Can your business cope without technology?

No I didn’t just swear. It is a very real question.

When something happens twice to me in very quick succession I often think it means I am supposed to take notice. I have. So you’d better too!

On Saturday while getting some last minute paint for our old office (a couple of quick repairs) I visited a commercial paint supply business to get my supplies. Half way through them preparing my order, I noticed a message stuck over their EFTPOS terminal “EFTPOS Down”. Yes Solver Stones Corner this is you.

So I asked. Noticeably before starting a $200 order they didn’t ask me if I was intending to pay electronically, they just assumed I could read their small note and that I would process it. I did, albeit a little late.

So yes their EFTPOS was down, I had a company credit card, so I asked them to do it manually.

“Sorry they took that option away, but you can walk to an ATM it is less than 5 minutes”.

This was their customer service resolution.

Ultimately I had to walk to an ATM use my personal account to get cash and then go back and pay. Rather inconvenient you would have to say. It was not a normal work day so I did not have the company cheque book on me.

Then just to make sure I was really paying attention I dropped into my Cheesecake Shop to get some cake for morning tea in the office. I have written before about this Cheesecake Shop in ‘Sometimes the system takes the cake‘, but in recent times they have fixed up their equipment and I have had no issues. Well until this morning that is.

When I went to pay with my company card, their EFTPOS was not connecting. So once again no manual system, nobody had checked the system first up that morning to make sure it was connecting, so I paid cash for it.

Yes they still got the sale, but I wasn’t a raving fan and I could have walked. I will hesitate next time I am due to stop in to the cake shop, and I can guarantee I won’t be visiting that Solver Paint store.

While I am a big advocate for using technology in your business, the technology is just part of a business system. And like all business systems, if they are critical to you enabling a sale, you’d better have a fall back position.

In Queensland over the last few years we have had numerous instances of weather bringing about interruptions to services. Even staff sickness can be a major problem in winter for smaller service business. What are your plans for these occurrences? Why do two businesses, no longer use manual credit card systems as their fail over? I wonder how many others have stopped it because it seems pointless or costly to have that system when ‘We never use it’.

Short term thinking or cost cutting? I am not sure, but I know the message that is out there at present “Do not give your customers any reason to choose another” is very prevalent, and when they are ready to buy, you need to grab them with both hands and make sure you keep it simple for them.

Our coffee and cake meeting this morning was on this topic. I see this issue from two other businesses as a reminder for us to check back in here and see where we are making it hard for people, and to do something about it.

Make time this week to check all your systems from the outside in.

I categorised this as Conversion Optimisation. Most times that is considered part of web site optimisation, but it is and always has been a part of any business on and off line.

Well that’s what ireckon!

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