Streamlining the POS user experience

[thefourthplace]

I find myself having to explain to most of my customers that they can't tap or insert their card until I complete several steps. Here's the current workflow:

Cashier Steps:
- Scan or enter items

- Choose Card payment method

- Flip to customer

Customer:

- Customer has to Continue to confirm amount

- Customer has to respond to Tip screen

- Only then can the customer tap or insert a card

Is there a way to streamline this, aside from turning off tips? Customer should be able to tap card much sooner in the process, even if payment won't be processed until later.

[RubyWalker]

This isn't going to help you (sorry) but the process in our UK store is much more streamlined. It goes:

Cashier Steps:

- Scan or enter items, press Checkout

That's it. As soon as the cashier presses the Checkout button, the Card Reader fires up, the customer waves a phone/watch/contactless card near the device, the payment is done and the receipt printed. No button presses by either cashier or customer.

If I enable Tips on our store, then I get the process you described above (flip to customer, customer confirms amount, customer adds tip etc) - so my guess is the tips-enablement is what takes the customer down the different path. That's probably not unreasonable, given that the actual transaction to be sent to the payment gateway by the device isn't known until the tip amount has been entered.