As the recently announced preferred software supplier to the Gift and Homewares Association, we have put together a special Gift shop software offer for GHA members.  This offer has been communicated by direct mail and other mediums to help gift shop owners access the exclusive to GHA members deal.

Based on our popular gift shop software, GHA members receive and exclusive discount off any other deal we have in the marketplace.  This is for GHA members only.

Using our gift shop software, GHA members can expect to increase sales, reduce operating costs and earn more from each customer contact.  Our software helps bring structure to the gift shop sales and management process.

In addition to the financial reward, we have been working with the GHA and gift shop suppliers to enhance software facilities to better serve the needs of the marketplace.

Tower Systems’ Point of sale software makes marketing a retail business is easier thanks to many practical and easy to implement facilities including:

• Loyalty marketing - tracking points or other benefits based on customer purchases.
• Coupons on receipts - to drive traffic. These can be general for the business or purchase specific.
• Up-sell scripts - presented during the sale based on the items purchased.
• Text messages on accounts. Making the account a billboard for the business.
• Postcode sales tracking.  Knowing where your customers visit from helps you make better marketing decisions.
• Tracking sales by employee - thereby enabling you to run an employee reward scheme to drive sales growth.
• SMS marketing - based on customer details, what they have purchased.
• Email marketing - based on what customers have purchased.
• Direct mail - with the list created based on purchases.

We see good marketing as process-driven, done without too much labour investment and delivered consistently.  Each of the points noted above deliver this.  We use them ourselves successfully in our own retail businesses.

Our head office is in Melbourne, the Swine Flu capital of the world according to some media outlets.  Outside of the usual number of flu affected people, this year appears no different to others.  I write this morning as a group of us head off to Sydney.  I don’t think we’re carrying the ‘love’ to spread.

Early in 2008, we developed the eziPass platform to provide newsagents an alternative to the collapsing Bill Express for vending phonecards and other electronic vouchers.  We made this available free to all newsagents.  For months, eziPass worked well including on many systems running the POS Solutions software.  Everyone was happy.

Late last year, when POS Solutions in released their version of an electronic voucher platform , an incompatibility emerged between eziPass and the POS Solutions software.  Our software haad not changed.  The “problem” introduced by the update from POS has not been resolved.

POS Solutions used the launch of Cardplai to demonstrate how far they will go to stop their users running any software from us and thereby accessing the benefits delivered through eziPass.  I see their actions over the last few weeks as holding their users to ransom.  They achieved their goal as the folks at Cardplai reversed their original decision to want nothing to do with POS Solutions.

For these reasons, we will no longer install eziPass on systems running POS Solutions software. New products we are to launch on eziPass will only be available to existing eziPass users, all Tower Systems newsagents and selected non POS Solutions locations. This decision serves our existing users well, adds value to the Tower software for newsagents who switch and helps us focus on user platforms we can control.

We had a laugh in the office today with this wrongly addressed mail from South East Water.  My name and the delivery address are right.

For those outside Melbourne, the Daily Planet is a high profile high-end brothel in the same street as us.

We took a couple of calls yesterday from newsagents not using our software but in need of help.  They could not raise their supplier.  Thankfully, we were able to help.  It is one thing to promise 24/7 support and another to deliver.

We have loaded a revised version of our Being Positive in Business advice sheet to our website.  It takes a customer’s perspective of customer service, outlining how a customer wants to be served.  The new advice sheet has been loaded as part of our major overhaul of technical and general business advice.  Click here for a copy of this advice sheet.

We have created new sample report packs for each of our markets. Each pack contains copies of key reports produced using our software. While we use these primarily as a pre-sales tool, they are also useful in showing existing users key reports which they can produce.

Good reports drive better business decisions and unlock better value from the IT investment. Too often, small business users ignore reports available in their point of sale software and therefore miss opportunities. The report pack seeks to make reports more appealing.

In talking up the reporting side of our software, we are not suggesting business owners handcuff themselves to their computer for hours each week. In our own retail businesses, we commit no more than 10 minutes a week to reviewing business performance reports.

We are running free group training sessions for new users of our software in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane next week. These sessions are open to anyone new to our software this year. Newsagents and employees are most welcome. Each session will commence at 10am and run for three hours. There will be time for one on one attention to questions specific to any newsagent.

• Melbourne. Tuesday July 15. Tower office - Elsternwick.
• Sydney. Wednesday July 16. Tower office - Miranda.
• Brisbane. Thursday July 17. Tower office - Capalaba.

The training will cover point of sale, stock management, customer accounts, run lists and user questions. If there is interest from attendees, a free follow up session will be booked. Bookings for any of the sessions are made by emailing your business name, contact details and number of attendees to bookings@towersystems.com.au. All bookings will be confirmed.

I have created a separate category for Bill Express posts at my Newsagency Blog.

Guia Telefax Anuario Professional in Spain has mass mailed a letter which smells like a scam. Businesses are invited to update their website details in the WorldWideWeb register. If you update the form and mail it to them the fee is 877 Euros. They say you can update the a free entry online. I say it is a scam because businesses I know which have been sent the letter are not even listed even though the letter says they are. I’d recommend people stay away from this.

I lost the stylus from my mobile phone and am having to punch my pudgy fingers on the screen to type in text messages and use it’s other features on which I rely.  Ugh!  This is the second stylus I have lost in the last couple of months.  While I should have taken more care, it’s a reminder that no matter how good technology us, it’s the usually most basic item, like the stylus, which makes it useful.

Following the successful launch of our new electronic voucher platform for newsagents - the means by which our users can sell electronic voucher product such as mobile phone recharge, event tickets and licences from directly within our software - we are working further expansion, bringing additional product to the offer. We’ll announce the new products in a couple of weeks.

Now that we have the highway to the point of sale established and proven, we’re ready to exploit it for the benefit of our customers. We continue to do this work without accepting a commission on sales - this ensures maximum return for our users.

Ten people are on plane flights or about to board flights to Melbourne for our Christmas party tonight. All up we have just over ninety converging on the venue we have booked. Cocktails start at 5:30pm followed by a dinner.

As with other years, the only formal part of the evening will be our Kris Kringle event. Devised by Gary Hall around ten years ago, this involves people choosing a gift from the table, unwrapping it publicly and then risking having the next recipient taking that gift over a wrapped gift at the table. It’s a bunch of fun.

The challenge for the office Christmas party is to ensure that people who do not know each other - from interstate and partners - have a good time.

Our evening will end around 11pm and those so inclined will kick on. It’s been a busy year and I don;t begrudge anyone an opportunity to relax and socialise with colleagues.

Tomorrow, it’s back to work.

A client of ours installed broadband a few days ago. They followed advice from a mate and did it themselves. While they got broadband running, various security and other settings, about which they made assumptions, caused their system to disconnect from their supplier world.

Today, with so many suppliers connecting with retail partners in many ways, installing broadband is a project to be navigated with care and an attention to detail. While we have good advice sheet on this, people often ignore it - broadband is pitched as easy to install. While it is easy to install, there are changes made, behind the scenes, which can impact many parts of the business. This is why we recommend care is taken to undertake the project carefully and with thorough planning.

When our client called with a problem, we had no idea broadband had been installed. they didn’t tell us because they saw it as a simple change - which on the surface it was. It took three calls to discover this and once told, we were able to quickly work on the real problem.

Below is a list of free user meetings and group training sessions we are running over the next three weeks. At each session we’ll deliver training in the software, preview our next update and answer any questions. While the sessions are for our users, anyone is welcome to attend – watching us interact with our customers is a great way to evaluate Tower Systems.

Perth: 28/11 at 2pm – 5pm (open day)
Perth: 29/11 at 9:30am – User Meeting
Melbourne: 30/11 at 10:00am – New Owner
Melbourne: 30/11 at 1:00pm – User Meeting
Geelong: 3/12 at 10:00am – User Meeting
Albury: 4/12 at 11:00am – User Meeting
Sydney: 5/12 at 10:00am – New Owner
Sydney: 5/12 at 2:00pm – User Meeting
Coffs Harbour: 6/12 at 10:00am – User Meeting
Canberra: 7/12 at 2:00pm – User Meeting
Brisbane: 11/12 at 10:00am – New Owner
Brisbane: 11/12 at 2:00pm – User Meeting
Rockhampton: 12/12 at 10:00am – User Meeting
Hobart: 17/12 at 11:00am – User Meeting
Launceston: 18/12 at 10:00am – User Meeting

Book your place by email.

Every year I think it’s odd to take a day of for a horse race, but we do here in Melbourne … so be it. We ran a sweep in the office and filled the field three times over. I missed out on my tip - Purple Moon. Oh, well.

This is the second year we have not opened on Cup day. For years we did and found that not only Victoria stopped but the whole country apparently. So, we’re taking the opportunity and have our after hours access numbers available.

In Macau yesterday we were fortunate to visit a 400 year old Buddhist temple down by the wharf. Inside and around the grounds people were making offerings and praying. It was fascinating to watch the rituals. Inside the main old temple we saw these long coils of incense.

The idea for the photo was Nathan’s. In the temple with 50 or so of these coils burning, it was amazing even though that word does not do the experience justice.
Choosing home delivery software

Our sales trip to Hong Kong moved to Macau yesterday. First stop was the Lotus Flower statue, a gift from the Chinese Govermnetn to mark the handfing over of MNacxau from the Protugese to the Chinese. While the statue was interesting, I thought this photo was more interesting:

Nathan in the foreground, Andrew committing the image of the statue to memory, Luke next and finally Tim.

I booked a meeting room in a Qantas Club lounge earlier this week for an hour. What used to be a free service now costs - but I digress - ten minutes after the hour was up I was asked if I wanted to pay for an extension. I said I had an email to send – the frown I received in response led me to pack up and leave right away. Outside I could see that five other meeting rooms were empty – Qantas didn’t need the room back, they weren’t losing revenue. This was a Qantas employee enforcing the user pays rule.

While the time I paid for was up, Qantas should take a whole of relationship view. This is what good customer service is about – respecting the whole relationship and not just today’s transaction. The best example of this at Tower Systems is how we handle calls from people about hardware not purchased from us. We provide initial advice no cost. This initial advice fixes most problems. We have done this for years out of respect for the broader relationship.

Good customer service is about delivering the unexpected and not charging for it.

Maybe Qantas could pay for the times they are late and it is in their control – like not having enough staff to man the air bridge on arrival and leaving passengers waiting on board for an extra ten minutes? If you complain about this they will ignore you or send and off then self response which points fingers elsewhere.

Qantas is not the airline it used to be.

We now have four companies buying ad space through Google when people search for Tower Systems using the Google search engine. I guess it means we’re popular - that these four companies want to be associated with us. We’re flattered, we think…

I heard on the radio today about another study which shows that the the use of Australian Workplace Agreements has contributed to driving remuneration in several industries down by 30%. I refuse to use AWAs.

This is the scene outside out office this afternoon - after the road works are over for the day. Our building, the green one in the middle of the phone, is all but blocked off during the day. We usually ship between 25 and 40 boxes each day so you can imagine the problems for the couriers let alone our team and office visitors having to navigate what looks like a war zone.

I’m frustrated with the works because the project relates to pedestrian works away from us - they are using space in front of our office as a staging area for heavy equipment and for storage.

The project is behind schedule and the council cares little for the impact on our and other businesses in the street.

We are ready to take our CRM project to a new level and want to bring on board a consultant to work with us for a while. If you have Sage CRM skills, please make contact with me. Contract terms are negotiable.

It’s good to read about customers enjoying success.

Chris and Julie Leonidas of South Eastern Distribution Services have built a very successful business managing newspaper home delivery in Doveton, Endeavour Hills, Hallam and Dandenong.

We’re thilled to serve them with our newsagency management software - the relationship began many years ago when Chris and Julie

Chris and the team were named Australian Distribution Newsagency of the Year at the ANF Conference on the Gold Coast two months ago. The newspaper clipping is from the local Berwick News. It’s great to see coverage like this - especially with our connection to the business. Good news all round.