Before you go out and buy the first POS ( point of sale ) dry cleaner program that you find, or find within your budget, you should make sure you answer the following questions. If you are a dry cleaner owner already, or you are looking to get into the business, one of the main functions of the dry cleaner business is the ticketing and tracking of your customers clothing and inventory. So, in order to make this as easy for you as possible, you should be looking at a fairly decent POS and tracking program for your business. As I mentioned in my last post about point of sale systems for a dry cleaner business, these systems are really a business tool and not just any computer program. This software is really the core of a modern dry cleaners business and is an essential tool for existing or new business owners.
There are a lot of point of sale programs out there, finding the one for your business can be tricky. You can find free software online to handle most of your business or customer transactions, but you have to ask yourself if that is really all that you need? Often, most new business owners try to save a little cash up front and try some cheap or free point of sale system that might work. So, they try it out and it seems to work at first… There is a little bit of a learning curve to any new piece of software, but they end up figuring it out… Then, with a little tweaking, it is usually fine, until they want to actually do something productive, reporting, employee management, more automation, etc. That is when those people realize that they just wasted time and money on a system that just can’t handle it. So, these business owners scramble for something better and can end up in situation where they need to change out the pos system for something new while maintaining existing customers and it just becomes a headache.
So, before you fall into that situation, find the right point of sale and management system for your dry cleaner business now. Before you buy a dry cleaning program, you should look at the details of the software and hardware packages. Here are some helpful tips on what you should look at and ask for when buying a point of sale and dry cleaner management software package.
1. Is there a guarantee?
With the economy in the state that it is in, you should be watching your budget and spending your money on software for your business should be low risk. The vendor should offer some time of money back guarantee on your investment with them. Often, the software programs with with generic hardware and computers, so if you purchase a packaged system with both hardware and software, you should have some warranty period as well as a return period for both the hardware and software. In some cases, the time period may be different between the software and hardware, so be sure that you can return the point of sale software separately if needed. You can often use the hardware, scanners, printers, etc, with other software vendors in the market today.
2. Does the software vendor offer software support?
Like any other software product, you may not know how to use it yet, so you should be able to call someone for help. Also, what happens when one of your printers or computers are down, can you get help then? It is nice to know, as a business owner, that you have the back end support for your systems should they be down or impaired. The support contracts vary and can either be included in the package purchase for a set period of time, or you pay per year or month for the service and support ( as a reasonable price hopefully ).
Vendor support should be readily accessible too. Ask what the response time is, what their hours of service are, what their service levels are and what do they support. Also, cost is also an issue for any business owner, so have the costs clearly identified up front. What for hidden hardware costs, where the vendor can hide labor costs for service calls and only cover the actual hardware and not the service technicians they send out. You could be in for a surprise bill for your service calls if you are not aware of it up front.
Training is also part of the support and should be supplied as part of the package and software. Ask what type of training is provided and if you can have a look at the training course outline or package. In some cases, the vendors only offer small manuals for training.
Also, does the support contract include upgrades? Some vendors do not include any upgrades with their contracts and any updates or version changes come with an additional cost. You should ask if the support includes not only software updates and patches, but version upgrades as well. If you are not familiar with today’s software programs, they often do not stay the same year after year. There are always new versions and new features added or even removed from software packages. You can either keep up with the changes to the software and business practices or be stuck in the past. Now, for a business like a dry cleaners, you can and people do, run the same setup and software for years and longer. Why? There is not that much change in the dry cleaning business, it is a pretty stable and static type of business and the sales and business software does not change much. Either way, it is good to know if the vendor offers free or minimal cost upgrades.
3. Adding and removing computers from the system.
If you are starting out, you will probably only start with a few computers, sometimes just one. So, down the road as you expand and get busier, you will want to expand your computer systems. So, you should ask the software companies what the added cost is to add more computers to the network. Often, the company can provide a package computer front end setup with the software at a set price. You should also ask about installing your own computers and how much it would be for additional installations of the software itself. Watch for companies that tell you that you can’t add your computers and that you must purchase them from them only. This can be limiting and I often see that the hardware provided is over priced.
4. Can the software handle multiple stores?
This may not be something that you are even considering at this time, but imagine down the road. If you were managing more then one dry cleaning business, can your management system handle it? It may be a feature that you are not using now, but the software should be able to be expanded to handle multiple stores with ease. You should be able to centrally manage all your staff, inventory and customer database from a single point within your business computer network.
You should ask about remote management of the business system. When your business grows to size that you can’t physically be at your stores all the time, you should still be able to use a central computer at a main branch or even from home to access your data and store items. This access may or may not be live too. Technically, it is possible to have a live connection and view of each of your stores at any time, it’s just a matter of getting it setup.
One of the simplest solutions is to have a remote access connection to a computer at each store. It can be a designated computer, or you can run remote connection tools on each computer in your store. This will allow you to use your set password and log on information to connect to each of the computers in your dry cleaner stores and use it as if you were sitting in front of it. This is a remote control type of connection that is rather simple to setup. You can use remote control software to automate some process such a scheduled data backup or copy to a central location late at night when the store is closed. This type of process is great for both remote data backup and for you to access the latest customer and service information from each of your business locations. This type of solution is also simple to implement and does not necessarily have to be setup by the dry cleaner software vendor ( just in case it is something they do not offer ). Although, it would be beneficial to you to have them also set this up and support it.
The next way to do this is to run a dedicated server and client model. This works as if it is one large network where you are also connected to each computer at all times from each store. The computers at each store can access data across the network such as a central customer database, etc. This can be implemented over the internet as well ( cheaper option ) and gives you the most flexibility in how you do your day to day business and how you can centrally manage your business. With this type of computer setup you can pick and chose where your data is stored, such as separate local databases or a central location. You have to also consider network connection issues and if you lost connection to one of your stores, could it run independently from the rest. In such cases were you have intermittent or lost connections, it is probably best to have a local database that replicates to a central storage server for backup purposes.
There are some more technical and specific items you need to review in your multi store setup, but like I said, that could be many years down the road. For those that are already considering this and are already running a successful dry cleaner business, then the time invested now will be worth it. You need to consider the added costs to running a wider computer network over the added value to your business. You will need added backup and security measures, backup generators and power options, recovery processes, network security and more. Having your computers connected to the internet all the time adds a lot more risk, so you need to weigh the pros and cons of going this route.
5. Software functionality versus flashy features.
So, in selecting a reliable, easy to use dry cleaning program you also have to look at the fundamental uses of the software. The software needs to be able to handle the day to day transactions as easy as any other feature of the software. You have to start with the basics and if the point of sale software does not have the basics, it won’t matter how much support, training and added value the vendor tries to sell, it just won’t do. Evaluate the product based on what you want it to do, not on what it can do. Make a list and check it twice. List out the required features of your business. What I mean by that is , list out the transactions you want to be able to do on your computer that you either do by hand, on paper or with a computer now. Then determine what you require, what you would like to have and what you don’t really need. Then work from there and ensure the that software you select meets your own requirements and not someone else’s.
One of the best features you can probably find is a try before you buy option. Make sure you have the opportunity to try out all the software features before you spend a dime.
Now, I know some people, like myself at one time, had no idea what they want to start with. So, as a new business owner, or entrepreneur, you might want a little help on what to even look for in software and point of sale features. If you have never used the systems how do you know what you want? I will compile a list of the different features of these sales and system programs , then you can use that list to make your own and compare against the different software manufacturers. I will try to get that online in my next post, hopefully very soon.
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