
• Is the dealer able to customize special requests that you may have? (i.e., custom modifications, reports, accounting details etc.) A POS system should be attuned to your business focus and enable you to improve operations, while decreasing costs. The dealer should be able to assist you in customizing the POS to your specific needs.
  
  
• Does the dealer understand inventory accounting methods and how these items impact business operations? LIFO, FIFO, Average Cost, Retail Inventory Methods
  
  
• How many years has the vendor been selling and supporting the proposed software? It takes at least 5 years experience to effectively support a comprehensive retail POS product.
  
  
• Does the vendor offer toll free 24/7 support? Lets face it, we run retail businesses 12 hours or longer. Your problems need to be fixed immedialely.
  
  
• Does the vendor have qualified Systems Engineers and Support personnel on staff? The dealer should have an established team and organizational structure so you are able to have response to any of your service needs
  
  
• What are their offered hours of support? Are you able to choose the support and service contract you need for your business ? 24/7 is a support option with most POS vendors but may not be necessary for your business operations. To help you decide the support you need, sit down with the vendor and thoroughly discuss the options they offer. Support can be as simple as a phone call to fix or may require a site visit or equipment replacement. Make sure you are aware of how each of these levels of support impact your business operations and your cost. Ask to see a copy of the service contract and scrutinize it carefully.

From our experience, these are key questions to ask. Over 300 C&K clients have asked these questions of us over the years and we are proud to say that we are still an integral partner with most of these clients. In fact, C&K Systems' first client, First Colony Coffee, is still a dedicated CounterPoint user and C&K continues to partner with them for service and support.