CrossCheck Blog

There are certain things people seem to be happy to wait for: the perfect table at Nobu, Cabbage Patch Dolls, anything Apple releases, the touring company of “Jersey Boys” to hit their local theater. While you can’t ever expect your customers are going to eagerly camp out in front of your auto repair shop’s doors just to get the hottest new oil change supplies, you can make the experience a little better for them by making it as short as possible.

As a busy office manager, the last thing you want to do is get bogged down with the minutia of invoicing!

Want ways to give your retail staffers more on-the-job satisfaction? It’s called employee buy-in, and it has nothing to do with the money they spend on products from your store! Buy-in is the idea of creating enjoyment, investment, and a sense of personal satisfaction from the job, and it doesn’t cost much. Here are some of our best ideas. Let them be experts. Remember the little recommendation cards in video rental stores? (Wait, do you even remember video rental stores?) It was a way for employees to show a little flair, a little expertise, and recommend items to customers. Bring it back to your store. Sell clothing? Let one employee a week put together an entire outfit on a mannequin. Dealing in electronics? Ask for tips and suggestions on what your workers themselves prefer and display them by the merchandise. Have your workers become the masters of a product in the store, letting them become the go-to in-store specialists.

We don’t mean to scare you but… wait, sure we do! It’s Halloween, so of course we want to scare you. Today, in honor of everything creepy and crawly, we want to do a little bit of “scared straight.” Sure, Halloween should be filled with fun, but don’t forget some of the important stuff. Before you hit the candy trail, make multiple checks on the following:

Have your patients’ parents been flooding into your office waving around their smartphones for you to scan for payments, or talking about mobile payment options such as BitCoin? What’s a BitCoin, you ask? Just another trendy form of virtual money. A passing fad that may get left behind when the next hot thing comes up. When you want to build your veterinary practice on a strong, solid foundation, we suggest you look to the original ultimate mobile payment option – checks.

You know how you snicker when you drive around your neighborhood and see houses with Christmas lights still up in May? It’s sort of like when you’ve still got all that red and green on your store shelves a few months after your most-discounted seasonal sales. Without giving the stuff away or taking a hit to send inventory back, how do you turn seasonal inventory into true "shopportunities" throughout the year? We’ve got a few tips for you and we promise, none of them are “Christmas in July” sales.

Remember the old “Love Connection” commercial break motto – “We’ll be back in two and two?” These days, your TV can fast forward through those two minutes and two seconds. In your work as an office manager though, you probably wish you could save those two and two (and probably a whole lot more). We designed the following tip list on how you can save two minutes’ time throughout your day. Use them for something fun and indulge yourself, after all, you’ve earned it.

Controllers – are your top-line managers asking you to find additional payment options to make available to your customers? Great! The more ways people can pay, the more revenue your company may see. Are they asking you to secure these methods for free? Not so great. We developed this FAQ to dispel the “free check verification” hype.

Why should you listen to a slimy character named Gordon Gekko, of all things? Because in 1987, he proclaimed in the blockbuster "Wall Street" that greed was good. And now 26 years later, his famous words still hold strong. As part of our 30th anniversary celebration, CrossCheck is looking back on events of the 1980s. Rake it in for yourself as we explain why Gekko’s greed could serve you well today behind your auto aftermarket counter.