For many companies, change is difficult. After years of experience, we know that changing your garden center point-of-sale system can be stressful, disruptive and challenging. But you are motivated by promises of operational efficiency, improved customer experience, better inventory management — all those things that drove you to consider changing your system in the first place. The end game makes the discomfort of change worthwhile.
I have worked in big corporations for much of my career and the one certain and constant condition of that world was CHANGE. Years ago, I worked for the history-making phone company that broke up the AT&T monopoly, MCI. Many of my colleagues would joke that MCI stood for “Many Changes Immanent.” In that company, we survived a year-long attempted (and eventually failed) merger with British Telecom, a second acquisition/merger with Worldcom, constant regulatory changes, and technology innovations that made what was previously impossible, ordinary. But what you learn from enduring, managing and surviving change of that magnitude, is that change brings opportunities.
See Change as Opportunity
One of my newest garden center customers is implementing our Rapid Garden POS system, and they decided that this was the perfect opportunity to introduce some new innovations into their operations. For example, they decided to enable driver’s license scanning capabilities to simplify adding customer contact information into their POS system. They have a proprietary database of plant information and care instructions, and we are integrating that database into their POS solution. They will begin managing green inventory within their POS where previously these items were not tracked within their system. The point here is not so much the specific things this customer is choosing to do, but that they recognized that their POS upgrade presented an opportunity to consider and introduce new innovations to their business.
Beyond Primary Drivers
Most new system implementations are driven by clear motivators — “I need a system that can do x.” “I want to lower my system maintenance costs.” “I need the flexibility to change my credit card processor.” “I need a system that will support my eCommerce business as well as my in-store business.” I am not suggesting that you lose sight of whatever your primary motivator is. However, I am encouraging that you consider other business pains and evaluate whether the POS system implementation provides an opportunity to address them. Thinking beyond the primary drivers for a new system gives you a chance to accelerate and magnify your return on investment, and to make operation changes at a time when your entire organization is in a “change” mindset.
If your POS solution provider understands the garden retail business, and has a depth of experience working with garden centers and nurseries, they can be a great asset to help you consider areas for innovation. At Rapid Garden POS, we enjoy helping a customer or prospect capitalize on the opportunities presented by change. We bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to counsel and guide you through your implementation. If we can help you utilize even 10% more of our system’s capabilities and in doing so, realize some measurable success, then that would be an achievement worth the undertaking. It would make enduring the challenges of change even more worthwhile.
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