Cell phones are a must in business. Find out how
to control your monthly costs.
TALK IS CHEAP. TRUE PROVERB? MAYBE NOT, IF PHONE BILLS ARE ANY INDICATION. MOST RETAILERS
are discovering how quickly costs can mount not only for "talk," but also for the increasing amount of email retrieval and
Web surfing that employees do on the latest smartphones. Not long ago, you expected very little from a cell phone. A
convenient and portable medium for placing a phone call—sure. Texting? That was an exotic and sometimes helpful perk.
But times have changed. New varieties of phones allow you to enhance your service to customers and such capabilities
seem to be growing constantly. For example, quicker checkout: "You can attach a small case that has a laser scanner
and a magnetic stripe card reader to each phone," says James E. Dion, president of Dionco (dionco.com), a Chicagobased retail-consulting firm. "In effect, you are giving a POS terminal to every employee." Not only are customers served
faster, but the employees can also send receipts by email. "The phone can be a source of product knowledge," notes
Dion. "When customers ask difficult questions, employees can Google the answers. It's an interesting way to give
your employees another service tool." Add to that the proliferation of QR codes, the ability to track inventory and the
constant back-and-forth of social-networking sites. It all adds up to a new era for the cell phone as the power base
for successful retailing.
46 November 2013 | beautystorebusiness.com
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by Phillip M. Perry