Are you METRC Certified?

There’s no faster way to receive fines, have your license suspended, or completely lose your right to operate than by avoiding the important task of staying compliant with METRC. One aspect of staying compliant is fulfilling the mandatory METRC-integration. The POS system you choose must be capable of sending live reports for inventory adjustments, reconciliation, and your sales to keep you in good legal standing.

METRC is the state-mandated track-and-trace system that all business owners must report to. POS systems that don’t integrate with METRC should not be on your radar. One mistake with METRC reporting can land you in hot water with the BCC, threatening your business.

Without POS, manual reporting is time-consuming and can invite countless errors. Inventory management eases the pressure of maintaining your stock rooms. With pre-packaged cannabis goods adhering to new package and labeling regulations, it’s especially important to keep your packages in order. Packages left behind in stock rooms can negatively affect your overall income and skew inventory adjustments. Batches that stay in your inventory are potential money-makers being wasted and product that might be in demand; keep track of it with an automated POS.

Data doesn’t lie. Avoid inventory adjustment fines by choosing a POS system that automates reporting and provides you with the necessary reports. These include, but are not limited to: 14-day inventory reconciliation, sales breakdowns, and customer info reports. Think about it! No more CSV files for sales reports, customer data, or inventory.

Related: 3 Reasons Cannabis Delivery Services Fail to Retain Customers

What about tracking driver inventory?

Maintaining a live ledger of the driver’s kit in real-time is not only a BCC regulation, but is an essential way of streamlining operations. What’s more is that your point-of-sale partner should be able to automatically dispatch orders to drivers as they are placed, resulting in no orders being missed and overall sales increasing on a day-to-day basis.

Delivery dispatch is also one aspect of the new-era cannabis industry that allows for convenience to take a front and center seat as things develop. Companies like Tookan enable businesses and consumers to have real-time communication with drivers while providing a platform that allows for deliveries to be tracked on-the-fly. This is an increase in safety while reinforcing that cannabis is moving in a legitimate direction. The result is cannabis delivery that looks and feels like a legitimate transaction while putting a consumer’s mind at ease!

Be sure to cover all aspects of your delivery service by choosing a POS that provides automated delivery dispatch and a live inventory ledger.

You’re not marketing to my customers, are you?

Your data is a collection of years’ worth of accumulated reports and transactions. It’s valuable; not just to you, but also to your point-of-sale partner. It needs to be protected. Partnering with a POS that doesn’t utilize your data to their own advantage by marketing to your customers is incredibly important. Your data can be used to redirect marketing from POS systems and in-turn, cause your business to suffer by converting your customers to one of their own.

POS systems that stay under the radar, respect your data, and help you utilize it to your advantage are the easy no-brainer winners of the bunch. Be sure that your data is being kept within your business.

Storing your data isn’t only important for METRC reporting and integration, but also for sake of your own business records. Data storage comes down to 2 categories: cloud-based and local storage.

Cloud-based storage provides a virtual way of storing your records. Capable of being accessed from just about any internet-activated device, storing your files on a cloud offers a convenient method that gives you unlimited possibilities of access. Security for your delivery service files is another method of protecting your overall investment. Cloud-based storage is centralized on a virtual server which is hosted by external companies that make adding reports easy. Convenience takes a new approach by decreasing the amount of physical hardware needed to ensure the safety of your records.

The second method of saving data to consider when buying a POS is by using a standard, physical hard drive. Although not as convenient as being able to access your information from any location, physical hard drives allow for worries surrounding the volatility of virtual technology to dissipate. Being able to plug in your hard drive directly to your POS allows for physical storage and transfer of files to take place.

How easy is your POS to use for our employees?

A simple user experience not only saves time by streamlining commands, but also increases the rate at which you conduct business. Reducing time allows for your delivery drivers to make drop-offs quickly and efficiently. Customers can be impressed by a frictionless system which not only shows appreciation for their limit on daily time, but by being courteous in simplifying the purchase process.

Driver efficiency is key to customer satisfaction and provides an overall better customer experience.

Related: Using Data to Maximize Cannabis Delivery Service Efficiency

Drivers are the backbone to a delivery service and are the intermediary between customer cash and cannabis goods.  Friction equals more effort and more effort equals time lost. Reducing the amount of time it takes to process orders “on the go” creates a steady stream of income and places priority on what keeps you afloat—increasing sales.

Be sure that your POS system makes the best of your time and moves your business in a way that promotes improvement. Simple to use and easy to learn keeps the attention on helping customers and moving product.

The Power of E-Commerce

Maximizing your business’ potential by creating a simple-to-use e-commerce website that can take online orders is an asset to your business. Professionalization of your cannabis business will increase orders, generate additional revenue, and ultimately create delivery service loyalty.

Texting a delivery service to place orders not only makes your business look illegitimate but makes it a hassle for your customers to get what they want, when they want it. In an expedient world where just about everything takes place on a mobile device, tapping into this realm of business should be central to selecting a POS system.

Websites that are integrated directly with your menu items, product descriptions, and different categories of cannabis products are essential for delivery success. There’re fewer ways to make customer experiences more intuitive than to give them access to your full available menu. With a point-of-sale that processes mobile orders, delivery services can capitalize on marketshare.

Online consumption of goods and services takes your business to the next level and legitimizes your company while keeping the offering process to a minimum. Partner with an all-in-one point-of-sale that gives you this freedom!

Don’t lose time to problem-ridden software!

Few things are worse than dealing with unreliable software. Putting your business at risk with faulty hardware and “down time” to fix the issue is something that no business owner should have to deal with. Customer support is a huge part of point-of-sale system integration that should be considered. The purpose of using a point-of-sale is to make money, not lose it. Look out for faulty software that’ll waste your time and your customer’s.

Is your server secure enough to run your operation?

Server reliability is a mandatory asset of point-of-sale systems that needs to be closely examined. Your POS should be incredibly stable and be able to guarantee an “uptime” that can guarantee the success of your business. As a point-of-sale is your breadwinner and main method of reporting sales, tracking inventory, and managing staff, you can’t afford to deal with a broken system. Make sure your system is on a secure server such as Amazon Web Services that also encrypts your data to increase security and increase guaranteed “uptime.”

Hardware Selection

Maintaining records of your sales history is not only important for legal purposes, but also for reviewing your business’ reports.Your POS system should offer a simple and intuitive way of reviewing sales, tracking deliveries, and ensuring that inventory adjustment take place in an efficient manner.

Hardware that makes purchases easier includes, but is not limited to: barcode & ID scanners, tablets, and label printers. Be sure to choose a POS system that seamlessly integrates with hardware of your choice.

Sales Tracking

Revenue reports are a way to make sure your business is staying profitable. Tracking sales is by far one of the most important ways of tracking performance. Tracking sales performance by customer and the overall amount of income they bring to your business, can be a vital tool to assess inventory and adjust your options to the demand of customers.

Look for a POS that allows you to instantly access sales reports at the end of the day and influence your decision-making skills with the ultimate goal of maintaining a solid relationship with your customers.

Compliance Alerts

Daily limits on the amount of cannabis goods that can be sold to individuals can help keep compliance in order. POS systems that offer this have your best interest in mind. Other compliance alerts to consider are age verification, medical recommendation validation, hours of operation, and laboratory results.

Related: 4 Obligations of a California Cannabis Delivery Service Inventory Manager

Economic viability keeps you in business, right?

POS systems should make you money, not break the bank! Monthly payment structures or yearly payment plans are amongst the most common. Ideally, software should consistently work in your favor.

Aside from curating an enjoyable experience for your drivers and customers, your job as a delivery service owner is to generate revenue.

It’s no secret that an increase in revenue allows you to strategically expand your outreach.

POS systems don’t have to be outright expensive and they certainly shouldn’t add stress to your daily operations due to price. Consider options that don’t hurt your business, but instead want to be part of your success!

Free software like WebJoint’s, takes your best interest into consideration and works to make you money!

WebJoint takes pride in connecting the cannabis industry by offering software to delivery and dispensary owners alike. Generating revenue and curating a seamless experience for customer access to cannabis goods takes a top priority.

Simplifying the user experience and administrative duties such as reporting to METRC, tracking sales, and providing real-time delivery driver location, WebJoint is a frontrunner in available choices for POS systems.

1. Probably one of the most important pieces of data that you collect, sales reports not only allow you to asses the current state of your delivery service’s income, but also creates a fool proof way of identifying purchasing habits.

Daily sales reports are to be integrated with METRC, but aren’t only used to figure out the amount of sales that you complete on any given day.

Using sales reports to make informed decisions on your inventory management techniques relates to the ability to increase profitability by adjusting stock of products that are moving quickly. Products that are flying off shelves should be seen as an opportunity to capitalize on the demand of the market while liquidating stock that is holding up the potential for revenue to be made.

Data can reveal some shocking patterns as to what products are holding up profit and need to be moved in a way that effectively promotes your business’ success.

Geographical location and patterns associated with the purchasing of products give you the upper hand in making future projections on inventory decisions like what product to stock more of, product that needs to be liquidated, and future trends. Stocking your favorite brands and best selling product is one way to make sure you’re on the right track!

Related: Breaking Down CA Cannabis Taxes to Your Customers

It makes no sense for delivery drivers to be unprepared for any given situation they might encounter.

Making sure your delivery drivers are ready to complete orders as they come in can be made simple with the ability to track common patterns in purchase orders by geographical location. This also helps you diversify your inventory in ways that are appealing to customers by are. What’s more is that tracking common purchasing patterns can help generate an idea of the way in which cannabis goods are priced to sell. Economic basics of supply and demand take a more-than-literal approach to solving the issue of being readily prepared.

Tracking metrics that relate directly to the amount fo sales being made and the category of each sale creates a wide database of numerical value that can be turned into monetary value should your drivers be prepared for all deliveries.

Surely you’ve experienced a situation where an order has been placed and your delivery driver doesn’t have the necessary product to fulfill the order successfully. This stops when data is taken from a main source and broken down into valuable bits of information.

The result is the ability to automatically dispatch divers with the necessary goods, placing special emphasis on proactive efforts, not react ones.

Make sure your driver kits are ready on a daily basis and have what your customers are asking for.

Demographics can play out to be an important point of data that should be looked at to adjust the total bandwidth that your delivery service can cover. Details from time of deliveries, geographical location, and purchasing habits of repeat customers can be used to make decisions that take your company’s best interest into consideration.

A complete breakdown of your customer’s demographics can give you a better idea of the marketing tactics that should take a front seat in your daily operations. Customer data gives you an idea on age, location, and spending habits. Use it!

With drivers able to spend 30 minutes of free time away from your central location, you can accurately project where purchases are going to be made based on the time of day. Staying ahead of the game by dispatching drivers to the area that orders are coming from gives you an advantage of servicing an area in a quick and efficient manner!

Related: 3 Reasons California Cannabis Delivery Services Fail to Retain Customers

As a consumer, it makes little sense to use a delivery service if you have to guess when your delivery driver may arrive with the product that you’ve ordered. Eliminating the issue of not being able to communicate in real-time with drivers can truly be the deciding factor as to whether or not a customer chooses to use your business again.

Safety is a large concern for an industry that has been deemed a “cash-only” industry. The comfort and safety of your customers and staff should take a central position in the way that you choose to run operations. Real-time communications between consumer and driver allow for safe transactions to take place with the guessing game being eliminated from the process.

Is this an issue you’re trying to fix?

Check out what Tookan has to offer! Tookan gives dispatch centers the ability to see delivery driver locations in real-time and track each delivery vehicle as it progresses on routes. Decreasing the risk by way of providing a means to communicate with drivers and create a consumer-driver dialogue, Tookan has changed the way that cannabis delivery services operate. Adding to that, the software company puts a date & time stamp on every order received as well as each completed task which makes staying compliant that much easier.

Related: 7 Questions to Ask When Purchasing Software for Your Cannabis Delivery Service

Let’s cut to the chase with this one—your driver inventory kit should NEVER let down a customer. This means that drivers should keep a live inventory ledger of the product that they are carrying not only to be sure that they can fulfill the requested order but stay compliant by making live adjustments to the quantity of products being carried. Delivery services that ignore this simple part of being in business are ultimately the ones that lose customers just as fast as they were gained.

Customers that aren’t capable of being serviced due to a driver lacking stock in their driver kit is a blatant “no-no” that can be easily avoided. Unfulfilled orders clearly result in a loss of revenue and influence customers to find a delivery service that consistently delivers on their promise.

Make sure your drivers are always stocked with your best selling product as delivery service customer loyalty comes down to blowing your customer’s expectations out of the water!

Establishing a rewards system in the form of a customer loyalty program is a common way of retaining customers that is oftentimes overlooked.

Try offering tiered rewards systems that have realistic and tangible prizes for returning customers. Loyalty points give you the opportunity to engage customers in a way that is personal and builds upon an established relationship between your business and clientele.

Providing realistic and tangible rewards in order to promote a sense of urgency makes loyalty systems pay for themselves. The premise of rewards systems is not only to retain customers, but do so in a way that provides value for the customers and centers a customer’s autonomy to redeem the points that they have earned. For additional details on the types of rewards systems that you can offer your customers, check out our article on Successfully Implementing a Rewards Program for Your Cannabis Delivery Service.
Loyalty programs have the ability to maintain the relationship you have previously established with your customer in ways that others can’t!

Providing your customers with the brands they want at your dispensary is one way to make sure they come back. The other is by ensuring that you have consistent branding throughout the entirety of your operation. Having a team that carries forward an attitude that looks to blow your customer’s mind each time they walk in is one way to rise to the top. Operating with the attitude of being able to provide your customers with accurate and new information every time they visit, not only shows your attention to detail with recent developments, but can make your location a centerpiece for educational content.

Providing your customers with information on where the product they are interested in comes from, who grows it, extracts it, and the brand’s core values is important to providing a customer experience! Facts on the brands you carry are easy to attain and show a deeper appreciation for the impact that a product may have on an individual’s life.

Customers go to dispensaries for a particular experience as much as they visit to purchase their favorite brand’s product. Being able to improve their connection to the industry in a way that provides them with some sort of educational value goes above and beyond seeing them as a means to an end—and believe me, they’ll know it!

Providing your customer with new information that’ll either improve or reinforce their understanding of the way the cannabis industry works is one way to stat to build a relationship with that customer. Other ways that are effective, begin with understanding why they are in your retail location to begin with. Is it a medical reason? Recreational enjoyment? First-time consumership that looks to dive into the world of legal cannabis?

Customer retention gives your dispensary the upper hand as you have the ability to track purchase habits and follow up with the results or improvement of conditions the a customer may be treating in a medicinal way. In recreational cases, a customer relationship might touch upon new products that align with the customer interests.

Stay on top of it and keep notes on customers in order to engage them in a raw, human-to-human way

We’ve previously covered the importance of branding your dispensary in a way that creates an environment that is welcoming for each customer; now let’s touch upon a few other important aspects.

Your overall branding starts with the logo that you create and the relationship between your logo and the core values of your company. With that being said, having a logo is more important than just creating something that looks good and has little-to-no thought process behind the meaning. From the logo to the aesthetic appeal of your location with color palette, furniture, and apparel, creating an environment that is easy to understand has a significant impact.

Music that fits the “vibe” of your location is one way to work on the subconscious level of the consumer, allowing for the energy in the room to stay high and positive. Your location’s vibe is everything and little factors add up to provide big value.

Be sure to keep branding consistent and take the time to think about the meaning behind selected colors, music, and furniture.

Understanding what customers are looking for starts with engaging your customer in a way that creates an open line of communication. Following up with customers and potential clients isn’t just an effective sales method, but shows that as a fellow community member in the cannabis space, your staff is paying attention to the important aspects of providing alternative medical and recreational choices to the general public.

Use patient data and purchase history to your advantage from a point-of-sale that provides you with accurate sales reports on-the-fly. Following up to make sure that what your customer purchased the last time they were in was satisfactory, will make your customers understand that you care about their overall satisfaction.

Personal relationships and connections to your customer base raises the bar for competitors in your area while maintaining and improving customer relationships.

There is a multitude of ways to disappoint customers that come into your dispensary. One of the top ways to disappoint a customer is to lack the item they are looking for. This means that updated online menus are an absolute must while giving your customer the ability to order directly from your website.

Unconverted sales due to low stock are not only easily avoidable but are one way to deter your customers from returning to your location. Retail locations that are able to get what a customer wants, time and time again, provide a seamless experience while capitalizing on consistent revenue. Maintain an eye on the level of your menu items and convert sales by being able to fulfill requested orders.

The facts are simple: you disappoint customers when they visit your store & you can’t provide what they want—stop this problem in its tracks and be sure to keep an accurate menu of items in stock.

Online ordering is hands-down the easiest way of getting the goods that you are looking for. The digital age has centered online ordering as the go-to method for making sales. The reason Amazon seems to have “taken over the world” is because of how quick and painless it is to use their website.

Cannabis is no different and as a delivery service, being able to take orders online increases the amount of sales that you can process which means that you are bringing in more money than you previously were capable of. E-commerce helps give customers more access to cannabis goods while streamlining the purchasing process.

Related: 7 Questions to Ask When Purchasing Software for Your Cannabis Delivery Service

What you do with sales data matters. Setting up a website for your delivery service comes with positives that extend beyond increasing the amount of orders that you can process. E-commerce allows you to track data points such as the average amount that your customers spend, how frequently they are purchasing products, and what they are purchasing.

Using this data to improve your day-to-day operations gives you the ability to analyze what changes need to be made to your inventory and more importantly, give you a fool-proof way of adjusting your marketing tactics. It’s a fact that retaining a customer is easier than finds getting a new one so be sure to use your sales data to re-market to specific customer groups.

Related: Using Data to Maximize Cannabis Delivery Service Efficiency

A big problem with the majority of delivery services is the inability to be contacted by consumers that have questions about products, setting up delivery, and overall general communication. By having a website, clients no longer have to wonder about how to communicate with your business. This means that customers can experience a heightened level of customer service and choose your delivery service over a competitor’s.

If customers can’t contact you with questions, chances are they are moving onto the next delivery service that carries the same products that you do—make sure that you retain these customers by providing them with the necessary ways of contacting you. Common methods include a hotline, text messaging, and having a chat widget directly on the website.

Related: Growing Your Manufacturing Business by Aviva Spectrum

It’s safe to say that the majority of the population knows how to use google for internet searches. By having a website, you can be sure to show up in these searches and work on the SEO of your business. SEO relates directly to your website’s ranking in google searches and believe it or not, this is an incredibly useful tool that a website provides you with.

Raising brand awareness starts with your website and funnels into social media that can then be used to link to your website and begin taking orders. Having a loyal following is sure-fire way of rising to the top!

The internet is an international database of information. Take advantage of the fact that websites can be seen from anywhere around the world by establishing a website that highlights your core values, best practices, and tells your company’s story. Control the narrative of your company and show the world that your delivery service is a top-notch choice that everyone should strive to be like.

If cost is prohibiting you from creating a website, rest assured in knowing that free website builders are available to use! Although there may not be a severe level of customization offered with free services, having a basic website is better than not having one at all. The barrier to entry with free sites is quite literally only relevant to whether or not you want to make the effort to create a website.

Different growing techniques are one aspect of the industry that customers are showing an increased interest in. To name a few: Indoor, outdoor, organic, non-organic, soil, and hydroponic are methods that are used to cultivate cannabis.

Cultivation practices that center small-batch techniques are perfect for the mindful consumer that is interested in boutique brands. These smaller brands not only offer an increased ROI due to the simple principle of supply and demand, but also offer customers to choose a brand with a mission statement they want to support.

Aligning a customer’s values to that of a brand creates a new avenue of the purchasing process that should be taken advantage of.

The same can be said about concentrate products that are in high demand. Different extraction methods such as using CO2 and the difference between nug and trim runs are a few methods to stay well-versed on. Clients looking for a certain type of concentrate may be surprised that a companies’ methods are comparable to another brand’s, suddenly yielding an opportunity to expand options.

It’s pretty simple: large-scale operations may put out a quality product, but not align with the ethics and values that a customer believes should be supported. Small-batch goods may not appeal to the customers that are interested in large-scale, consistent availability of a product. This is not to say that one is better than the other, but instead that these are factors that contribute to a customer’s purchasing decision.

Keeping your staff up-to-date on the different methods adds to the customer experience and overall ability to retain them as a repeat client.

Related: 7 Questions to Ask When Purchasing Software for Your Cannabis Delivery Service

The ethics of a brand and the value this brings to the industry is part of the new-age paradigm shift that is occurring. In the same way that consumers are mindful of the products they purchase, cannabis consumers are starting to understand that the same principle can be carried over when making purchases!

A company’s core values are the bread and butter of their operating practices. Mindful consumers might be interested in hearing about these values as they translate into the quality of the product that is being offered. It also gives the customers an opportunity to find causes they would like to support or tap into an identity that a brand looks to portray.

The core values of any given brand is reflected in the type of packaging they use. Opting for renewable and sustainable methods is one avenue of core values that illustrates, for example, the importance of environmental issues on a micro scale.

Related: 5 Questions Customers Will Ask That Your Cannabis Delivery Service Staff Should be Able to Answer

Supporting small business is nothing new and the emotional connection that consumers make to particular brands results in brand loyalty while providing a constant factor that influences future consumer choices.

Supporting local businesses is an important new-age approach to buying products. Customers looking to contribute to local brands should be guided into knowing about the geographical location of goods they are looking to purchase, which in turn influences the scope of products that might be of interest to them.

But there’s more than just explaining that a brand is from a particular area. The terroir of a region provides a source of information that consumers might adhere to. The variety of flavors, environmental influence on growing, and regional differences are noticeable to the connoisseurs of the bunch. In short, different geographical locations can produce different flavors due to the influence that the environment helps play a part of.

The origins of a cannabis product such as it’s location taps into the age-old practice of examining fine wines. In a similar way that wines carry territorial traits that are picked out by specialists, cannabis too has particular traits that can only be found in specific areas of the world. Strains take on traits as generational growing practices are passed down, creating unique characteristics that are the signature of a particular region.

This is just one example of how location may influence purchasing habits.

Indoor and outdoor growing techniques are oftentimes central to weather-permitting locations and this too can be an indicator that your customers look for. Outdoor brands coming from the Mendocino Triangle, for example, are primarily grown outdoor under the sun, taking terroir and naturalistic practices to the purest level.

Location can help consumers identify with the current cannabis scene in their area and for those with greater experience, helps promote that “signature” trait that is being looked for.