If you’ve been in business for several years, you’ve likely had the same safe since the very beginning. While it may have served you well up until now, there are many reasons why it might be a good idea to consider upgrading your convenience store safe. Safe technology has improved by leaps and bounds, and your current safe might not be serving your needs as well as a new smart deposit safe could.
Here are some reasons to upgrade your convenience store safe.
1. Increase Security
Security should be a top priority in convenience stores and gas stations, as the risk of theft is heightened in this sector. Your traditional safe may not be helping you enhance security as well as it could. A smart safe, on the other hand, will enable you to deposit cash into the safe right at the point of sale to reduce cash volumes in the till and minimize cash exposure.
A smart safe may also have enhanced security features compared to your current safe. For example, the Armor Safe Technologies safes include heavy, thick steel construction, superior self-locking vault door and locking bolts, drill-resistant hard plate, interlocking back flange to prevent hinge attacks, and floor holes to bolt down the unit.
2. Increase Accountability
When you upgrade to a smart safe, you’re instantly gaining the ability to create an audit trail that increases employee accountability and reduces the risk of losses. Every banknote that the safe accepts is automatically recorded and tracked. Every employee must log in with a unique personal identification number to make a transaction. This means you’ll know exactly who deposited money into the safe and when, which will help you determine where errors may have occurred and who may have made them. If there’s ever a discrepancy, you may always go back into the system to determine where and when it occurred.
3. Reduce the Risk of Counterfeit
Today’s counterfeit banknotes are more sophisticated than ever before. Sometimes, they will be indiscernible to the naked eye. Of course, if you accidentally accept counterfeit bills, you want to know about it. Upgrading your convenience store safe means gaining the ability to automatically validate any and all banknotes that are added to the safe. While employees should still know how to spot counterfeit notes, it pays to have a second line of defense in the back room, or even right at the till..
4. Optimize Labor
Manual cash handling takes time. Many convenience stores will only have one or two employees on shift at any given time. Having them focus so much of their time on cash handling takes them away from more important responsibilities, such as serving customers, restocking shelves, and cleaning.
When you upgrade to a smart safe, the device could automatically deposit and record cash deposits right at the point of sale, which would also significantly speed up the reconciliation of the cashier’s till balance. In turn, your employees would spend less time on cash handling and wrap up their days much faster to help you save on labor costs and get more done in a day. This will help improve your convenience store’s profit margin.
5. Reduce Bank Fees
When you add up deposit fees, change fund feeds, sweep fees, and NSF fees, your banking fees will quickly add up. If you’re looking to cut costs, upgrading to a smart safe will be a great decision. Thanks to advances in technology, the safe will be programmed to communicate directly with your cash-in-transit provider, who will then communicate all safe activities to your bank to consolidate banking relationships and fees. If you’re in the US, then you will also benefit from daily credit as funds that are deposited into the smart safe can be credited to your store’s bank account the next business day. This will reduce your deposit fees while also freeing up working capital much faster than your traditional safe.
Your current convenience store safe may be doing more harm than good. Get the benefits of smart safe technology to better protect your cash, your employees, and your convenience store.
