Being a successful small business owner means knowing your customers. But the more successful you are and the faster you grow, the harder it is to keep track.
To win them over, you need to understand who they are, what exactly they want, and how they prefer to get it.
Fortunately, modern point of sale (POS) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems make it easy to provide a personalized customer experience every time and on every sales channel you use.
In this article, we’ll cover what those systems are, why they’re essential for staying competitive, and point you to some top providers for cell phone stores.
Let’s dive in.
POS and CRM systems are must-haves for any small business. These tools help consolidate your processes, inventory, and customer information into one place, making it easier to track devices, repairs, and interactions.
Let’s explore each of these systems in more detail.
You might think of a POS system simply as a cash register or a card reader to process payments, but it’s actually so much more. A POS system is a critical tool that touches almost every aspect of your small business.
Along with processing all sales transactions in your mobile phone store, your POS system is responsible for:
Additionally, cell phone retail and repair POS systems may have integrated tools for repair management, used equipment sales, leasing agreements, and other industry-specific features.
CRM software manages your business’ relationships with your customers. It stores key information about your shoppers like their names, contact information, repair history, carrier information, and purchase history — giving you a quick way to pull up detailed customer information from anywhere.
In addition to maintaining your customer records, CRM systems give you a way to connect with your customers and increase their lifetime value to your business through personalized offers and messages.
For instance, you can segment your customers by device type or generation to send out relevant offers on new accessory releases or upgrade offers.
Many CRM and POS systems also include customer loyalty programs so you can offer rewards for repeat purchases, discounts, extended warranties, and other perks to boost your sales and earn repeat business.
Related Read: How To Attract New Customers to Your Phone Repair Business
POS and CRM systems are both crucial to the success of your cell phone store by improving the customer experience and keeping things running smoothly — but using separate systems for each can do just the opposite.
Implementing separate POS and CRM systems means you’ll be bouncing back and forth when looking into different aspects of the store. There are two main problems here: Managing these separate systems requires tedious manual effort and wastes time, and paying for two services can be costly.
Instead, we recommend choosing a fully integrated POS and CRM solution. That way, all of your POS and CRM features are housed within one software. This approach saves you time and makes it easy to take full advantage of everything your POS and CRM have to offer.
To make our point even clearer, here’s an example.
Say you have a customer who’d like to take advantage of your customer loyalty program to get a discounted screen repair for their phone.
If your POS and CRM systems are separate, you have to log on to one system to verify the customers’ information, see what model of phone they have, and bounce over to the other system to see if the part is in stock and assign the repair. Then, while the repair is being done, you have to manage the repair itself on one system and customer communication on the other.
In other words, there are plenty of opportunities for something to fall through the cracks.
In an integrated system, you can:
Generally, an integrated system will have a higher price tag on paper — but in most cases, you’ll be saving money in the long term by reducing manual effort.
Now that we’ve covered what POS and CRM systems are, let’s explore how to use them to take your mobile phone store to the next level.
One of the main benefits of a CRM is that it stores your customers’ contact information, giving you a way to keep them up to date on your latest promotions and the newest arrivals to your store.
Your POS system should make it easy to use this contact information to send emails and SMS messages to your customers with marketing integrations. You can also segment customers based on how long they’ve been a customer, by loyalty members, device types, and other parameters for more targeted marketing.
With the right POS and CRM, you have an effective way to keep your customers in the loop and encourage them to stop by your mobile phone store for an upgrade, a new accessory, or to take advantage of an exciting sale.
Customer loyalty is imperative for small business success. Each time one of your customers needs a new cell phone, charger, or case for their device, you want them to choose your mobile phone store.
You can also customize your loyalty program based on your unique business model or to give member-exclusive discounts.
POS and CRM software with a built-in customer loyalty program can help you generate repeat business and grow your loyal customer base.
Another important reason why your mobile phone store needs a POS and CRM system is that it gives you a detailed overview of your shoppers’ purchase history, inventory turnover, and other activities.
You can then use the reports and analytics solutions on your POS system to:
These are just a few of the insights you can gain by using the data on your POS system —- and the best part is, the only thing you have to do to generate that data is use the system normally.
An unbiased view of your sales and store performance makes it easier to identify gaps in your processes, spot (and stop) shrink, make smart revamps to your store design, and improve product selection.
Related Read: Using an End-of-Day Report for Your Repair Shop: 7 KPIs To Track
Opening a new cell phone or electronics store? Or maybe you own an existing business and are looking to upgrade your old systems? Everyone has different reasons for implementing new software.
Here are three combined POS and CRM system options to consider.
Based in the U.K., Epos Now is trusted by a variety of retailers, providing comprehensive POS and CRM systems. While not an industry-specific solution, Epos Now provides an affordable and feature-rich option for electronics and cell phone retailers.
With Epos Now, you can:
Pricing
Epos Now starts at $39/month for new customers on a 12-month contract.
RepairDesk is an all-in-one repair shop management software, developed specifically for electronics, jewelry, bicycle, and other types of equipment repair. RepairDesk comes with many useful features, allowing you to:
Pricing
RepairDesk’s popular Growth plan starts at $149/month.
CellSmart POS is our comprehensive POS and CRM solution for electronics retailers, cell phone shops, and cell phone repair. With a suite of features tailored specifically for the electronics and smartphone industries, we provide small businesses with an affordable yet powerful option.
With CellSmart POS, you can:
Pricing
We offer several pricing tiers based on your business’ size, hardware needs, and other considerations. Try out our transparent build and price tool to get a custom quote.
POS and CRM systems are must-have tools to keep your mobile phone store running smoothly and profitably. To fully reap their benefits, your best option is to choose an integrated POS and CRM system that allows you to manage your inventory, process transactions, access sales reports, and manage your customer relationships all in one convenient place.
CellSmart POS was built by a cell phone store owner to specifically meet the needs of cell phone retailers and repair shops.
Schedule a demo, or to learn more about finding the right POS system for your business, check out our free cell phone store POS software buyers' guide.