3 Key Elements for a Laundromat POS

There are a lot of articles and videos out there about what you should look for in a POS (a.k.a. Point of sale) system for your business.

I’ll save you from simply rehashing those lists.

Instead, I’m going to share a few key things you should look for across the board in a SaaS product you’re going to use to run your garment care business.

Here are 3 things to always look for:

How long they take to deposit your funds

Cash flow is everything. Even if you make a whole lotta money, you still want to receive your money in a timely manner, but for an emerging business, it's even more important.

Look for how long it takes your POS and credit card processor to deposit your money.

Some of the major players in the POS system, especially in the food and retail industry, deposit money in a business's account the next day OR they give you the option to click Instant Deposit to pay a small fee and get your money the same day.

Keep in mind that the longer it takes for your money to get to you, the chances are that the processor is using that money to make money for themselves.

The people behind the product

Make sure you know who you’ll be working with when you sign up. A few key departments include:

1. Customer Support - ask these questions:
   1. How good are they when you have issues with the platform after hours?
   2. What methods do they have for you to communicate with their support team? Personally, the more channels the offer, the better — email, chat, text, or phone
   3. What’s their turnaround time if you can’t communicate with them by phone and you have to email them? This is important especially if you’re having an issue and a client is standing in front of you.
   4. Do they offer full support and what are their hours? Check to see if it’s just during business hours and if they have call centers in different time zones so they can work with you 24 hours.
2. Sales Team - pay special attention to what they tell you.
   1. Sales will likely be the first point of content you have, giving you demos, talking about features, and making promises of what the platform and they can do.
   2. Be transparent about what you need and ask questions.
   3. It’s likely they will tell you they don’t have a feature but will get it implemented on their roadmap than tell you that the platform can’t do something.
3. Team and Board Members - ask what experience they have in the garment care industry or in other industries that will translate into success for you. How many people on their board are laundry operators?

Their product roadmap

A product roadmap is a shared source that outlines the vision, direction, priorities, and progress of the product over time.

Don’t get caught up in just the features that are available today.

Be concerned about future development and how it’s going to be in line with your business as that product grows over time.

Ask these questions about their product roadmap: