Update on self checkout in the newsagency
Use of the self checkout POS software terminal we have setup in one of my newsagencies continues to grow. Without any encouragement shoppers are happily scanning purchases and paying.
The mix of products continues to surprise: cards, gifts and stationery with the odd magazine or newspaper. Prior to installation we expected it to be used primarily for papers and magazines. We also expected it to be for single purchase transactions. Most transactions are two items and even more. Average transaction value is $25+.
We installed the self checkout terminal as a trial for my POS software company, to play with new tech. It was not installed for a newsagency specific reason.
My interest was to see if shoppers in an independent local retail business might use self checkout. Sure, we are wired to use these types of terminals in the major supermarkets. It’s rare in independent local retail businesses. So for our trial we needed to install the tech without fanfare or encouragement, to see how shoppers behave.
The $4,400 hardware and software solution is a lower cost than what the major supermarkets install. It’s a smaller footprint too.
I know from research that shoppers are turned off by self checkout POS software that is hard to navigate. We have made sure this is simple. The in-store experience has shown this to be the case. People of all ages are engaging. There is no tech barrier like we wondered there might have been.
A factor I had not considered that much is that there are shoppers who like a more private transaction of business. Self checkout works for them.
The supermarkets have crashed through with this tech and educated people to embrace it. This certainly does make it easier for local small business retailers to embrace if it is right for their own businesses. There is less pushback than would have been the case five years ago.
Tower Systems released its self checkout solution last year. It was developed for other retailers. Now, based on the experience in my own newsagency, we will keep the terminal. It is playing a good role in the business.
We installed a self checkout kiosk in our newsagency recently
We installed a self checkout kiosk from my POS software company in our newsagency on Glenferrie Road Malvern recently. My understanding this is a first in the local indie Aussie newsagency channel – while WH Smith have their self checkout terminals they are far removed here from a local Aussie newsagency. It’s going well. Customers are using it.
While we developed this POS software self checkout solution for other retail channels, I wanted us to test first in one of our shops, to allow us to see interaction first-hand and to tune the software and hardware as a result.
Here’s a short video about it:
Australia’s big two supermarkets have damaged the reputation of self-checkouts with cameras watching shoppers and less shop floor staff because of more self-checkout positions, they have given self-checkouts a bad name.
There are situations where self-checkouts can be useful for customers and for the business, and where then can be setup without the nasties the big two supermarket chains have used.
I know of retailers who like the idea of a self checkout located far from the counter, closer to where customers load their car or van. A small format self checkout kiosk can be the answer.
I also know of retailers who have shopper traffic peaks for brief periods and where a self checkout terminal could be a cost effective way of smoothing shopper flow.
Tower developed a self checkout solution for our POS software, found awesome small-footprint hardware and installed it at malvern as a trial.
What we have discovered so far is that people are familiar with self-checkout, there is no hesitancy. An unexpected use is by people preferring a discrete purchase.
There have been some questions, like whether there is a camera attached. People like that there is no camera.
One older (80s I am guessing) customer said to me they were surprised to see self checkout in a newsagency and then went on to say they love the innovation, shows you’re keeping with the times he said as he headed out the door.
While I don’t see self checkout becoming a big thing in newsagencies, nor in many smaller independent shops for that matter, there are situations where it is an ideal solution. This is why we invested money in the new software. The development project had to overcome some tech hurdles which resulted in knowledge that will help in other areas of the software.
Software innovation is important in all retail channels given the rapid changes we are seeing in how, when and where people shop as software innovations facilitates retail innovation. What could be sold from here could be quite different to what people pass across the counter to purchase.
This is, in part, what the trial install is about – learning what could be.
While I mention this is a first. If I’m wrong, please comment on this post so the record can be corrected.
Putaways facilities in smart newsagency software offer newsagents a differentiating customer service experience
In your newsagency software you likely have facilities you can leverage to offer a point of difference. Whereas decades ago, cutaways facilities were essential and in use in almost all newsagencies, today their use is much less.
In the competitive world of retail, offering a differentiating customer service experience is crucial for success. Smart newsagency software with putaways facilities can be your secret weapon in this battle.
Putaways allow newsagents to set aside specific stock for individual customers. This could be anything from the latest copy of their favourite magazine to a particular brand of cigarettes they only buy from you.
A customer registers for a product to put away, put aside, kept for them. When the product arrives, a label with the customer details is printed and placed on the product. The product is put aside in a safe place. The customer can be notified by email or text.
Putaways offer a range of benefits that contribute to an exceptional customer service experience:
- Convenience: Customers know their favourite items will always be waiting for them, saving them time and frustration.
- Loyalty: This personalised touch shows customers you value their business and encourages them to keep coming back.
- Increased Sales: By highlighting upcoming releases or special orders, putaways can prompt customers to purchase additional items.
- Reduced Shrinkage: Knowing exactly how much stock is allocated for putaways helps with stock control and minimises shrinkage.
While putaways are a powerful tool, managing them manually as newsagents did in the 1970s and before is time-consuming and error-prone. This is where smart newsagency software comes in. Newsagency software:
- Electronically record customer preferences: Store customer information as to items they would like put aside.
- Set up automatic putaways: Automate the process of reserving stock for specific customers, saving you valuable time.
- Generate notifications: Alert customers when their put aside items are ready for collection, further enhancing the customer experience.
I mention it today as there are opportunities outside the traditional use of putaways – magazines, newspapers and artworks – where newsagents can use this part of the software they have to satisfy customers buying additional releases or issues of something that has a life beyond a single release. The software solution offers structure and consistency that other retailers in their software would be challenged to match.
Of course, I have a vested interest in that I own Tower Systems, the newsagency software company that I am grateful serves now more than 1,850 newsagents with newsagency software in Australia.
Appointment retail is retail where you can only shop when the owner decides, and it is not what shoppers want
Before streaming services launched, the TV networks decided when we could watch something.
Before podcasts, radio stations decided when we could listen to something.
Before the internet, newspaper publishers decided when we could read news stories.
People love being able to watch, listen and read when they want. They love not having to consume to a time schedule set by a business.
Choice is important.
Appointment retail is retail where you can only shop when the owner decides.
If the shop does not have a website, you can only shop when the doors are open, you miss selling to people who prefer to choose when they do this.
In this video I share some thoughts about appointment retail and provide context for its relevance today.
I first shared the video around a week back. I am re-upping it today with additional context.
Appointment retail matters to newsagents since our channel is one of the slowest to adopt online. This sees many newsagents missing sales. I know because I have websites that have sold things to be delivered a few streets away from newsagents with the same products.
People want to shop when they want to shop and while your shop may feel busy, if you are not online you have no idea what you are missing.
There are other benefits of online:
- You are more likely to know exactly what the shopper is looking for.
- You can easily reach out to past shoppers based on what they purchased.
- You have an alternative pricing outlet.
- You can more easily win sales from a browser.
- Sales are not limited to shop floor manpower.
What has happened with consuming entertainment is happening in retail.
If you say there are not enough shoppers in town, online could be helpful.
If you say this or that won’t sell here, you’re restricting your shopper reach.
If your business o=is not making what it needs for the rent or labour costs, being online can spread the load of carrying those costs.
If people around you are shopping online, which they are, being online can balance that.
Appointment retail is about you being where and when shoppers may purchase what you sell, without deciding when they can do this. It is about you being more flexible, available and ready.
My goal with this short video about appointment retail was to provide a context that gets people thinking about being online. What you do in your business that is up to you.
Talking newsagency software
Here’s a 15 minute video I shot a few days ago with a colleague at Tower Systems, someone who manages new customer newsagency software installations, helping many newsagents switch. We talk through innovation that benefits newsagents.
Owning and running a newsagency helps Tower Systems make better software for newsagents
I’m the owner of newsagency software company Tower Systems and back in 1996 I bought a newsagency business in Melbourne to gain first-hand experience running a newsagency. We think that has played a key role in our software being used in more newsagencies in Australia than all other software companies combined.
We still own and run newsagency businesses today. This video, shot Jan 13, 2024, features magazines at our newsXpress Malvern shop. It’s a magazine specialist business.
Magazines require unique management tools in software and our Tower Systems newsagency software has those. In addition to linking with magazine distributors, our newsagency management software plays a key role in helping newsagents to transition their businesses to be less reliant on print products.
Using our software, newsagency can also easily sell online through our Shopping, Big Commerce, WooCommerce and Magento integrations. Plus, we like to 3 awesome roster tools and a ton of payments platforms including Tyro, Linkly Cloud and Linkly. Oh, and we link direct to Xero, of course.
Owning and running a newsagency gives is a place where we can play with our software, experiment, innovate. It is part of our research and development experience as we test to see what is possible for newsagency businesses and other retailers. With AI and software more broadly playing a bigger role in evolving retail, being a software company with our own shops is an advantage we are grateful to have.
Newsagents benefit from the Tower Systems newsagency software in plenty of ways, including:
1. Exclusive smart greeting card reporting Embedded in our software is category / segment level reporting that newsagents are using to grow card sales 25% and more. That’s money in the bank.
2. You can bank on loyalty. Our fresh and successful approach to loyalty can help you drive a deeper basket and bring people back sooner.
3. Safe decisions make for a better P&L. From data feeds from suppliers through to Xero, we help you nurture data for the safe decisions.
4. Not every shopper will walk past your door. A seamless connection between your software and a beautiful website can help you sell to people you will never meet. We develop websites for newsagents.
5. Easily accessed personal service. A key reason 4 times more newsagents have chosen Tower than any other software is customer service. We are here for you, with you, every day.
6. Current software. Current technology. Fresh, current design.
Our newsagency software also helps newsagents run businesses that rely less on revenue from lottery product sales, which matters since they are transition more to a direct to consumer model online.
I am grateful for the trust newsagents show in Tower Systems and that this has helped the company to continue to grow and serve newsagents, and to help them navigate change.
Stocktake advice for newsagents
Here is an update to my 2022 post on this topic.
Never pay an outside party to do your stocktake and never do a stocktake outside of your POS software. Outside stocktakers cost more than it would be for you to do it yourself.
The most accurate stocktake result for any retail business is doing it yourself, using your POS software.
Actually, if you properly use your POS software, it’s unlikely you will need to do a full stocktake on or around June 30. But in case you do …
This time last year, I got together with one of the stocktake experts at Tower Systems to discuss this and answer common stocktake questions we are asked.
Again …
- Don’t use an external stocktaker.
- Do your stocktake yourself.
- Use your POS software to record, live, m the stock count.
This is the best approach for maintaining accurate stock on hand data and for valuing stock prior to a change of hands of the business.
Industry standard software for newsagents
With 1,750 newsagencies in the Tower Systems newsagency software community, it’s the industry standard software solution. While, for sure, there are a couple of other software programs being used in newsagencies, the scale of the Tower newsagent community sets it apart. I an grateful to newsagents for their trust and support and proud to be part of the channel as a supplier, and as a newsagent.
Here’s a recent demonstration of this $185.00 a month software for newsagents:
And here’s another from a few weeks prior to that video:
And here’s a video promoting newsagents to the broader Aussie community:
And here is another video I made and promoted on YouTube to pitch the Aussie newsagency channel:
Plenty of Aussie newsagencies are thriving and I am grateful that my newsagency software company plays a role in that.
Here’s what the $185 a month provides:
- Access to the latest newsagency software.
- Onboarding support.
- Help desk support.
- Unlimited registers. No extra cost.
- Integrated accounting link.
- Integrated e-commerce links.
- Integrated payments.
- Loyalty programs.
- Advanced reporting.
- Customer marketing.
- Visual analytics dashboard.
- Special customer orders.
- Serial numbers.
- Sell by fractions, sell by weight.
- Integrated LayBys.
- Customer gift vouchers.
- Customised onboarding.
- 24/7 support.
From a newsagency operation specific perspective, though, this newsagency POS software handles to best practice industry standards for areas such as magazine management, magazine returns, newspaper subscriptions, newspaper home delivery, magazine putaways, supplier electronic invoices, customer special orders, Epay integration for selling phone vouchers and other electronic vouchers.
Folks who run traditional newsagencies love the software because it handles the traditional requirements well. Folks who run newsagencies that are different, outside what is usual love the software, too, because of how it serves outside what has been traditional for newsagency businesses.
Tower Systems is a unique newsagency software company in that it owns and runs newsagency businesses. The company bought its first newsagency in February 1996. It has owned newsagencies ever since – using its newsagency software, walking in the shoes of customers, providing all staff with a live testing space and learning more about the software / retail business interface in a way that is valuable for all Tower Systems customers.
Beyond the newsagency software itself, Tower Systems helps newsagents with marketing advice, theft mitigation advice and a range of other management level supports and assistances. We believe in this quintessential Australian retail channel and appreciate opportunities to genuinely help newsagents run better and more successful businesses.
Newsagents: be careful in handling the extra magazine issues published to commemorate the passing of the Queen
The extra magazine issues out tomorrow present challenges for newsagents as you will have 2 issues of one title on sale at the same time.
Tower Systems earlier today published advice to its 1,700+ newsagency software customers. It’s in the Tower knowledge base and may change to suit changed circumstances:
Early Magazine Arrivals – Queen Commemoration Issues
On this page
Woman’s Day, New Idea, and Who will be releasing an early special issue on Thursday September 15th to commemorate the Queen. To avoid any billing issues with the title coming out twice in one week you will need to follow the below advice:
Subagents
You will have to manually change the orders for Woman’s Day, New Idea, and Who on Monday the 19th back to Friday the 16th. This will ensure that you have dockets and a corresponding charge for the Friday deliveries. To do this please follow the steps below.
Go into your subagent orders screen & select generate orders & select the week ending date in which 19/09/2022 is contained. For Most users this will be 25/9/2022.
Click Generate
Go to the subagent orders screen and select the week ending that contains the orders for Monday 19/09/2022
Locate and change each title with the arrival date of 19/09/2022 to the 15/09/2022. You will need to do this for each subagent who receives the title.
This will then move the order back to the week ending in which the 15/09/2022 is contained.
When you then arrive Woman’s Day for 15/09/2022, you will be asked if you want to change the arrival day from Monday to Friday. Select NO.
You will then be asked if you wish to create a non-arrival for the title. Select NO.
These titles will show correctly on your subagent dockets and will correctly bill for that week.
Do NOT generate your subagent orders again after this point for the week ending that contains the 19/09/2022 as this will re-create the orders that you have moved. If you do you will need to go into each subagent grid for the week affected and zero out the Qty for each title
Customer Home Deliveries
For home delivery customers we you will need to
-
Print off the Run List for the 19/09/2022 and the 15/09/2022 on the afternoon of the 14/09/2022.
-
Transpose any home deliveries for the titles affected to the run list for the 15/09/2022. Customer will be billed on Mondays as normal, providing you have NOT entered a Non Arrival.
A new business insights dashboard in newsagency software offers newsagents a bright pathway
The Tower Systems newsagency software has benefited from a major update this week. While the company releases 3 or 4 updates a year, this update is special because of the new business insights platform it delivers.
There is nothing like it in any other newsagency software.
This dashboard pushed business insights, it collects, curates and presents the insights data without being asked to do so.
Whereas plenty of software programs offer reporting facilities for discovering insights, it’s a pull approach. This dashboard is a push, and it focusses on key measurement points that are vitally valuable to local small business retailers, especially retail newsagents.
This new dashboard focuses on 6 critical areas of retail to assist you on making key decisions by representing data in a graphical & easy to understand format.
These 6 metrics are among the most important metrics that Retailer should be focusing on to impact the profitability of their businesses.
- Where Are We Today – Gives you a snapshot of the overall sales & liabilities as it stands Today, this powerful tool can also be expanded to a desired time period.
- What’s Not Selling – This gives you a visual understanding of what is not performing in your business. Deadstock in any business is lost cash. This report gives you the ability to make decisions on this underperforming stock whether it be discounting or other stock reductions strategies to unlock this lost cash.
- What Am I Missing Out on – This give you a list of items that have sold out and potential missed opportunity. The visual sales history will assist in ensuring the right items are restocked to ensure future revenue is not missed out on.
- What Sells With What – This gives you an insight to consumer basket analysis. Through this you will see exactly what stock items sell with other stock items and from this you will be able to leverage upsell opportunities, co-location and promotion opportunities. This also shows the sold alone percentage so you can see item upsell efficiency.
- Is Theft An Issue – This provides a in-depth visual overview of all the retailer audit log records by reason, number of occurrences by time day. This will assist in identifying staff theft/training issues that may need to be addressed within the business.
- When Are We Busiest & Quietest – This is a visual overview detect any quiet or peak times in your business by displaying over the week as well as detailed by hour
The idea of the dashboard was mine. While the Tower newsagency software offers the insights, newsagents needed to know they wanted them, they had to look. Too many did not – for a range of reasons. Hence, the decision to create a push approach. I brought the idea to the tech team and, at the same time, tested the idea with some customers. Soon enough, we were invested.
Built from scratch by the Tower software development team, this is a significant investment of a genuine value-add for small business retailers, like retail newsagents.
Once the new dashboard was created, we showed customers in a Zoom meeting, and then we live-tested it in my own newsagency shops. Wow! The value was immediate. I saw things that I did not realise, opportunities there for the embracing. The visual ways the insights are presented are terrific, accessible.
We then offered it to the close-knit Tower Systems beta community – a community of retailers from different channels who get top test an early release of the software. Their feedback was wow, this is amazing!
Now, this week, it is available for all Tower Systems customers.
The enhancement is available to all Tower Systems customers as part of the regular update enhancement service from the company. The company is also providing complete documentation as well as training.
The what am I missing out on tab has shocked some retailers. They did not realise that they were missing so much revenue by not being consistent with re-ordering. Some retailers choose to not reorder some lines as they want to see change in their shop. That’s a reasonable decision, unless it cost the business out of certain revenue.
The goal here is to underscore business decisions with accurate data. the easier we make that data available to local small business retailers line retail newsagents the greater the value they can derive from the POS software they use, and value today is critical in every area of our retail businesses.
If you’d like to hear more about some of the insights offered in the new insights dashboard, here’s a video from me speaking about it:
Yes, I get that there will be some grinding their gears at what may read as an ad. The thing is, there has not been much genuine innovation for retail newsagents in newsagency software in recent years. There has been some enhancements connecting with The Lott, integrations with BNPL, integrations with more EFTPOS platforms, but not much innovation around newsagency retail management.
This insights dashboard is something I am proud of because it is genuinely innovative, serves the retail newsagent and is available to newsagents for no additional cost. It’s a true value-add, and we don’t see enough of that these days.
Disclosure: I own Tower Systems and am proud that my company serves more than 1,700 newsagents with newsagency software. The company also serves another 1,500 or so retailers in other specialty retail channels. If you think you might be interested in the Tower software, please email sales@towersystems.com.au.
POS software for newsagents
Here’s a 40 minute demonstration of POS software for newsagents from my newsagency software company, Tower Systems. No login ia required, no email or other details are collected. It’s available for anyone to see at YouTube. Scroll down to find out who I am sharing this.
While the newsagency software continues to evolve, this demo from 7 months provides an insight to specialty facilities in this software.
I’m sharing it for a few reasons: of course, to pitch my newsagency software company, to offer an easy way for newsagents to see what newsagency software can do and to underscore how much business has changed. This video, raw as it is, is a key reason for a surge in newsagents installing the software in 2022. Back in the day we would demonstrate in-store, one-on-one. Now, most sales flow from videos like this.
Just as selling software has changed, so has retail. How people shop and when they shop.
This software offers newsagents a range of ways to connect with the evolving shopping experience. As the software more newsagents use than any other, the development investment in the Tower software is more resourced.
In terms of how people shop and when they shop, this software links direct to Shopify, Magento and Woo Commerce. It also links to all the newsXpress national group websites for an easy and fast path to selling online.
Some newsagents are finding linking to Shopify challenging
Not all newsagency software handles connecting to Shopify. And, time that do connect to Shopify do not do it in the same way.
This can leave newsagents frustrated, spending time double handling, missing sales, and giving up on online.
Good newsagency software provides a seamless two-way data flow between the newsagency software and Shopify. Stock details, pricing and images flow out, and sales flow back.
This makes the newsagency software the sole place for managing stock descriptions, pricing and images. It enables you to have an in-store and a different online price if you wish. It enables you to have an online description which is different to the main description.
Now, if this reads like a sales pitch for my Tower Systems newsagency software, it is. But, this post is more than that. I have heard recently of newsagents giving up chasing sales online because the newsagency software they were using did not offer a complete two-way relationship between the software and Shopify. they were wasting time, making mistakes because of double data handling and getting frustrated.
It’s 2022 for goodness sake. Tower Systems has been a partner of Shopify for more than 6 years. Back when we started with them there was commentary criticising us. Today, Shopify is the platform of choice for local retailers. Those who dawdled in this space have missed out and let others down.
I have a vested interest in Shopify beyond what my newsagency software company does. In each of my 4 newsagencies we win newsagency connected Shopify websites to connect with shoppers outside the shops, to win business we would otherwise not win. We run the shops lean in terms of labour. We need time efficient solutions. This is where the newsagency software Shopify link shines. It’s why I know the solution works, that it serves retailers well.
If your newsagency software does not fully integrate with Shopify and provide two-way connectivity, consider switching.
Oh, and my Tower Systems newsagency software also connects with Woo Commerce and Magento. Newsagents use them too, but they do require a level of tech experience in the shop to make them work for you. Shopify is simpler, it is also evolving faster, which helps you win more online sales.
Outside of those three, Shopify, Woo and magenta, there is nothing worth considering in my opinion.
Leveraging the loyalty differentiator in the newsagency
Shopper loyalty has become a maze of hoops, often with little real value at the end for shoppers, and retailers. Almost 9 years ago to the day my newsagency software company launched a new approach to loyalty. Yesterday, I shot this short video in which I talk about what continues to be a differentiating approach to loyalty. I know of hundreds of newsagents using this, and hundreds of other retailers.
Sure the video promotes my software company. It also encourages you to look at what you do in the loyalty space and to question whether what you do values shoppers and differentiate your business.
This simple approach to loyalty is easily understood and this helps people engage with it sooner, even those who make a one time only visit to the shop.
Newsagents sell memories
I made this marketing pitch yesterday for my newsagency software company.
While it is a pitch for my newsagency software company, the video reflects how I see local newsagents ties connecting. We really do sell memories through many of the products we offer.
My newsagency software company is hiring again
At my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, we are keen to hire someone who knows and has used our Retailer POS software for an additional role on our help desk. This is a technical role. It would suit someone looking to work in a software company, someone keen to learn and keen to help others learn POS software technology.
It’s the second role we have added to the help desk this year.
We need someone who can manage themselves in that almost all of our help desk team members now work from home. Location is not all that important given this.
If you know of someone who could be right for the role, please encourage them to reach out to me at: mark@towersystems.com.au.
Cloud based software for newsagents
When asked if there was cloud based newsagency software available in Australia at a recent supplier run training event, I have been told that the national supplier representative said that there was no cloud based newsagency software currently.
That’s untrue. The Tower Systems newsagency software runs in the cloud has has been available for cloud access for many years.
Plenty of newsagents access it through the cloud today.
It continues to supply me that some supplier representatives make statements about topics on which they have no facts.
Here comes TheLott integration with newsagency software
To try and shore up relevance, XchangeIT has inserted itself as middleware in a tech relationship between TheLott and newsagency POS software. As announced Friday afternoon, this is now available.
While it’s clunky, because of requirements driven by those outside of newsagency software businesses, it is better than nothing.
It will be interesting to see the uptake. It will also be interesting to see if XchangeIT provide the level of support newsagents will want / need for this transactional facility.
My own newsagency software company has been involved from the outset. The approach is not what we would recommend. But, as they say, it is what it is.
My newsagency software company is hiring
At my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, we are keen to hire someone who knows and has used our Retailer POS software for a new role on our help desk. This is a technical role. It would suit someone looking to work in a software company, someone keen to learn and keen to help others learn POS software technology.
The help desk is busy and the support call variety diverse. Retail experience is beneficial. Good knowledge of our Retailer POS software would also be helpful as a base on which we can train more on the intricacies of the software.
We need someone who can manage themselves in that almost all of our help desk team members now work from home. Location is not all that important given this.
If you know of someone who could be right for the role, please encourage them to reach out to me at: mark@towersystems.com.au
We will be advertising publicly in the next few days. If an ideal candidate from within our community applies before we do this, we may not advertise.
Buggy Windows update impacting newsagents
A Windows update pushed by Microsoft earlier this week is causing computers run by plenty of newsagent to crash. This is not a newsagency software problem. It is a Microsoft caused problem. If you are experiencing a computer shutting down unexpectedly it is likely to be this problem.
Here is how to back the Microsoft Windows update out of your computer.
- Click on Start.
- Type RUN.
- A menu will appear that will include a RUN app.
- Click on RUN.
- Type exactly this: wusa /uninstall /kb:5000802
- Press enter.
- The windows update will uninstall.
- You will then need to re-start the computer.
- Do this on every computer that has the Windows update installed.
Once the uninstall is finished you will need to restart the computer.
My advice is do this before calling anyone for support as their advice will be to do what is on the above list first.
It is liberating saying to a prospective customer I don’t think we are right for you
A newsagent recently became annoyed when one of the sales people from Tower Systems, the POS software company I own, said that Tower was not a good fit for them.
They wanted to switch to the Tower newsagency software and wanted a price deal, citing the price of other software. Rather than agree to match or come close to the price, the Tower sales person explained it was unreasonable to seek a price match for a very different product and a very different support experience. They wished the newsagent all the best and advised we were not a good fit.
The prospective customer pushed back saying they would only spend a certain amount of money. Not budging, the Tower sales person again wished them all the best.
This is when the newsagent got annoyed – that Tower was willingly walking away.
Ages ago I decided Tower would not chase prospective customers down a rabbit hole of discounting. No one wins from that, especially not a customer who wants their software company to evolve and support the software in a timely manner, especially not a newsagent who expects their software to connect to business partners.
This is on my mind today because of a product related discussion I had with another newsagent recently. They were chasing cheaper products with which to compete with a nearby discount variety store.
My view is that people who buy on price are not loyal. They will always chase price. If you meet them at the price point they have sought, you have not won because the price battle will come back at you again and again.
Being prepared to walk away when an opportunity is not a good fit for your business is liberating.
I want to be involved in businesses, tech and retail, that offer good value at a fair price. That leads me to an approach of wishing some people all the best and saying we are not right for them.
I don’t chase cheap products for my shops even thought we are near Aldi and the Reject Shop. I chase quality and value. Customers react by spending. The same is true with technology. I think one of the reasons Tower Systems serves more than 1,700 newsagents with its newsagency software is the focus on the product and service ahead of price.
It is liberating not sweating over every prospective customer. It’s also a key reason for growth in many business situations I think.
It all started in 1981
Here’s a video I made for my newsagency software company, a business I started in 1981.
I am grateful to the software development team, the designers, the UI experts, the testers and the help desk heroes who help, every day, ensure that the Tower newsagency software today is fresh and relevant to newsagents today and for tomorrow.
Discussing POS software for newsagents
I’m grateful for the opportunity last week to talk with Nathan from my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, about newsagency software and the role it is playing in the evolution of newsagency businesses.
Here is the 31 minute video of the discussion from last week, which looks at some of the software functions as well as newsagency software connected websites newsagents are using to sell online.
Helping newsagents deal with XchangeIT emails
XchangeIT sends emails telling newsagents they have failed on data related measures set by XchangeIT and expect newsagents and their software companies to fix the issues – even though the benefits of doing this are questionable.
Last month, I got together with a couple of experts at Tower to talk about common reasons why XchangeIT may send the emails and how newsagents using the Tower newsagency software can resolve the issues. Here is a video of that session. I’m sharing it here because feedback is that it has helped newsagents reduce the XchangeIT reported issues.