ccsretail

Welcome To Our New Website

Posted on June 16, 2017July 6, 2017 by ccsretail

Our new website was designed to focus our message and simplify navigation. Our website has a new URL: https://ccsretailsystems.com. Visit us at this new secured server off-premise location.

Our previous site http://www.ccscentral.com will redirect you to our new site as well. Our email addresses will remain the same and use our ccscentral.com domain.

Our NEW Website emphasizes our Core Strengths of:

NCR Counterpoint Retail Systems and Applications
Complete Integrated Hardware, Software, Support, Training, and Custom Programming
Over 35 years of Experience
Our Strong Commitment to Our Customers

CCS Retail Front Page

CCS Retail Page 2

NCR Announces Counterpoint 8.5.3

Posted on June 19, 2017July 6, 2017 by ccsretail

NCR has released Counterpoint 8.5.3. It comes with a great new user interface that adds some new features. As well as new Windows 10 UI look, there is a recent pages visited, favorites, and a search feature on the home page. Please contact me to see a short demo of it and then schedule an update. More information …

New NCR Counterpoint Release Features

New User Interface

Remembers Recently Opened Applications
Ability to add Favorites
New Search Capability
New icons and updated look
Windows 10 UI Style
Program Navigation Panels

New Features

EBT Support for NCR Secure Pay
Ability to Turn Off Scrolling Receipts
Moneris iPP320 Support
Sage 50 2017 Certified
QuickBooks 2017 Certified
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Support and E-mail Format Validation

Connecting with Customers

Posted on June 25, 2017July 13, 2017 by ccsretail

Customer Connect Campaigns Last week, I talked about using Loyalty Programs in Counterpoint to keep customers coming back. Another way to keep them coming back is to stay in contact with them. Most of you have probably heard of Constant Contact – it’s an email marketing program. But you have to keep it up to date with email addresses and pick the customers you want to send a specific email to. What if you could have CustomerConnect something that connected directly to your Counterpoint database? What you need then is Customer Connect. An email marketing program that pulls information directly from your customer database.

Enter you customer’s email just once in Counterpoint and it will be populated in Customer Connect. No double entry. Then you set the email campaign you want to send and it will look at your database and pull the customers that meet the campaign specification and send out the marketing piece you have put together.

Some of the more popular ones are:
Welcome email – whenever a new customer is entered in Counterpoint they get a Welcome email from you. Maybe you want to offer them a discount to come back in.
Haven’t See You In A While – Setup a campaign to look for customers who haven’t bought anything in a specific amount of time – email them and offer them a special to come back in.
Happy Birthday – get your customer’s birthday – either date or month and put it in a profile field. Then at the beginning of each month sent out a Happy Birthday greeting and tell them to come in a get a present from you.
Sales – having a sales on specific product(s)? Setup a campaign for that and Customer Connect will search you database for customers who have bought the product(s) in the past and email them that it’s going on sale.
The great thing about this is, for most campaigns, you can set them once and schedule multiple periodic future runs. You don’t need to do anything other than the initial setup. If your customer gives you their emails, birthdays, favorite color, animal’s name, kid’s birthday and whatever else you dream up – they will be expecting emails from you.

I know if works for me. Every August when my birthday rolls around, I start looking for those emails that say I get a free ice cream cone or a discount at a store I shop at. It gets me back there to spend my birthday money!

Call or email me today about a 3 month Free Trial of Customer Connect.

marilyn@ccscentral.com

HAPPY SWEET 16.

Marilyn

Connecting with Customers

Posted on March 28, 2016June 25, 2017 by ccsretail

Last week, I talked about using Loyalty Programs in Counterpoint to keep customers coming back. Another way to keep them coming back is to stay in contact with them. Most of you have probably heard of Constant Contact – it’s an email marketing program. But you have to keep it up to date with email addresses and pick the customers you want to send a specific email to. What if you could have something that connected directly to your Counterpoint database? What you need then is Customer Connect. An email marketing program that pulls information directly from your customer database.

Enter you customer’s email just once in Counterpoint and it will be populated in Customer Connect. No double entry. Then you set the email campaign you want to send and it will look at your database and pull the customers that meet the campaign specification and send out the marketing piece you have put together.

Some of the more popular ones are:

Welcome email – whenever a new customer is entered in Counterpoint they get a Welcome email from you. Maybe you want to offer them a discount to come back in.

Haven’t See You In A While – Setup a campaign to look for customers who haven’t bought anything in a specific amount of time – email them and offer them a special to come back in.

Happy Birthday – get your customer’s birthday – either date or month and put it in a profile field. Then at the beginning of each month sent out a Happy Birthday greeting and tell them to come in a get a present from you.

Sales – having a sales on specific product(s)? Setup a campaign for that and Customer Connect will search you database for customers who have bought the product(s) in the past and email them that it’s going on sale.

The great thing about this is, for most campaigns, you can set them once and schedule multiple periodic future runs. You don’t need to do anything other than the initial setup. If your customer gives you their emails, birthdays, favorite color, animal’s name, kid’s birthday and whatever else you dream up – they will be expecting emails from you.

Call or email me today about a 3 month Free Trial of Customer Connect.

marilyn@ccscentral.com

HAPPY SWEET 16.

Marilyn

Are You Connecting with Your Customers?

Posted on March 20, 2016June 25, 2017 by ccsretail

Customer Loyalty Programs and email marketing are just a fact of life any more. I remember when loyalty programs 1st came out at the groceries stores and they wanted your phone number and email. Everyone thought this was so intrusive! Today we don’t think anything of it. I’m signed up for loyalty programs at every store I shop at. I even have a separate key chain in my purse that just has store cards on it. And I have a 2nd email that I give out for these programs. That way I can read them as I have time and not have them clogging up my business or personal email. More about email marketing in my next blog.

I’m also a bargain shopper. An example is that I shop at 3 major drug stores in our area. One accumulates points and gives you discounts based on your total points from the previous year. I’m at their highest level and get a 20% discount on items not on sale. So if I need something and none of the 3 stores has it on sale, I go to that store to get my 20%. And of course I buy more than I planned!

So loyalty programs work and keep customers coming back. Counterpoint has a number of different ways within the system to setup different programs. You could do a Senior Discount program by just setting up a customer type. One of CCS’s customer does just that. They give 10% discount to seniors every day of the week and then they have Senior Tuesdays where the discount is 20%. Guess which day of the week they have their highest sales? And they have loyal customers that keep coming back. So depending on what you sell and where you’re located, a simple program like this can drive sales your way.

There is also a Loyalty Program built into Counterpoint that allows customers to accumulate points on purchases (you define which products or categories) and then those points can be redeemed for future purchases or special incentives. These points can be redeemed at Point of Sales, just like any other form of payment.

Call 800-672-4806 or email us for help with getting going on your loyalty program today!

Next Week – email marketing.

Happy 1st Day of Spring!
Marilyn

Increasing Inventory Turns

Posted on March 30, 2009June 24, 2017 by ccsretail

Inventory Turns is a key metric used in the retail industry, and is considered to be the number of times the inventory cycles or is replenished throughout a year. This can be calculated by dividing your average annual cost of goods by your average inventory.

For example, if you sell widgets with an annual cost of goods of $1 Million, and carry an average inventory level of $250k, then your inventory turns is 4.

There are a number of tools within Counterpoint SQL that will allow you to increase the number of turns and decrease your average inventory level, thus increasing your sales and profits. These tools include, but are not limited to:

The identification of slow moving products
The elimination of low-profit items
The automation of purchasing processes
Identification and promotion of high-profit items

By accomplishing the above objectives, CounterPoint SQL will give you the information you need to make purchasing, vendor management, and sale/mark-down decisions.

In the example above, if this company were to decrease the average inventory to $200k (by 20%), and increase cost of sales to $1.2 Million (roughly 20% more sales), their turns would have increased from 4 to 6! This is entirely possible with the proper use of the many features within the software.

Contact CCS Retail Systems, Inc. today for a demonstration of the specific features that can positively affect your bottom line!

What Can you Learn from Sales History?

Posted on March 26, 2009June 23, 2017 by ccsretail

Of the hundreds of reports that are included in Counterpoint SQL, many are geared toward sales history. Studying your sales trends can tell you a lot about your businesses. They enable you to effectively manage your store, and remain prepared for the future.

Sales history reports are tools to help you manage your current inventory and make buying decisions. You can better plan for sales and incentives, manage clearance and markdown items, market to new prospects, and even help drive repeat business. The bottom line is these reports will improve your profitability.

How do these reports accomplish these goals? Ask yourself the following questions:

Do you know who your best customers are?
Do you know the last time each of them were in your store?
Who is your best sales person?
What is a good target for sales?
- Sales Volume?
- Profitability?
- # of tickets?
- # of lines?

Who is your best vendor?
What is your inventory turn rate?
- How does that compare with others by industry or by product category?
What product category has the most sales?
What product category has the most profit?

Using Sales History reports to answer these questions will have the following affect on your business (in no particular order):

Increase the amount of each transaction
Get your customers to shop more often
Increase referrals – free advertising to increase your volume
Do internal staff training – find out who is best and leverage them
Set data-driven goals for each salesperson
Measure key metrics about your business

Collecting and analyzing would be quite daunting for a manager without a tool like CounterPoint SQL. Reports such as the Flash Sales Report, Sales Analysis By Group, Sales History by Customer by Item, the unique CounterPoint Dashboard and many others can empower you to take control of your sales and profits!

Call CCS Retail Systems today for a free personalized demonstration that will show you the power of knowledge and awareness when it comes to managing your store!

1-800-672-4806

sales@ccscentral.com

Effective Problem Solving – Keep it Clear and Simple

Posted on June 14, 2011June 23, 2017 by ccsretail

Navigating The Error Message Maze (Windows Word Document to Samba CUPS Printer)

Okay here goes, I can finally print my document after two hours of typing and tweaking. I just have time to make my meeting if all goes well. Print … Good my screen shows the printer and the pages are counting off. Now to pickup the copies. What! Nothing in the tray. Hmm … maybe its stuck. Let’s check the tray feed. No jams, all looks fine there. What about the spooler. Let’s see: lpq says No Entries. Maybe the printer was not ready yet, when I printed, I’ll try it again. Print … That’s probably going to get it. Let’s see the tray again. Great still nothing.

Okay let’s check the log files to see what’s up: tail -20 /var/log/cups/error_log says:

“
E [21/May/2011:15:33:55 -0700] Unknown configuration directive MakeModel on line 6 of printers.conf.
E [21/May/2011:15:33:55 -0700] Unknown configuration directive Type on line 10 of printers.conf
E [25/May/2011:04:08:25 -0700] Bad IPP operation name “CUPS-Get-Document” on line 31!
E [25/May/2011:06:04:31 -0700] CUPS-Accept-Jobs: Unauthorized
“

Oh, Oh this looks like its going to be a project. Better reschedule my meeting. Let’s Google some of the messages. “Bad IPP operation name“, “CUPS=Accept-Jobs: Unauthorized“. Looks like lots of feedback. Hmm… most of these ideas are leading me deeper and deeper into more and more esoteric areas and articles. Pretty soon I’ll be trying to learn how to rewrite the driver. This can’t be it.

I know, I’ll reinstall the CUPS software and recreate the Linux and the Windows printer link again. Print … Still nothing in the tray. Nope that’s not it. What about trying the CUPS web-client interface? http://localhost:631. Great interface. Lots of tabs and tools. Click, View, Click, View …. This is a quagmire also. What next.

I better try to get some help with this. Let’s call CCS Retail. What would you guys suggest? “Well one simple thing you could check, even though the messages are leading you somewhere else, is device permissions. Did you just do some Gentoo Linux emerges for updates recently? ” Let’s see /dev/lp0 has permissions 660. That does NOT look right. I’ll change it to 666 to open it all the way up. Print … Wow there it is – at last.

What;s the point to our little story? The software layers in your systems all have error processing steps and messages that are relative to their view of the information they see and create. To a CUPS driver it may seem like “Bad IPP operation name”. This may lead into unnecessary levels of detail and loss of productive time.

How do we avoid this and get to the real problem of the incorrect device permissions quicker? The best way we know at CCS Retail is to ask someone with the knowledge or experience with these types of problems to act as a consultant or guide for advice or hands-on resolution. Try to discipline yourself to not get caught up it the frustration of the moment and start burrowing into the center of everything.

Google and other search engines are great resources. But if you are just pea-shooting at the problem with an esoteric error message you are likely to just burrow in deeper. Would CCS Retail know from the error messages in the log file that it was device permissions. Since they solve these types of problems frequently, the odds are favorable. Would they know when to stop using a thread and wasting time at the right point. Again the odds are favorable.

In our CCS Retail Support Department we spend our day solving problems and accumulating the knowledge that keeps our customers running. Give us a call when you are stuck. Make sure to keep track of any errors you get to help us get you going again quickly.

Marilyn

A Few Signs You Might Have Been Hacked/Infected

Posted on August 8, 2016June 25, 2017 by ccsretail

excerpted from CSOONLINE.

Fake Anti-virus Messages

In slight decline these days, fake antivirus warning messages are among the surest signs that your system has been compromised. What most people don’t realize is that by the time they see the fake antivirus warning, the damage has been done.

Unwanted browser toolbars

This is probably the second most common sign of exploitation: Your browser has multiple new toolbars with names that seem to indicate the toolbar is supposed to help you.

Redirected Internet searches

Many hackers make their living by redirecting your browser somewhere other than you want to go. The hacker gets paid by getting your clicks to appear on someone else’s website, often those who don’t know that the clicks to their site are from malicious redirection.

Frequent random popups

This popular sign that you’ve been hacked is also one of the more annoying ones. When you’re getting random browser pop-ups from websites that don’t normally generate them, your system has been compromised.

Your friends receive fake emails from your email account

This is the one scenario where you might be OK. It’s fairly common for our email friends to receive malicious emails from us. A decade ago, when email attachment viruses were all the rage, it was very common for malware programs to survey your email address book and send malicious emails to everyone in it.

If one or more of these have happened or is happening to you, contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department ASAP to have you system reviewed and repaired. You can reach us by email or at 800.672.4806

-Bryan

Summer Time Security

Posted on July 18, 2016June 25, 2017 by ccsretail

Summer is here, and as most people spend vacation in hotels/motels here are some security tips to keep in mind.

The Secret Service has confirmed what you’ve probably suspected for a long time: Public computers at hotels are ridiculously insecure, and you’re taking a gamble with your personal data each time you use one.

Security expert Brian Krebs shared a private Secret Service bulletin directed toward the hotel industry. The American government warns hotel managers that public computers in their establishments are, by and large, vulnerable to simplistic attacks that can compromise some of their patrons’ most sensitive details.

Hotel computers are obscenely easy for hackers to get ahold of, considering that attackers can have more-or-less unrestricted physical access to public computers (many hotels have a “business center,” where visitors can browse the Internet, check e-mail and print documents) for the cost of a single night’s stay.

Hacking computers remotely takes a little know-how, but compromising physical computers is usually as simple as installing a surreptitious keylogger via a USB stick. Keyloggers are what they sound like: They keep track of everything that users type into a computer, then transmit this information back to the hacker.

Given that users at hotels use public computers to check email, print boarding passes, pay for travel arrangements and download private business information, it’s not too hard to imagine what an imaginative hacker could do with this information. Worse still, there isn’t much that even a savvy hotel operator can do to prevent this misuse.

As usual, users will have to take responsibility for their own safety when it comes to hotel computers. Using your own computer or mobile device is much more secure than using a hotel machine, so bring a device and use hotel Wi-Fi or mobile data when possible. If you need to print documents, it’s probably safer to save them on a mobile device or USB stick and transfer them to the hotel machine.

Not every hotel is compromised, of course; the Secret Service did not provide estimates on how prevalent hacking hotel machines was, just that it happens and that it’s very easy to do. Still, a little caution is probably wise; nothing ruins a vacation quite like having your identity stolen.

If you have any system question or concerns, contact the CCS Retail Support Department at 800.672.4806 or email us.

-Bryan

Author: ccsretail