Customers love the personalised label that many newsagents place on magazines they put away for collection by customers. Beyond the professionalism of the label with the customer name and other valuable details, customers like that in the computer system we can be certain about what they have and have not collected. I like that I can use this to track collections too.
The process of producing the personal label is handled automatically and triggered by the receipt of the invoice from XchangeIT.
We also use the automatically generated text message service where customers are sent a text advising them that their put away is available to be collected.
None of this is new. The labels and txt message serve has been available for many years.
To any reading this blog who think newsagency businesses are old-school, check out how we handle putaways. Most do it in a very cool and smart way.
I was talking to a publisher this week about newsagent putaways and they had no idea that the backend management in a newsagency had become so technically sophisticated, smart and customer-focussed. Indeed, what we do in Australia is world best practice based on what I have see this year overseas in this put away / special order space.
There is an opportunity here for magazine publishers and distributors to leverage newsagency magazine putaways, especially for lower volume / fringe titles. we can offer a service enabling us to sell a single copy of an issue of a magazine without having to dedicate a pocket. The put away service we offer could be more useful than a mailed subscription cost.
Our professionalism, as best indicated by the label on a magazine, presents us as professionals. Customer feedback encourages me that we can grow this part of our newsagency business.
I like the idea. To be able to putaway and text the customer is very efficient and professional. This is a growth area for many newsagents and would give us a point of difference. Unfortunately my system does not allow it as i have a retail only business. The add on cost for the module is difficult to justify as we do not carry credit customers.
We would really like to further our magazine putaway system. I see the option for sms customer on arrival of magazine option however its greyed out and unusable.
Is this an upgrade that is required or is this as Wally says a credit customer utility?
No upgraded needs. It’s been there for years.
We have been doing this for years and our customers love it. These are guaranteed sales and also we can target these customers with products that match what they get putaside with a potential for spin off sales.
Get it done, very easy on any system. i am not on Tower but on Access Pos
We’ve used text the message feature for years now. For only a small cost it dramatically helps increase the rate at which people pickup their putaways. It also assists with retaining putaway customers – it regular communication between the business and the customer that can’t be economically achieved with phone calls.