Nowadays retailers have a plethora of tools and technology at their disposal. These resources allow salespeople to serve their customer in a more efficient manner. Perhaps many of you can remember when every sale or transaction had to be recorded manually. A customer database consisted of names and phone numbers jotted down by hand in a book or binder.

When I was at Nordstrom, one of the high points of my career was when the company implemented a new POS system. Before that, we had to keep customer's information in a little blue binder and whenever a customer paid with a credit card, we had to swipe their card using those old-fashioned mechanisms that used carbon paper to embed the numbers onto a sales slip. Remember those?

We don't give it much thought, but point of sale software is important in the process of serving customers. As I stated earlier, these tools provide a way to help customers quickly while capturing a customer's information and/or credit card securely. A point of sale system also helps keep track of inventory so a retailer knows which products need to be restocked. If a customer is looking for a particular item, a salesperson could easily check the system to see if it's available. We often take these things for granted, but if you remember the days when everything had to be processed manually, you understand the importance of having the right tools and technology!

One company you may want to check out if you're in the process of acquiring point of sale software is RunIt. This company offers great solutions for retailers - especially for businesses that are always on the go. You get internet-based access to your business and can conduct transactions virtually anywhere.

What are your thoughts on using technology to better serve customers?

Photo Credit: The Consumerist