Chances are, you’ve heard quite a lot in recent months about online ordering solutions. Maybe you’ve even used them yourself to get takeout or a delivery from another restaurant. And now, it’s time to seriously consider implementing such an application for your own operation.

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.

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.

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.

It’s no secret that the key to any successful communication is reaching the right audience, at the right time, with the right message. For some retailers and restaurateurs, this means not only deploying “freestanding” digital signage applications, but running digital signage software on kiosks.

When it comes to digital signage, the times, to quote an old Bob Dylan song, are “a-changing.” The scope of digital signage is no longer limited to “way-finding” (directions to a certain department in a store, for example) and the flashing of simple messages (such as the ticket number of a customer currently being served in a deli).

“Support” and “maintenance” are nebulous terms, but when it comes to these two elements, retailers need to be very clear about what they’re getting from their POS systems vendor.