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Why am I Always in the Wrong Line?

Efficiency = Happy Customers!

By Anne M. Obarski

We have all been there. You run in a store to pick something up and as you approach the checkout lane, you see that there are a dozen people ahead of you. You roll your eyes, you sigh loudly, you look around hoping someone will open another register and you even think of just leaving your items right where you are and stomping out of the door. As you look at your watch for the sixteenth time, you rationalize that you really need the items and if you leave now, you just might encounter the same situation at another store, so you wait your turn.

What's worse is that by the time you get to the register and the employee says, "Did we find everything alright today?", you probably just sigh and say "yes", instead of saying something like, "Since my time is very important to me it would have been nice not to have waited 10 minutes to buy a stick of deodorant!". Politeness usually over rules and we may mumble that under our breath out the door swearing we will never come into that store again. Until next time!

Customers are used to waiting in line. We wait at the drive-thru, we wait in traffic, we wait at the theater, we wait to see the doctor, as I see it, life is a waiting game. I recently read the following from a plant foreman for General Motors Corp, "Everybody decides, "What do I want to trade for what I want to do". The General Motors Corp. manufactures the Hummer, and his comment was related to the fact that with gas prices rising, people will not necessarily give up driving a big car, they will re-adjust their priorities.

So if a customer wants your item badly enough, they will wait on the phone, they will wait in line, they will wait until they turn purple, because they want what you have to sell so badly, they won't go anywhere else.
If you aren't a Hummer dealership or any other highly desired business of choice, then I suggest you make it easy for the customer to spend their hard earned dollars from you and stop making them jump through the hoops you've created!

The following are 4 major areas your employees should be trained to handle before they ever set foot out of a training room.

The rest of the article may be read by pressing here.

Working Smarter 2006 - Retail Concepts That Allow You to Work Smarter Not Harder

Look for information coming soon. Advanced Retail Management Systems will be conducting FREE Retail Pro Training Seminars in the upcoming months. Presentations will be in Denver, Kansas City, Salt Lake City and Chicago. These seminars will cover specific topics on the use of Retail Pro and we will also present new industry products. Times and details will be announced in future Retail Edge Publications. If you would like to see a Seminar in your city, please contact us at marketing@armsys.com.

Would you like to setup a workstation to launch a specific document or change of a document when you select the E-manuals button?

By default the E-manuals button launches the e-manuals home page. You can configure your system to directly display a specific document or chapter from within the User's Guide when the button is selected.

For example, at a POS workstation you might want the button to display the Recording Sales and Returns chapter instead of the E-manuals home page. At a receiving station you could display the receiving chapter and so on.

1.Access Workstation preferences > System > E-Manuals URL at the workstation

2.Select the Browse button and navigate to the folder containing the E-manuals documents (by default this is the \E-manuals\Docs folder on the same hard drive as the program files).

3.Locate and select the V8_10_Record_Sales.pdg file in the Select File dialog. Select Open to return this file to the E-manuals URL preference field.

4.Select Save on the side toolbar.

5.Return to the main retail pro menu and select the E-manuals button. The Recording Sales and Returns chapter will be displayed.

6.Repeat for other workstations, selecting the appropriate PDF file to display for each.

Retail SpotLight

Strategic Air and Space Museum

The Strategic Air & Space Museum located just fifteen minutes outside
of Omaha, Nebraska houses a rich collection of Aerospace heritage.
This world-class Museum first began at Offutt Air Force Base in 1959, the Museum's original location. 

This unprecedented facility is more than a museum.  The Museum is a
300,000 square foot building that features a glass atrium, two aircraft
display hangars, a traveling exhibit area, a 200 - seat theater, a Museum store, an aircraft restoration gallery and a "Plane Food" snack bar.

In 1998, when the move was made to the new location the Museum Store purchased Retail Pro as its point-of-sale and inventory control
solution.  Jannell Colton, Director of Guest Services & Human
Resources and Justin Snodgrass, Store Buyer; manage the store's operation using Retail Pro.   When asked what they liked about Retail Pro, Justin indicated that the ease of tracking inventory via purchase orders and vouchers allows him better control and management.  He finds it very easy to edit necessary information and access archived records.  Jannell likes the ability to mirror the station settings, and the reporting features.   Each year Jannell, Justin and their staff conduct a physical inventory and they find the process to be very straightforward with Retail Pro. 

Traveling through Nebraska requires a stop in Ashland to see the
Strategic Air & Space Museum.  For more information on the Strategic Air
& Space Museum please visit their website by pressing here.

Are You Ready For the Christmas Selling Season?
By Andrea Waltz

It is a commonly held belief in the retail industry that the period from mid-November to New Year's Day is the most important time of the year.

But this belief is entirely wrong.

Certainly the case can be made that this is the greatest dollar generating six weeks of the year, but in reality a success-filled December is the direct result of the groundwork that was laid during the preceding 46 weeks. A retailer's ability to capture their share of these precious holiday sales is often determined long before any turkeys are carved or cans of cranberries are opened on Thanksgiving Day.

Consider the following...

·Most customers will spend their gift-giving dollars with the retailers they've established relationships with earlier in the year.

·The level of service you've provided during the "slow periods" determines to a great degree if a customer will shop with you during December. Many customers think, "If you couldn't take care of me when it was quiet, how will you possibly take care of me when you're mobbed?"

·These relationships are built when floor traffic is manageable.

·The opportunity to determine needs, trade up, and create large multiple sales is greater when there is quality time to ask lots of questions and determine needs.

·Salespeople must have the ability to handle multiple customers during the busy season to capture and maximize sales. This ability must be developed long before the onslaught of holiday shoppers hits your doors.

·Recruiting and hiring is difficult, if not impossible, during the holidays. Spring and summer are the times to add top-notch people to your team.

Selling at Christmas is often about getting to the customer as quickly as possible. In baseball, what you do as a manager during the spring training season will determine the success you enjoy during the regular season. It's too late to start preparing and developing your people in the middle of the World Series.

Retail Pro End of Year Membership Promotion

You now have a great opportunity to renew your Retail Pro Membership with the end of year Amnesty Promotion. Island Pacific (IP), the developer of Retail Pro has recently instituted an amnesty promotion for Retail Pro users with expired Memberships.

The Amnesty Promotion directly benefits Retail Pro users who have allowed their Retail Pro Membership to lapse. Normally, there is a sizeable fee to reinstate Membership, but during this Amnesty Promotion, the reinstatement fee has been waived with the purchase of 3 years of Membership. Now is the time to take advantage of this great offer if you are considering an upgrade to a newer version of Retail Pro or if you simply want to get back on the Membership Program. This offer ends December 26, 2005.

For more information on the Amnesty Promotion, please contact one of our Inside Sales Representatives, Kathe Burke or Stacey Ryan, at (800) 305-0461.

Retail Pro Membership Benefits:

·Free software enhancements and upgrades to insure your systems stay updated with each new generation of Retail Pro software. All version updates are shipped regular mail or UPS Ground at no additional charge.

·No-cost product E-manual updates and special manual supplements to fully document new features

·Receive hot-fix CD's when needed at no charge. Hot-fix CD's are shipped regular mail or UPS Ground at no additional charge.

·Access to a "members only" web site with on-line documentation, E-newsletter, product information and customer forums.

·Developer news briefings on planned product enhancements, with the opportunity to provide your input and suggestions directly to our engineering team.

·Product bulletins with tips and information about maximizing the features of Retail Pro to better manage your business and increase your ROI.

Important Notice for Version 6 Customers

Effective January 1, 2006, Advanced Retail Management Systems (ARMS) will only be offering limited support for Retail Pro Version 6.

ARMS will continue to offer Gold, Silver and Bronze support plans for Version 6, but in the limited capacity as defined in the Version 6 Limited Support Chart recently mailed to you.

We strongly recommend that you update to Retail Pro Version 8 or consider moving to Microsoft Business Solutions Retail Management System (RMS) for single and multi-store businesses.

For more information on the Version 6 Limited Support program, or information on updating to Version 8 or RMS, please contact one of our Inside Sales Representatives, Kathe Burke or Stacey Ryan, at (800) 305-0461. Ask about our special pricing on Membership renewal.

Thank you for your continued business over the years. We look forward to working together in the years to come.

Referral Program

We have streamlined our business referral program to make it attractive to you and show our thanks for sending us new business. Here are the Details of the new plan.

Advanced Retail Management Systems Lead Referral Plan:
Receive $500 credit on account or 4 Client Service hours every time you refer a new customer that purchases Retail Pro®. 

Retail Pro® has grown to be the premier Inventory Control/POS software for small to mid-tier retailers.  Whether you know a single store or a 100 store chain, Retail Pro® provides the technology for retailers to excel.

Call your sales person today or click here  below to refer another retailer and start earning valuable rewards!