Loss Prevention ROI Calculator -3 wc blog 767
Free Loss Prevention Calculator-3
Tabulating The Cost Of Not Using The Loss Prevention ROI Calculator
As I was checking out calculators in the college library where I work I started thinking about a correlation with the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 TI 83 and TI 84 graphing calculators and another 30 – 40 various other calculators to check out to students. We have different points in the semester when we check out almost every one of these calculators. Frequently we run out of the Texas Instruments graphing calculators because they can be an expensive investment for a college student. The thing about it is while we offer this service and checkouts are FREE there are a lot of students who don’t take advantage of the technology available to them. It is a FREE offering and yet students fail to use what is within their grasp and could help them in their classes. The Free Loss Prevention Calculator is kind of the same thing, it is free to everyone and yet many don’t take advantage of it.
My thinking on this then went to retail store owners. No, you don’t have an exam to pass but you do have a much greater test in your store when you conduct inventory. You have the financial health of your business to consider at least once a year when you count what is in your store and determine how much thieves took from you (along with the operational shortage factors you had during that year). There are tools available to help you stop the bleeding from criminal activity and Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. has created the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator to assist in seeing that it can be affordable to do so. The issue is owners either don’t know about it OR they have chosen to ignore it, much like the students at our college who don’t use our calculators.
The Free Loss Prevention calculator is available to anyone simply by going to the Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. website and clicking on the ROI calc tab. Once you are in the calculator you enter a couple of pieces of information; the amount you are willing to pay for a Sensormatic security system and how much your annual store sales are and the calculator tabulates an approximation of how much you are losing to shortage each year and how much a new system could save you. It also gives an estimate of how long it would take for a new system to pay for itself. Think about it, a Free Loss Prevention Calculator can tell you how a Loss Prevention System can be FREE!
The funny thing about the calculators at the library is we also sell these at the store where I work. When I know a college student is in looking to purchase one and they attend our school I ask if they know our library has them to check out. Often I get the reply that they didn’t know but when I suggest they could save money by just checking them out they will tell me they just want to go ahead and get their own. They choose to not save money. Sometimes store owners are the same way. They hear about how they can save money but decide not to make an initial investment even though a system can pay for itself. They may use the excuse they can’t afford it but that probably isn’t true when Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. also offers financing for a Sensormatic system. Whether it is the college student or the shop owner I scratch my head in wonder.
So now you know about the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator and you know how it can help you save money due to shortage. There is no excuse not to visit the Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. website and give the calculator a try. You will find out just how much you could have been saving but it isn’t too late to install a system now and begin to reap the benefits of a Sensormatic security system. Remember the Calculator is free and ultimately a system can be too.
Need information on the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
As I was checking out calculators in the college library where I work I started thinking about a correlation with the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 TI 83 and TI 84 graphing calculators and another 30 – 40 various other calculators to check out to students. We have different points in the semester when we check out almost every one of these calculators. Frequently we run out of the Texas Instruments graphing calculators because they can be an expensive investment for a college student. The thing about it is while we offer this service and checkouts are FREE there are a lot of students who don’t take advantage of the technology available to them. It is a FREE offering and yet students fail to use what is within their grasp and could help them in their classes. The Free Loss Prevention Calculator is kind of the same thing, it is free to everyone and yet many don’t take advantage of it.
My thinking on this then went to retail store owners. No, you don’t have an exam to pass but you do have a much greater test in your store when you conduct inventory. You have the financial health of your business to consider at least once a year when you count what is in your store and determine how much thieves took from you (along with the operational shortage factors you had during that year). There are tools available to help you stop the bleeding from criminal activity and Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. has created the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator to assist in seeing that it can be affordable to do so. The issue is owners either don’t know about it OR they have chosen to ignore it, much like the students at our college who don’t use our calculators.
The Free Loss Prevention calculator is available to anyone simply by going to the Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. website and clicking on the ROI calc tab. Once you are in the calculator you enter a couple of pieces of information; the amount you are willing to pay for a Sensormatic security system and how much your annual store sales are and the calculator tabulates an approximation of how much you are losing to shortage each year and how much a new system could save you. It also gives an estimate of how long it would take for a new system to pay for itself. Think about it, a Free Loss Prevention Calculator can tell you how a Loss Prevention System can be FREE!
The funny thing about the calculators at the library is we also sell these at the store where I work. When I know a college student is in looking to purchase one and they attend our school I ask if they know our library has them to check out. Often I get the reply that they didn’t know but when I suggest they could save money by just checking them out they will tell me they just want to go ahead and get their own. They choose to not save money. Sometimes store owners are the same way. They hear about how they can save money but decide not to make an initial investment even though a system can pay for itself. They may use the excuse they can’t afford it but that probably isn’t true when Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. also offers financing for a Sensormatic system. Whether it is the college student or the shop owner I scratch my head in wonder.
So now you know about the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator and you know how it can help you save money due to shortage. There is no excuse not to visit the Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. website and give the calculator a try. You will find out just how much you could have been saving but it isn’t too late to install a system now and begin to reap the benefits of a Sensormatic security system. Remember the Calculator is free and ultimately a system can be too.
Need information on the Loss Prevention ROI Calculator? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Sensormatic security label – 4 WC Blog 755
Electronic Article Surveillance – 5
Advantages Of Using Sensormatic Security Labels Over Other Brands Part 1
Are there advantages for stores to use Sensormatic security labels rather than other security labels on the market? I started out in the 1990’s in Loss Prevention and I used the big electronic article surveillance tags to protect clothing. I was pleased when those anti-theft labels got smaller but they were still bigger than the tags I saw competitor retailers using. Some other stores were using small, plastic-looking contraptions. They were adhesive just like our labels but smaller and took up much less room on merchandise. I knew some of the disadvantages of using the labels I was used to using. The size of the labels could cause tagging problems and some materials were causing false alarms at the towers. These were two big disadvantages of the system and labels we had to use. Did the other product offer something that would have been to the advantage of our store?
Leadership far above me made decisions on how merchandise in our stores would be protected so I had no say in how security was handled. If asked though I would have suggested the labels used by our competitors after I learned more about them. I should be clear, the electronic article surveillance labels we were using were working but there was a better choice on the market we should have explored. Anti-theft labels are an effective deterrent to crime and I would prefer to see stores using something rather than nothing at all. There is a distinct difference in how tags perform. They both work but one is more reliable and one does have performance advantages over the other. After learning more about Sensormatic security labels (and later using them with another retailer) I believe they are the superior tag. They would be my first choice if I was in the position to choose which a store would use.
One of the problems I encountered with the electronic article surveillance systems I was used to using was that we experienced phantom alarms. False alarms were created by a variety of different items the store sold . Foil gift wrap, tin foil rolls for cooking, coiled cords on power tools and even vacuum cleaners were potential culprits that could cause alarm towers to alert unnecessarily. You may even have been the victim of one of these false alarm situations yourself. If so, you know how annoying these can be to everyone involved. A customer who has paid for their purchase prepares to exit and the alarm begins blaring causing everyone to stop and stare. It can be uncomfortable and can be embarrassing. I know because it has happened to me. A supervisor responds to the door, which can take time if they are busy with something else and then they have to check the receipt against the merchandise. When they can’t find an obvious cause for an alarm the supervisor has to go through the purchase trying to find the offending item. If the result is due to the type of merchandise there is no way to deactivate an item and the customer has to exit with merchandise that alarms again. There was one point where false electronic article surveillance alarms became such a nuisance I had to place a service call wasting the technician’s time and our money.
Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) specializes in fighting retail theft and fraud. They understand the impact electronic article surveillance can have on stopping criminal activity. They also know that any system that is installed has to be reliable. Used equipment, unknown branded systems and systems that are prone to false alarms can result in poor employee response to activations. Shoplifters watch to see how workers react and how thorough they are in inspections. They identify stores that are attentive and which exhibit poor training and target the easier prey. LPSI makes a point of recommending the Sensormatic security systems and labels to their clientele. The equipment is reliable and so are the Sensormatic security labels that should be used with them.
I have used several different name brands of EAS labels in my career and I have a very strong opinion about which I prefer. In Part 2 of this series I will discuss the advantages that come with using Sensormatic security labels over other types of labels. After you have read through the articles, I recommend you visit the LPSI website to find out how you can improve your profit line with a Sensormatic system.
For more information about Sensormatic security labels contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Are there advantages for stores to use Sensormatic security labels rather than other security labels on the market? I started out in the 1990’s in Loss Prevention and I used the big electronic article surveillance tags to protect clothing. I was pleased when those anti-theft labels got smaller but they were still bigger than the tags I saw competitor retailers using. Some other stores were using small, plastic-looking contraptions. They were adhesive just like our labels but smaller and took up much less room on merchandise. I knew some of the disadvantages of using the labels I was used to using. The size of the labels could cause tagging problems and some materials were causing false alarms at the towers. These were two big disadvantages of the system and labels we had to use. Did the other product offer something that would have been to the advantage of our store?
Leadership far above me made decisions on how merchandise in our stores would be protected so I had no say in how security was handled. If asked though I would have suggested the labels used by our competitors after I learned more about them. I should be clear, the electronic article surveillance labels we were using were working but there was a better choice on the market we should have explored. Anti-theft labels are an effective deterrent to crime and I would prefer to see stores using something rather than nothing at all. There is a distinct difference in how tags perform. They both work but one is more reliable and one does have performance advantages over the other. After learning more about Sensormatic security labels (and later using them with another retailer) I believe they are the superior tag. They would be my first choice if I was in the position to choose which a store would use.
One of the problems I encountered with the electronic article surveillance systems I was used to using was that we experienced phantom alarms. False alarms were created by a variety of different items the store sold . Foil gift wrap, tin foil rolls for cooking, coiled cords on power tools and even vacuum cleaners were potential culprits that could cause alarm towers to alert unnecessarily. You may even have been the victim of one of these false alarm situations yourself. If so, you know how annoying these can be to everyone involved. A customer who has paid for their purchase prepares to exit and the alarm begins blaring causing everyone to stop and stare. It can be uncomfortable and can be embarrassing. I know because it has happened to me. A supervisor responds to the door, which can take time if they are busy with something else and then they have to check the receipt against the merchandise. When they can’t find an obvious cause for an alarm the supervisor has to go through the purchase trying to find the offending item. If the result is due to the type of merchandise there is no way to deactivate an item and the customer has to exit with merchandise that alarms again. There was one point where false electronic article surveillance alarms became such a nuisance I had to place a service call wasting the technician’s time and our money.
Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) specializes in fighting retail theft and fraud. They understand the impact electronic article surveillance can have on stopping criminal activity. They also know that any system that is installed has to be reliable. Used equipment, unknown branded systems and systems that are prone to false alarms can result in poor employee response to activations. Shoplifters watch to see how workers react and how thorough they are in inspections. They identify stores that are attentive and which exhibit poor training and target the easier prey. LPSI makes a point of recommending the Sensormatic security systems and labels to their clientele. The equipment is reliable and so are the Sensormatic security labels that should be used with them.
I have used several different name brands of EAS labels in my career and I have a very strong opinion about which I prefer. In Part 2 of this series I will discuss the advantages that come with using Sensormatic security labels over other types of labels. After you have read through the articles, I recommend you visit the LPSI website to find out how you can improve your profit line with a Sensormatic system.
For more information about Sensormatic security labels contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Retail Traffic Counting – 3 WC Blog 742
Customer Counting Systems -3
Using Customer Counting Systems To Improve Customer Service – Part 1
Writing about the importance of retail traffic counting to improve sales and also writing about how it can help reduce shortage seem to be incongruent at first glance. How does keeping track of the number of people entering your store have anything to do with efforts to prevent shoplifting or any other criminal activity, i.e. purse snatching, property theft, sexual misconduct and so on? The questions came to my mind as I was preparing to write an article on recent customer service experiences I encountered in recent visits to two different fast food chains. One visit was exceptional and one was the polar opposite. Then I had to consider that I was not only going to explain the tie in between customer counting systems, customer service and the impact on theft deterrence I was also going to toss in the fast food business to retail store owners and operators. I started to question my own sanity. As I considered the mess I was trying to create it dawned on me, it all DOES relate and it makes the fact that I am comparing restaurants to stores makes no difference. Both are service industries and who is being served? Customers are being served, that is who.
The two experiences that led me to this topic started when I had gone to a famous burger restaurant. Someone may be arching their brow in curiosity about which chain I am talking about but I am going to refrain. I like the food and this is not my experience at all of their restaurants. This day was busy and the parking lot was full and the line of cars for the drive though was lengthy. I chose to go inside rather than sit idling for too long. I was able to order in just a few minutes but as I stood waiting I watched the activity behind the counter and the customers waiting with me. Cashiers were chatting with customers who had already placed orders while the people trying to bag orders and get the food were harried and looked anxious. The manager was yelling at cooks and employees asking where orders were and trying to give directions but she seemed to be barely in control, bagging orders herself and barking at staff. On top of this some customers who, like me, were waiting for their food were frazzled. Some customers who ordered after us received their food before us. When I did get to the car with my food I checked the bag before driving off and found I had been shorted a burger. This was a very unpleasant customer service experience. It was clear to me that no planning went into staffing for the day and perhaps retail traffic counting COULD have been a useful tool for this business. I also saw that management as being a part of the problem not managing but rather reacting to situations and not in control.
Now this was the poor example of customer service and I don’t like to dwell on negatives. I would prefer to help a business correct a problem and improve the customer service. As customer service improves sales grow. Bill Bregar, the founder of Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. would agree with me on this point. His background is in investigations and retail Loss Prevention but he knows the value of a great customer service culture. Bill recognizes how it serves to improve sales and will also reduce store theft and that is the reason he supports the use of customer counting systems to track foot traffic. Using that information retailers can plan and schedule much more effectively for future store activity. Sensormatic offers a retail traffic counting sensor that can be added to many existing Sensormatic electronic article surveillance towers. Those retailers that already use Sensormatic security systems will have the added benefit of tracking alarm activity which can aid in theft prevention plans and evaluating alarm response.
I love a good cliff hanger and so I am going to leave one of my own here. If you would like to read about the great customer service experience I had and what was so different about it from the first restaurant you will need to look for Part 2 to this series. This will be particularly important if you want to see how customer counting systems and customer service can be used in your business and grow your sales.
Get more information on retail traffic counting, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 now.
Writing about the importance of retail traffic counting to improve sales and also writing about how it can help reduce shortage seem to be incongruent at first glance. How does keeping track of the number of people entering your store have anything to do with efforts to prevent shoplifting or any other criminal activity, i.e. purse snatching, property theft, sexual misconduct and so on? The questions came to my mind as I was preparing to write an article on recent customer service experiences I encountered in recent visits to two different fast food chains. One visit was exceptional and one was the polar opposite. Then I had to consider that I was not only going to explain the tie in between customer counting systems, customer service and the impact on theft deterrence I was also going to toss in the fast food business to retail store owners and operators. I started to question my own sanity. As I considered the mess I was trying to create it dawned on me, it all DOES relate and it makes the fact that I am comparing restaurants to stores makes no difference. Both are service industries and who is being served? Customers are being served, that is who.
The two experiences that led me to this topic started when I had gone to a famous burger restaurant. Someone may be arching their brow in curiosity about which chain I am talking about but I am going to refrain. I like the food and this is not my experience at all of their restaurants. This day was busy and the parking lot was full and the line of cars for the drive though was lengthy. I chose to go inside rather than sit idling for too long. I was able to order in just a few minutes but as I stood waiting I watched the activity behind the counter and the customers waiting with me. Cashiers were chatting with customers who had already placed orders while the people trying to bag orders and get the food were harried and looked anxious. The manager was yelling at cooks and employees asking where orders were and trying to give directions but she seemed to be barely in control, bagging orders herself and barking at staff. On top of this some customers who, like me, were waiting for their food were frazzled. Some customers who ordered after us received their food before us. When I did get to the car with my food I checked the bag before driving off and found I had been shorted a burger. This was a very unpleasant customer service experience. It was clear to me that no planning went into staffing for the day and perhaps retail traffic counting COULD have been a useful tool for this business. I also saw that management as being a part of the problem not managing but rather reacting to situations and not in control.
Now this was the poor example of customer service and I don’t like to dwell on negatives. I would prefer to help a business correct a problem and improve the customer service. As customer service improves sales grow. Bill Bregar, the founder of Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. would agree with me on this point. His background is in investigations and retail Loss Prevention but he knows the value of a great customer service culture. Bill recognizes how it serves to improve sales and will also reduce store theft and that is the reason he supports the use of customer counting systems to track foot traffic. Using that information retailers can plan and schedule much more effectively for future store activity. Sensormatic offers a retail traffic counting sensor that can be added to many existing Sensormatic electronic article surveillance towers. Those retailers that already use Sensormatic security systems will have the added benefit of tracking alarm activity which can aid in theft prevention plans and evaluating alarm response.
I love a good cliff hanger and so I am going to leave one of my own here. If you would like to read about the great customer service experience I had and what was so different about it from the first restaurant you will need to look for Part 2 to this series. This will be particularly important if you want to see how customer counting systems and customer service can be used in your business and grow your sales.
Get more information on retail traffic counting, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 now.
