POS Marketing Management - OnTrak Customer Success Stories (Part 1)

The problems our customers have avoided using our products

In this blog we’re going to try something a little different.

We’re going to share with you some of the reasons why our customers decided to subscribe to our Point-of-Sale (POS) Marketing Communications Management Software. Software that helps them track, measure and manage not only the cost of their POS marketing investment, but also the effectiveness of that investment in terms of sales and profitability.

Listening to Our Customers

From the day we got our first customer using SignTrak, until today, we have invested in new products (PermaTrak, MenuTrak and SampleTrak) and have added new features and enhancements to existing products. All based on feedback and requirements from our customers. We listen to our customers and respond to their needs.

You will learn what our customer’s experiences have been and the benefits they have received by using our solutions. What follows is based on the input from several of our largest beer, wine and spirits wholesalers.

Our first customer started using SignTrak (for custom printed POS) in 2005. PermaTrak (for permanent POS) was first installed in 2007, and we brought MenuTrak (for custom beverage menus) to market in 2010.

Here are the two key questions we asked our customers and their responses as we began the journey to market and implement our solutions:

When did you realize you needed a POS tracking solution?

First, we asked our prospective customers when they realized or decided that they needed a system to manage their POS Marketing Processes. We learned from them that anything that was used at the point-of-sale to market and sell their products was considered POS — including temporary printed signs, permanent signs, tap-pulls, other enhancers, lists and menus.

Here’s what they told us:

• As beverage alcohol distributors, they have known for some time that their graphics and POS departments are very necessary, expensive and “breathtakingly inefficient".
• These inefficiencies were usually uncovered by conducting a POS process documentation and measurement project. This ‘POS Project’ was lead either by internal POS resources, or by hiring an outside consultant. The project often spanned 6 to 12 months — especially if conducted using internal resources. That’s because these same internal resources were always being pulled back to other, more urgent, POS activities — Their day jobs.
• After some time, some analysis, and often some more pain, all our customers concluded they needed to automate their POS fulfillment process to stem the tide of the rising costs and inefficiencies, increase their speed to market of POS materials, and put some control and accountability into the POS process. 

What Problems Are Avoided With an Automated POS Tracking Solution?

Then we asked our current customers why they believed they could never go back to relying on their previous manual tracking system. What were the things that occurred prior to implementing our automated POS tracking software that they no longer experienced?

Here are a few things that used to happen, that no longer do:

• POS requests were initiated by the distributor’s sales reps or merchandisers and often these requests were written on a piece of paper torn from a note-book or worse, on napkins.
• POS order-form inconsistencies, even for those distributors who used pre-printed forms, caused POS requests to get backed up, sometimes for two or three weeks. It was difficult and time-consuming for the graphics and sign shop staffs to decipher what was written and then track down sales reps to find out what they actually meant to request. A lot of wasted time. 
• Every distributor we spoke with discussed the significant amount of ‘POS errors and reworks’. Even those distributors who thought reworks weren’t a big problem admitted that too many things simply “slipped through the cracks” requiring hours of someone’s time to identify and resolve. 

Most distributors qualify for supplier bill-backs or cents per-case or dollar- per-bottle allowances.  Their monthly manual recovery reconciliation process often took days or even weeks. Distributors were certain they were missing the opportunity to earn an unquantifiable portion of their allowable recovery dollars. In summary, the recovery process was cumbersome, error-prone, and full of opportunities for missing information.

Summary

So now you know some of the reasons why beverage alcohol distributors selected OnTrak Software solutions; and the problems they have avoided now that they have an automated POS Tracking solution.

If any of the above sounds familiar please check our next blog on Customer Success Stories - Part 2. We will discuss some of the benefits our customers are experiencing with an automated POS Tracking solution.