Gas stations are easily one of the busiest and fastest moving retail locations in the world. The high volume of customers leads to large sums of cashing moving from hand to hand, often very quickly. And while loads of cash can seem like a good thing for business, it unfortunately can mean just the opposite.
With higher rates of customer traffic and often only one or two employees working at once, there is a higher risk for cash handling problems to manifest. Whether it be human error or lack of accountability, it is undeniable that cash handling is affecting your bottom line. And it might not be such a positive outcome.
While these cash handling problems seem unavoidable, there are solutions—and they’re much easier to implement than you think.
Counterfeit Bill Detection
Counterfeit prevention is a daunting task for anyone, especially considering the sophistication of today’s technology. Counterfeit bills are almost impossible to detect with the human eye due to rapid advancements in counterfeiting technology. While staff can look for some of the more obvious signs of counterfeit bills, it would be a mistake to rely entirely on the human eye to determine whether a bill is real or counterfeit. It simply isn’t reliable or fair to gas station staff.
However, these same advancements have made the detection of counterfeit bills foolproof. Counterfeit detectors allow for the seamless detection of counterfeit bills, protecting both your business and bottom line from such threats.
This process will also allow staff members to feel more confident in the cash they handle. This will create faster transactions and better overall customer service that will make customers want to return again.
Fast Transactions
With high volumes of customers comes high volumes of cash, and with staff trying to work as quickly as possible, shrinkage is almost inevitable. This isn’t always the gas station staff’s fault. However, this good customer service can lead to careless mistakes that lose your business money.
During peak hours, staff can become overwhelmed. Counting money incorrectly leads to shortchanging or giving too much money back to customers, which at the end of the day, throws off tills and leads to shrinkage. All of these mishaps affect your bottom line.
Fortunately, there are cash recyclers. Cash recyclers take the painstaking process of counting and sorting out of transactions. They count money, allowing for staff to serve customers quickly and efficiently every time. Installed right into your POS, cash recyclers are an asset to every fast-moving checkout.
Employee Accountability
With every business comes the threat of internal theft. In fact, 57 percent of convenience store owners rate internal theft as their number one business concern. Fast-paced working environments and single-staff shifts allow for theft to occur more easily than one might assume.
While it appears there is no way to curb this problem, the solution is found in the simplicity of a smart safe. Smart safes modernize the entire process of storing and reconciling cash. Staff members are held accountable for their actions with individual ID’s and log-in. Cash is verified, counted, and stored in the until the store owner decides to open it.
This new level of accountability will not only make staff members accountable for the cash they handle, the added level of difficulty will make internal theft virtually impossible. Store owners can rest easy knowing their profits are protected with minimal risk of theft.
