Are your prices fair?
This week we have a guest post from Barry Harvey of the Colston Office Centre, talking about pricing and your customer and prospect perceptions.
There are numerous factors involved in setting prices: costs (obviously), value, supply and demand, competition, scarcity, branding, etc.
And whichever method you use to determine the final price – cost plus, marginal, market-based, value – what you end up with speaks volumes about your business.
Not just in terms of how profitable you are, or where you stand in relation to your competition, but how you are perceived by your customers and prospects. Are you seen as cheap, average, expensive, fair? And is this perception what you were aiming for? Does your audience think about price at all in relation to your product?
Removing price from the equation
It is a sound business goal to take price out of the equation in terms of the customer buying decision, but for most of us, this goal seems a long way off.
In the current economic climate, this seems especially difficult and it leaves us having to worry about price more than we want to. What will our customers pay? Should we start higher so that they can negotiate us down? How can we position ourselves – what value can we add – to reduce the importance of the price?
When it doesn’t work
It seems important to me at the moment for two reasons.
The first is an experience I had last weekend. We went to see Top Hat at the Bristol Hippodrome. We love the theatre and happily pay ticket prices because we feel they represent good value.
When going to see a play/show/concert, as a customer you have to cover the cost of putting on the show as well as the cost of the existence of the venue to facilitate the production. Top Hat was brilliant and we had no qualms about the ticket price.
Don’t get me wrong, it is an expensive hobby and we cannot afford to go as often as we would like, but we feel the exchange is fair.
However, it was a different story when we went to the bar. The receipt is sitting on the desk as I write this and just looking at it gets me agitated. All the prices were top end, but the piece de resistance was a medium glass of house wine (175ml, so four to a bottle) at £5.70.
Now the Hippodrome is a wonderful place and requires a great deal of upkeep and I know I am going to pay a lot for a drink or bag of sweets. This price, however, just seemed wrong: disproportionate and not relative to the actual product – the wine was not that great.
Value for money
Given that I have paid £80.00 for a bottle of wine in a restaurant before now (admittedly, not often), I don’t think I can be called stingy. But on those occasions it was for a reason – a celebration, I valued the wine I had chosen and the taste and experience matched the expectation.
The purchase at the Hippodrome was a shock, however, and it resonated. The upshot is that we will never buy drinks at the Hippodrome again. In future we will probably bring our own water and sweets (and maybe a hip flask).
It doesn’t really matter whether or not the Hippodrome can justify the price. What matters is that it doesn’t feel right to me.
The damage done
So what is the hippodrome’s strategy? Are they banking on a captive audience? Is that the price they need to charge in order to maintain the facility of serving drinks?
One bar was closed – I have no idea what the import of this is.
On the stairs going in (and in the snack bar behind the stalls) they were selling small glasses of wine for £4.00, in plastic, pre-packaged with peel-off lids. I did not need to think twice – I instinctively rejected this.
Are these things related? Will they phase out the bars completely to save wages? Are they trying to drive sales to the plastic? Have they asked their customers about any of this?
What are we supposed to think and how will it affect their reputation? We surely can’t be the only ones put off – there were certainly less people at the bars than I would normally expect.
What about my business?
The second reason is that, as far as my business is concerned, I am working in a price sensitive sector with a lot of competition. Our clients and prospects are, rightly, concerned about every cost and the value they get from any cost they do commit to.
My job is to show them that what I offer has value enough that price is not seen as a barrier. Of course a classic marketing conundrum and I am sure I am not the only business struggling with it at the moment.
Are our prices fair?
Well, naturally I think so. But is ‘fair’ enough? Even if a prospect accepts your price as fair, a competitors’ price that undercuts yours, for the same service, is even fairer.
Whatever the scenario, I always try to take prospects with me on the journey of what we provide and what we charge, what relationship we want with our clients and what we are trying to achieve for our business and for theirs.
They can choose to buy into that or not. If not, maybe I haven’t explained it very well, or we are not a good fit or they got a better offer. I can only hope, however, that they at least think we are fair.
What about you? Are your prices fair? How do you ensure your customers think so?
Resolve mistakes and staff issues at the touch of a button
CCTV is mostly thought of in terms of security, but what if it could increase your profits as well?
Arguably, it does this already. If it is acting as a deterrent to crime, then it is saving you time and money. But what more can it do?
Resolving errors
If your CCTV system is connected to your Electronic Point of Sale system, you can pinpoint and replay the exact moment any given transaction was made. If customers argue they have been given the wrong change, if staff have made an error, all these issues can be resolved, quickly and easily.
Along with the video replay of the transaction, the details of the order also appear on screen, giving you minute by minute, accurate information. As well as by time, you can also search the digital recording by product, e.g. Latte or Steak.
Reducing crime
This level of detail, coupled with the ease of access, means you can check for staff problems. Have two lattes been ordered and paid for, but three served? If there are too many ‘no sale’ items on the cash registers, these can be checked on video to ensure there was no foul play.
This information can even be accessed remotely, via remote computer or Smart Phone, which means you can react instantly to problems, wherever you are.
Night Vision
The CCTV system offers wide angle dome units with zoom lens and automated night vision – this can activate when the light goes below a certain level.
Similarly, the cameras can be permanently on, or activated by motion sensor, with remote back up and easy download to disk or memory stick
Increase profits
With all this control, reducing errors and crime, you will gain valuable time during your day and make sure the money in the till at the end of each shift is what should be there.
It can also help to train staff and encourage correct behaviour in any that may be tempted to cheat the system. A proper CCTV system could not only pay for itself, but add extra efficiencies to your business to give you an even greater return.
All in all, a great boost to your bottom line and a lot less worry.
If you would like more information about CCTV and EPoS, please contact us straight away – and start improving your business today!
Want to know who’s calling you before they say a word?
Time. It always seems to be against us, doesn’t it?
How would you like to get some of it back?
Well, a caller ID device may not sound like it can help much. I mean, it can show you who is calling (this much you may have deduced from the name), give you time, date and duration, whether and after how long it was answered and what the caller said. But so what?
Well, this in itself will save you time: you will recognise the caller quickly (even greet them by name) and you can check the recorded call for any missing information, rather than the embarrassment and time required to call back and confirm details.
However, there is more. What if you wedded the device to your Customer Relationship Management software? Just think of the benefits:
- Orders – your screen will show you not just who is calling, but give you their order history, which speeds up the order and delivery process
- Sales – automatically prompt relevant up-sales and promotional opportunities, which is also more efficient
- Staff – monitors staff performance to help them speed up response and service times
- Call logging – simple and fast retrieval of information
So, not only are you looking after your customers better and pushing sales further, but this one simple device can help you claw back some of that precious time.
If you would like to know who is calling you before they say a word, call Phil Stackhouse at Zenith EPoS now for more information: 0117 963 2200.
Who is in control of your stock?
Is it you?
Do you have time to do an audit every day? Checking levels, out of date stock and compiling orders takes time.
Is it your customers?
Your customers can’t tell you too far in advance what they are going to need, just so that you can ensure you have the right supplies. The also rarely order the exact same item(s) each and every time.
Hand-Held EPoS: Why not let your customers make their own orders?
With hand-held epos there is no making your customer come to you, there are no hand-written scribbles on waiters’ pads to decipher and there is no confusion about what is and is not available.
Your staff can go straight to the customer with their waiters pad with your whole epos system at their fingertips.
The best service for your customer
Your customer orders in comfort and confidence – they can specify exactly what they want and how they want it without worrying about anything being lost in translation.
The waiter gets instant feedback on any additions, deletions or changes to the menu. They also have specials listed for easy recital, plus reminders for up-selling and promotions.
And your customer gets served quicker – your waiters do not need to leave the floor, enabling orders to be taken more quickly and service to remain uninterrupted. The order also gets to the kitchen or sommelier/bar faster and more legible, which speeds up service further.
If you can’t quite account for absolutely every eventuality in your programming, there is even a writing facility to take special requirements. Having talked earlier about legibility, here we are adding in a hand-written element. However, it is only for exceptions and may prove invaluable from time to time.
So, for a personal, speedy and more accurate service, why not have a look at a waiters pad? While you are not literally handing your customer the pad, you are giving a highly attentive and personal service that couldn’t be better even if your customers were doing it themselves.
Find out more about hand-held options here.
How loyal are your customers and can EPoS software help?
If you have a retail, food or hotel business and have, or are thinking about, electronic point of sale systems, you might be interested in using the software to improve your customer loyalty.
You know your EPoS system can tell you how often your customers visit, how long they stay, what they buy and how much they spend.
And you probably already have tactics in place to get them to spend more while they are with you or to try different products from their norm, so how good would it be to get them to come back more often?
We come across loyalty promotions all the time, and the essence of these promotions is to keep you spending with that same company. Well, its’ very simple to create your own version.
- free item after so many qualifying purchases, like tenth latte free
- discount on next spend, like free wine against next meal
- extra value, like reminder and offer on birthday, valentine’s, etc
You can target new customers (to entice them to return) and existing customers (to get them coming back more often). The key to success is being clear about your objectives and gathering as much information about your customers as possible.
The transactional analysis your EPoS system gives you is important, but all your communications should build on this knowledge, asking your clientele for more information all the time enabling you to better understand them and what motivates them and giving them good reason to keep coming back to you..
When you marry your objectives with what your customers want, you have the makings of a very successful promotion. And your EPoS software can help you do this.
So, how loyal are your customers? The answer is, they are as loyal as you want them to be. For more information, visit our website.
EPoS Cash Registers – Quicker than the human hand?
Well it is an electronic machine, so it can process information faster than we can. However, we cannot hard-wire to our brains, so our hands are still required to manipulate the interface. That said, an automatic system will enable you to input far more information, more accurately than you could by hand and delivery it to other departments far quicker than, say, a waiter delivering an order from his three part pad. Read More [...]
Would like to know exactly what your customers are going to spend and when?
It is, of course, what every business would like and most would regard as impossible. However, with a good electronic point of sale system, you can do just that. If you haven’t got EPoS, or if you have but are not exploiting its’ full potential, lets have a look at what you could be achieving. Read More [...]
How would you like to order the exact stock you will need for each sale?
Financial control is one of the hardest things to get right in business, but with modern software and integration, your EPoS system can give you greater control saving you time and money. Read More [...]
EPoS software integration – what does that mean for your business?
Full integration of your electronic point of sale system with your accounts, stock and logistics software can resolve many headaches for your business: reducing overheads, increasing productivity and tighter control over stock and profitability. Read More [...]