Technology can help your business be more efficient by streamlining and simplifying complex tasks. At their best, these tools can reduce the time and effort that you and your staff spend on repetitive, manual tasks, which can free you up to focus on growing your business and deepening your relationships with customers. Whether your business is just getting started or has been up and running for years, evaluating and optimizing your tech stack and tools is essential to your continued success.
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Point-of-Sale (POS) hardware is a critical piece of technology for your small business. If you’re still running your payments through an old-school credit card terminal, you’re missing out on all the advancements made in the smart terminal space. In this article, we’ll dive into everything you need to know about the benefits of smart terminals and why you shouldn’t wait any longer to upgrade.
What makes a payment terminal “smart”?
An old school credit card terminal can accept payments, but that’s about it. Smart terminals, on the other hand, can efficiently accept different types of payments, integrate with other areas of your business, and support customer-friendly initiatives like discounts and loyalty programs. This type of modern technology can impress your customers and reduce manual and error-prone tasks that eat up your valuable time.
What you gain by upgrading to a smart terminal
While it’s easy to get focused on the burden of upgrading a piece of technology like your POS terminal, there are many benefits to making this switch.
Impress your customers
Smart terminals are becoming more and more common in brick-and-mortar shops, bars and restaurants, and even at events or pop-up shops, which means that your customers’ expectations for their checkout experience are responding in kind. They want to make payments quickly and securely and have a keen eye for well-designed products and experiences. By upgrading to a smart terminal, you’ll rise to meet these new expectations and can impress your customers with a fast, seamless, and delightful checkout experience.
Smart devices make checkout more efficient
We know that speed is important for online sales, but it’s equally worth considering for in-person sales. Smart terminals make it easier for you to speed up the checkout experience, since you can upload your product catalog in advance to make checkout happen in just a few taps. Compare this to old terminals, which need your staff to carefully enter the exact payment amount — a process that is slow and error-prone — and it’s easy to see how smart devices can improve the shopping experience and positively impact your business’ bottom line.
Connect with existing devices
Smart terminals can fit neatly into your business by connecting to all the other devices that you rely on. With most Smart Terminals you can easily print receipts, operate a cash drawer, scan barcodes, and even send orders to a kitchen printer. By eliminating the manual tasks and effort that consume so much of your checkout experience today, you’ll leave your staff with more time to interact with customers and build strong relationships with them.
Support the growth of your business
If you’re currently operating in-person but want to explore growing an online presence as well, a smart terminal can be a crucial asset for your business’ growth. Many smart terminals let you keep track of things like online and offline sales, inventory, and reporting from a single device, so you’ve always got a handle on how things are going across your entire business. Additionally, smart POS systems can support customer-friendly initiatives like buying online and picking up in store, which is popular among busy shoppers today.
Integrate with all the tools and technology you need
There are so many apps and tools that you can leverage to make your store run in a more efficient and customer-friendly way. Smart terminals can connect with many third-party apps, such as your loyalty program, gift card solution, and employee scheduling platform, to make these tools more accessible to your customers and your staff.
Other considerations
While smart point of sale systems offer many benefits, they’re not all created equal. Make sure to carefully evaluate your options to find a POS that offers 24/7 support, low processing fees, and payouts that work for your business. Take a look at the setup process, too, to make sure that you can get up and running out-of-the-box. These benefits can reduce the effort of switching and make sure you’re supported throughout your journey with this new piece of technology.
Upgrade to GoDaddy Smart Terminal
When you’re ready to upgrade your old, outdated POS system to something smarter, the GoDaddy Smart Terminal is a great choice that balances all the features and conveniences you need at an affordable rate.
Sleek, powerful, all-in-one devices
Unlike bulky, clunky card terminals that show their age, Smart Terminal and Smart Terminal Flex offer sleek, modern devices that can do it all — scan product barcodes; accept credit cards, debit cards, or contactless payments in an intuitive way; and print paper receipts. With the dual screen design of the Smart Terminal, you can ring up customers effortlessly without a lot of awkward passing or turning.
A mobile point of sale (mpos) is a wireless, portable device that makes it convenient to accept payments on the go
Keep more of what you earn
Smart Terminal supports your business by helping you keep more of your money. GoDaddy is proud to offer as the lowest fees in the industry. There are no long-term contracts, no setup or other hidden fees, and no long waits for your payouts — you can get your money deposited into your bank account as soon as the next business day.
Seamlessly connect online and in-person sales
For businesses that operate in-person and online, you’ll love how easy Smart Terminal makes it to keep track of everything, automatically. Our online store solutions integrate seamlessly with Smart Terminal, so you can manage your sales and inventory in one place and easily support customer-friendly experiences like buying online and picking up in store.
Increase tips
For businesses operating in restaurants or other service industries, Smart Terminal can increase your tips by giving your customers the best possible checkout experience, and an easy way to sign and tip with the customer facing screen. When the customer’s experience ends on a straightforward, fast, and delightful note, they’ll feel happier and more inclined to leave a generous tip.
Connects with all your important business accessories and apps
For some businesses, the Smart Terminal on its own will be enough, since it includes a barcode scanner, card swipe, and receipt printer — but it can do so much more.
Smart Terminal can easily connect to other printers, cash drawers, additional barcode scanners, or an electronic cash register (ECR) system. It also supports additional apps to help you manage employees, support scheduling, run customer loyalty programs, and more.
Expanded customer receipt options
Help your customers keep track of their expenses in a way that’s convenient for them by offering printed, texted, or emailed sales receipts. It’s all possible with Smart Terminal, which includes a built-in receipt printer and makes it easy to send customer sales receipts through other channels, too.
GoDaddy Smart Terminal: POS done right
The technology behind point-of-sale systems has changed and improved so much, and hanging on to your old credit card terminal means you, your staff, and your customers are missing out on all the benefits that smart terminals have to offer.
Switching to a smart terminal is a great way to improve your customer service and experience, reduce manual effort by your staff, and get a better, more holistic picture of your business health. By switching to GoDaddy’s Smart Terminal, you’ll enjoy low costs, intuitive customer experience, all the built-in features you need, and ongoing support that your business deserves.
"We are extremely happy we switched to GoDaddy. The terminal is amazing and intuitive, highly customizable, and the reports are easy to access from anywhere."
- Dr. James Bogash
lifecarechiropractic.com
