By Tamara HASLAM, Head of Sales, AURES UK
We live in a world of screens. If we’re not sat in front of one at work all day on our laptops and PCs, we’re spending our spare time watching TV or playing with our smartphones.
People get anxious about cutting down on their ‘screen time, but there’s no denying the impact digital displays have on our lives.
As many of our AURES channel partners and clients have discovered, a well-positioned screen at point of sale can even have a positive impact on your business.
It is becoming commonplace to run EPOS systems using the latest LCD touchscreens.
But the use of a screen at point of sale does not have to end there. Whether a stand-alone display unit or a ‘rear screen’ attached to an EPOS terminal, customer-facing screens can be put to a wide range of uses in aid of better service and to maximise marketing opportunities.
In an information age where customers expect to be kept fully informed, display screens have an important role to play. Here are some of stories we’ve been hearing about customer-facing screens in use.
Full visibility
Customer-facing screens are particularly popular with our retail clients. When high street fashion giant French Connection opened a brand new concept store in Manchester, it chose to add optional clip-on back screens to its AURES YUNO terminals. These rear screen displays are used to play promotional videos, mimicking the way content is widely used in ecommerce nowadays to influence shopping decisions and support cross-selling opportunities.
Another major high street chain, furniture brand Habitat, (lien SS Habitat online) uses customer-facing screens to help customers with stock queries and aid service. Andrew Pratt, Business and IT Change Manager at Habitat said: “Now at point of sale our staff have full stock visibility, they can share details via a customer display screen to improve service.”
Women’s fashion outlet Apricot (lien SS Apricot) is using rear screens with its AURES SANGO tills for similar purposes. Area Manager Sandie Beaverstock told us they came in particularly handy overcoming language barriers with foreign customers, as stock and sale details could be shared visually.
Rear screen displays are also being used widely by professional sports clubs within stadium retail operations. Our partner Retail & Sports Systems (lien SS) specialises in supplying EPOS systems for sports club and stadium retail, including installing AURES terminals. Director Richard Waltham confirmed the popularity of display screens amongst the company’s customers.
“By supplying the YUNO with a customer-facing screen, we have been able to increase sales of personalised shirts by displaying the back of the shirt to the customer,” he said. “The ability to run adverts on the tills also allows an additional income stream.”
Lee Hyde, Director of Retail Communications at Ipswich Town FC (lien SS) said the option to add customer facing screens contributed to making the choice of AURES hardware a “no brainer” for the club.
Minimising errors
Away from retail, rear screen displays are also being put to good use across the hospitality industry. Another of our channel partners, Kobas, has been adding these rear screens on till installations for the bar and restaurant trade since 2014.
As well as using them to display promotions and eye-catching marketing materials, Kobas reports that its clients find customer screens useful during order taking. By showing the customer what is being input as they place an order, errors are minimised while it also creates opportunities to up-sell additional items.
AURES manufactures two types of customer screens. The OLC 10.1 and OLC 10.1 Touch are full colour display units in a non-touch and touchscreen version. The OLC 10.1 Touch provides an extra dimension of interaction for customers, ideal for creating self-service options in retail and hospitality.
From looking up product information to selecting your own seats in a cinema, self-service options hand customers a level of autonomy that is increasingly popular on ecommerce channels. In addition, it also provides an excellent resource for capturing customer data with surveys and games.
Both the OLC 10.1 and 10.1 Touch can be supplied as external stand-alone units, or integrated with AURES YUNO, SANGO and NINO all-in-one terminals.
AURES also produce the OCD 300 and OCD 350, highly flexible LED graphic displays which feature two 20-character display lines. Connected and powered by USB, they can be added to virtually any POS system.
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