My Point of Sale system is the prettiest cash register ever! But does this beauty have brains? American Scientist Donald Norman says, “Beauty and brains, pleasure and usability they should go hand in hand.” If that is the case then this POS is worth every penny I paid for it.

For example, my POS has the ability to identify new customers as they call in. This is particularly noted when I do a mailing to a target area. So if we had a terrific weekend in sales, I can do a query on my POS and search for new customers when things slow down a bit on Monday. Since the POS has already captured their information, I can now call for a little ‘new customer survey.’ Bam! They are impressed that the owner cares enough to make a personal call and see how their guest experience was. I have now secured a loyal customer.

Let’s take this a step further. One thing I like to do is mark in their customer record their anniversary date. Mind you, I’m not talking about a wedding anniversary (50 percent of marriages end in divorce).

I like to target the date they first ordered and chose me as their pizza place. Then, I do a monthly query of special dates and send anniversary cards along with a great offer acknowledging their loyalty. Relationships flourish when special dates are remembered.

Many speak highly of implementing a lazy customer program. I like to dig even deeper and use my POS for database management. When I manage my data I learn from it and see a clearer picture of my business. I can then structure what is an active customer.

I prefer to prevent people from becoming a lazy customer in the first place. And I do not like to waste my marketing dollars sending offers to the same non-responsive persons. So here is what I pro- pose: let’s look at our database over a 90-day period and run a query on ‘decreasing business.’ Who isn’t spending money with us? What happened? Now instead of having a list of over 1,100, I have a list of only 78 people to manage. I peruse the list and eliminate duplicates so that when I send a postcard or e-mail to reactivate these customers, my ROI is as high as it can possibly be. Hence, I have prevented someone from becoming a lazy customer.

Remember the 80/20 rule? 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers. Run a report with your POS to see who is in this treasured group. An ‘Increasing business’ report will tell you who is regularly spending more and you realize where your bread and butter comes from. When I ran my report I found that 5-10 percent of my sales were coming from 16 people! These are the people that need to get my VIP treatment, and I market to them as such.

Now that shiny new cash register is the whole package — beauty and brains.

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney,Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and a frequent guest speaker at Pizza Expo.