As restrictions begin to ease, with the expected re-opening of some stores in just over a week, we wanted to help you plan for a smooth reopening process, and to help you with ideas to help reduce risk to your customers and staff.
Here is a simple tick-list of suggestions that may help…
Contactless Deliveries & Service Calls
By using NCompass Mobile engineers can avoid handling paperwork from the office – and for Service Engineers, there is no need to visit the store at all, other than for parts replenishment or item collection/delivery if not repairing in the home.
The Add Photo facility can be used in place of a customer signature, allowing you to capture a proof of delivery without contact, viewable from inside NCompass. A reminder can be enabled for this at the Field Call Completion screen – please just ask Support if you are not already using this.
Opening Hours Updates
Email our Support team with any planned changes to your opening hours, and they can update your VOIP system dial plan accordingly.
Update your website to show your new planned opening hours – a simple COVID-19 entry in your navigation bar can give a direct but unobtrusive route for customers to view the latest updates.
On-line Stock Display
If you are using our WebPresence 11 solution, did you know you can display real-time “On Display in our Showroom” information online? This helps your customers to know what products they can expect to see on display in store, based upon the Display stock data in NCompass.
Booking Shop Visits
Will you be using timed slots to restrict customers in-store? If so, our new Booking Diary allows you to easily manage a series of appointment slots each day. Simply add as many slots as you wish to offer on a given day, then allow staff to book an appointment simply by adding customer details to it. Booking Diary is available on all NCompass systems running NCompass 9.97 or later.
Getting Equipment Ready
If your store has been closed for a while, you may also wish to check the following:
- Power up your tills and card machines, to allow batteries in scanners / card machines to recharge and be tested
- If you moved licences to remote workers, check you have licences enabled on the machines you will be using in-store
- Does your VoIP dial-plan need updating to start ringing phones in the shop again? Do you want to delay ringing extensions you are using at home?
- Run a test print on your receipt and label printers to check the paper is not stuck in them
- Check your NCompass is showing Sync Good – if not, please speak to Support before you reopen!
- If your shop computers have been switched off during lockdown, run Windows Update on them now to fetch the latest security updates you may have missed, and to avoid those downloading while you are using them when reopen