ALC - TCS

TCS customer, Network Tire Inc., based in Chalfont, PA has just launched TireHunter.com – a website to assist tire retailers, wholesalers and consumers in finding those...

CIRCULARS

The ‘View Today’s Activities’ window is the primary method of managing your day-to-day customer transactions.  It gives you easy access to all Quotes, open Work Orders, current Website Orders, today’s Invoices, and today’s Payments.  This window is the most used window in the software, so because of that fact, we are constantly trying to make the window better and more efficient.  A new bonus feature on this window is the ability to now sort by the column header.  For example, during a busy day, you may have many open work orders pile up under the ‘Work Orders’ tab.  When the list grows too long, this makes finding a specific customer’s open work order difficult.  Now, simply double-click on the column header ‘Customer’ to sort by the customer’s name.  Your customers are now sorted by name, so this makes finding the customer’s name a snap.  Give this tip a try the next time you need to find a customer’s transaction quickly, so you too can make the most of your Tire Power software.  Stay tuned for more tips.

One of the many powerful tools inside of Tire Power software’s point-of-sale is the “Tire Estimator” tool.  This feature allows you to quickly and easily give a customer who is either on the phone or in front of you a “4 and out the door” price on tires.  From here you can create a quote, work order or invoice in one simple step by using one of the buttons at the bottom left of the window. Depending on what type of business you are (retail vs. wholesale for example) there are different ways you will want to setup the “Tire Estimator” to work for you. There are several options to consider when setting this tool up. For example the default price class, tax group and package which will be used.

SIGNS
An essential element of a business’ overall image should be proper and well-executed use of signs.  As you well know, signs come in a multitude of sizes, shapes, and forms.  They can also be designed to serve multiple purposes, ranging from identification, to promotions.

The importance of creating a favorable first impression cannot be overstated.  As our brains receive data through the five senses, as well as “intuition” and “gut feelings”, an involuntary response is set in motion.

If you are a developer (like me), have you ever wondered how to determine if the color set you are using on your web page or in your software is a good choice?  After all, there are lots of things to consider.  Color makes what you present “eye catching”, and can boost the enthusiasm of your target audience.  It can attract attention to an important area, or help distinguish regions of information.

Permission marketing is when you ask your target market and web site visitors for their ‘permission’ to do, or send them something. It is an important part of your internet marketing. The key is to get your target market to willingly volunteer to participate in the process. In order to do this, whatever you are offering needs to be of value to the user and you have to make that value clear to them. If they see no benefit in participating, then they will not. It’s that simple! Adding an opt-in email sign-up is a good example of permission marketing.

Just as you want customers to visit your tire and automotive service location frequently, you also want potential and present customers to visit your website. Displaying promotions on your website is a great way to encourage return visits. You will want to change your promotions regularly and add a few features to make it easy for your visitors to share your promotions with their friends.

As Tire Power users, we all have done it.  We need to enter a customer transaction, only to not be able to find the customer’s name.  We think they are in there, but why can’t we find their name?  Is the name in the database misspelled, an extra space inserted, or does it have an extra letter which is making the search not work correctly?  This can be frustrating and a little embarrassing, especially if the customer is right in front of you.  Over the years I have heard and seen some pretty good tips to help you find that customer, such as using a phone number look up, or first name look up, but one of the most underused and powerful searches you can use to find an elusive customer in your database is the % sign lookup.