What is a POS system?
Once upon a time, payments were simple. Customers would buy an item or pay for a service, you would ring it up in a till, accept the cash and return any change. Transaction complete. Times have moved on, and payments have become more complex - there are more ways than ever for a customer to transact with your laundromat business. And terminology has changed, where once you had cash registers, now you have a POS system. So what is a POS?
In a nutshell, a POS system, or point of sale system, is the place where your customers pay. It can be the physical cash register in your laundromat, or it can be the online checkout for customers purchasing on web or mobile apps. In essence, it’s the hardware and the software which allows you to make those sales.
Accepting payments is just one feature of a POS system. Digital POS systems do so much more than simply allow you to take payments, they are powerful tools which can help grow and scale your business.
How can a POS help me grow my dry cleaning or laundromat business?
Below are 5 reasons why a POS system like CleanCloud, is essential for growing your dry cleaning or laundromat business.
Improved efficiency and convenience
Until relatively recently all payments were cash based. Remember waiting patiently for a customer to count out their change? It was slow. Now customers pay in a variety of ways, and they expect a speedy checkout when picking up their dry cleaning. With a digital POS system you can accept any form of payment that your customer chooses - whether that’s cash, card, or even laundry cards (for US customers), in-store or online. What’s more, a good POS system allows you to process transactions faster, meaning a faster checkout process and reduced wait times for customers.
Something else that slows us all down, is having to remember which password we set up for each of the different systems we use. With a POS solution like CleanCloud, everything’s in one place - no need to remember multiple logins and passwords. Everything you need to run and grow your dry cleaning or laundromat business, from processing sales, to managing payroll and communicating with your customers can be done from one place. Freeing you up to spend more time on the things that really matter - running your business.
Increased revenue
Not only can you choose to accept a variety of payments including credit and debit cards, a POS system can help boost your business through the creation of promos. Promos are a great way to boost business, they can be used to encourage customers to place another order, or they can be used to tempt new customers to try your laundry service. There are a variety of promos that you can create, these include incentives, percentage off or $ discounts which can be used to drive orders when you need them most.
Inventory management
With a digital POS system such as CleanCloud, laundromat and dry cleaner owners can more easily keep track of customer inventory levels for supplies such as laundry detergent and fabric softener. It’s not just supplies you need to keep an eye on, you need to be aware of where your orders are, and what stage of the cleaning process they’re in at any given time. With pen and paper, it’s a challenge to keep on top of the detail, and you can spend hours managing your orders. This is one of the headaches that a POS can help solve. Track each individual garment as it moves through the cleaning process, no more guesswork or manual tracking required, just a smoother operation for everyone.
Better customer data
POS systems with a built-in CRM like CleanCloud, can help you to better know your customers. With CleanCloud you can clearly see your customer’s purchase history in one place, capture important data like last order date and track average spend. All of this data has benefits for laundromat and dry cleaner owners who can then use this information for more targeted marketing campaigns, which will increase visits and in turn generate more revenue.
Safe and secure
You can’t be everywhere at once, and unfortunately sometimes staff fraud does occur. It’s costly, and it’s damaging for your business. We understand the frustration and pain this can cause for dry cleaning and laundromat owners, which is why our POS system is designed to keep you safe. Log user edits to orders so you can review changes, track clock in and clock out times for staff so you can run more accurate payrolls. What’s more, CleanCloud backs up data every day, ensuring your information will never be lost to damage or theft again.
After reading this you may be thinking ‘I already have a POS for my laundromat, I take cash and card payments, and do some basic reporting, surely one POS system is pretty much the same as another, right?’ Wrong. In fact POS systems vary greatly. A POS system that works well for a retail business or a restaurant, may not have the features that a laundromat or dry cleaning businesses requires. Which is why investing in a POS built specifically for laundromats and dry cleaners is so vital to growing your business.
CleanCloud’s POS system was built with dry cleaning and laundromat operators in mind, with features that are specifically designed to meet the challenges and needs of your business. Try our free 14 day trial to see how CleanCloud can help you better run and grow your business.