4 Training Topics for Grocery Cashier Software

What separates your grocery store from its competition? Grocers know that speedy, functional, efficient customer service is a great differentiator – and that the checkout process is often a test of these qualities within your business. 

Thankfully,  modern point of sale solutions consolidate many cashier functions, such as loyalty programs, weighing produce, and returns and refunds. Still, in order to make sure you’re providing top-notch customer service, your employees will need to be thoroughly trained on your grocery cashier software. Keep reading for essential skills that all your cashiers should be proficient in while using your grocery store cashier software. 

1. Employee Timeclock: Clock In and Out

The first thing your employees will do when beginning their day is start their timeclock. An employee timeclock not only ensures that the amount of work they do is accurately tracked, it protects employers from time theft (employees claiming to work more than they actually do). 

There are many payroll software programs that include a timeclock, but in a grocery store environment, it’s much easier for a timeclock to be included within the market’s cashier software. 

Within grocery cashier software, each employee can choose their unique PIN to track their individual hours (as well as consolidate employee management by tracking the station each employee used in case a transaction needs to be reviewed). Using this PIN number as a key, you can show cashiers how to clock in, clock out, and take breaks. 

2. Processing a Transaction

The vast majority of your cashiers’ duties will be processing customers’ transactions. There is a wealth of hardware and software that goes along with ringing up customers’ items, especially in a grocery store. 

For example, most grocery store items will be marked by barcode stickers, so cashiers need to know how to use a barcode scanner. Similarly, certain produce (individual vegetables and fruits, for example) need to be weighed in order to be priced and charged correctly, so cashiers will need to be familiar with scanner scales. 

If your grocery store retails items that can only be sold to those above a certain age (like alcohol or nicotine products), cashiers should know how to conduct age verification for age-restricted products. 

Once a customer’s groceries are properly priced and added to their transaction, cashiers must process the payment. Payment can be a surprisingly complicated process, as cashiers may have to apply discounts or coupons, process multiple forms of payments, and print, email, or text receipts. 

It is extremely important that groceries have an efficient, speedy, and painless checkout process, so make sure your employees are well versed on how to use their cashier software to process payments. 

3. Customer Loyalty

The importance of customer loyalty programs cannot be understated: For 61 percent of small business owners, over half of their annual revenue stems from repeat customers. 

To reward your loyal customers, and ensure you reap the benefits of return visitors, you will want to ensure that your employees know how to work with the customer loyalty program built into your grocery cashier software. 

This includes steps like obtaining new customer information, creating a loyalty account, and subscribing loyalty customers to email and text campaigns. For customers who are already enrolled in your loyalty program, your employees will need to be able to add loyalty accounts to a transaction, and track and redeem a customer’s points and rewards. 

4. Returns and Refunds

The food and grocery industry have a relatively low return and refund rate, but your employees still need to be able to process them on your cashier software. 

Though policies will differ store by store – some businesses only allow managers to confirm returns, while at others it’s an action that can be okayed by all cashiers – your employees should definitely be aware of your grocery’s return policy and have a basic familiarity with processing returns and refunds. 

Having this knowledge of your store’s grocery cashier software is, again, of paramount importance to the efficiency and speed of your customer service experience. 

Grocery Cashier Software Training and Your Store 

Don't have the time to train staff on your own watch? Our team offers onboarding and training to grocery owners, managers, and employees to ensure your entire team is making the most of your grocery cashier software. We also offer 24/7 tech support in case you run into any issues while running your small business. 

Schedule a demo of IT Retail today to keep your grocery store running quickly and smoothly.