We have been struggling to figure out the best way to set up Shopify POS, in which makes in it easy and efficient for both the guest and the staff. Right now the steps are awkward and time consuming. It is frustrating for both the customer and the staff.
Our tea business has a brick and mortar plus a robust ecommerce channel. At the tea house we have a large retail footprint and a section for tea service. Our staff is tipped both by cash and credit card especially if the customer has availed of our tea service.
Our current step includes:
1. Ring up the items.
2. Click to the payment type page
3. Click on credit card payment, or cash depending on what the customer chooses (which of course we have to first ask)
4. Hit the drop down arrow to so that all the items purchased are revealed
5. Flip the screen to face the customer.
6. Ask them to review the purchase which can involve scrolling if they have bought more than 6 items (this is clunky and goes against touch-less checkout which customers and staff are looking for these days).
7. Also ask them to hit the Continue button
Here is where it gets SUPER AWKWARD. Most customers do not reach for the Continue button. They insert or tap their card multiple times. The staff once again once again has to remind them to hit the continue button. That is because the next step is for Tipping.
8. When a customer has only bought retail without any tea service we feel awkward showing them the tipping page. We reach out to the screen and skip the step for them asking them politely to ignore it.
9. We have used Customer View in the past. Other than disconnecting constantly, the Customer View added even more to the confusion of the customers. They were required to look at it for the items rung up and then move to the main screen for tipping and then of course locate and reach out to the card reader in the jumble of a check out counter. The fact that Customer View does not integrate tipping feature make it pointless for our business.
For a better checkout experience we have looked into deploying other more robust services like Clover or Square (their POS solutions seem very elegant and easy for the customer to follow). But we have resisted it because the inventory management challenge while using two different services.
Does anyone here including Shopify have suggestions for us to improve our current the set up? We would highly appreciate your input. Thank for your time.
