No matter what you sell, it could be coffee, tickets, clothes, or even shoes, Clover POS (Point of Sale) systems play a vital role in the success of your business. In case you are facing a POS system downtime, you will not have a way of processing sales, meaning that you will be out of business. However, the true cost of POS downtime depends on the nature and size of small businesses and retailers. It is also dictated by the severity and duration of the downtime as well as the business’s turnover every hour.
That notwithstanding, POS system downtime is going to cost businesses a lot of money. When this happens, you need to make sure that the problem is addressed as soon as possible for you to remain operational. Some businesses, such as Starbucks in Canada and the US, lost millions in revenue due to a POS outage in 2015.
What Causes Clover POS Downtime?
Different reasons might lead to Clover POS system downtimes. Some of the most common ones include power failures, infrastructure accidents, and network connectivity issues, among others.
When running a business that uses a Clover POS system, you need to be careful about ISP (Internet Service Providers) and communication network failures. This is because these failures are not in your control and might hurt your business terribly.
To take care of some of these failures, you should get a quote from some of the best IT service desk professionals in your area. These professionals know how to deal with these failures and can provide you with backups in case of a POS system downtime.
Using old or outdated software on your Clover POS can also lead to POS system downtimes. This is because outdated software comes with bugs and glitches that can cause a lot of issues, affecting the operations of the POS machines and leading to downtimes.
Using IT service desk professionals, your systems will always be maintained and updated. This way, you will eliminate any lockups that can prevent your transactions from going through.
Another common cause of POS downtimes is the use of dead batteries. This might sound like one of the easiest things that anyone can avoid, but you will not be able to process any transaction without having to charge the portable POS machine.
It does not matter the cause of your Clover POS downtime, all of them will lead to extensive losses for your business. You need to ensure that you do not experience downtimes or have backups to cover your business whenever they occur.
Examples of Clover POS Downtimes and/or Failures
As discussed above, Starbucks stores in Canada and the US are some of the prominent businesses to have experienced a POS failure. In 2015, a network failure affected all their stores leading to a POS failure.
The company estimated its losses to be millions of dollars. The staff could not open cash drawers or even process payments. They ended up closing early while some stores gave away products for free.
Research has found that almost half of retailers interviewed believed that they could lose about $13,000 in case of a POS downtime lasting for about one hour.
Almost a quarter of retailers said they could lose more than $130,000 for the same period. Imagine the loss these retailers could go through for a POS downtime lasting for more than one day!
Effects of a Clover POS Downtime on Small Businesses and Retailers
Bad Customer Experience
If a customer makes a purchase from your business but is not able to complete the payment due to Clover POS downtimes, their customer experience will be badly hurt. Chances are that they will not even want to come back to your business again.
Some customers might even feel that you are wasting their time and do not care about what their experience buying from you should be. Even though some causes of Clover POS downtime cannot be avoided, your customers’ experience will still be affected.
Loss in Revenue
The biggest effect of Clover POS downtime for any business is a loss in revenue. During the downtime, you will not be able to process payments. This means that you cannot make sales, not unless you give your products for free.
The amount of revenue you lose depends on different factors such as the length of the Clover POS downtime. A few seconds or minutes of downtime will not have a huge effect compared to one that lasts longer. In addition, the time of the downtime, for instance, peak hours, can also affect the amount of revenue you are going to lose.
Resource and Time Wastage
When you experience a Clover POS downtime, you will not only lose revenue but also waste a lot of time and resources. For instance, your employees will spend a lot of time trying to fix the problem instead of doing what you have hired them to do.
In addition, almost all your employees will concentrate on the same thing – fixing the Clover POS downtime. Even when they are not handling their tasks, you will still have to pay them for hours worked. You will also pay for insurance, rent, and utilities among other things.
Looking at all these costs and time spent trying to fix the Clover POS system, your business will have lost a lot of resources and wasted a lot of time.
The true cost of POS downtime for small businesses and retailers cannot be underestimated. Businesses need to ensure that they have put measures in place to handle these downtimes.
