Help me select my new cash register part seven

Here is my question seven of ten from our series "Help me pick the right cash register for my business" Question number seven is"Do I need integrated credit card / gift card?"

In my humble opinion in almost 100% of the case if you take credit card and/or gift card in your business you should interface your cash register with the credit card payments. Why you may be asking since it can be expensive? There are three huge reasons why you want to interface and each one can and should make you more money.

1. Speed, your cashiers have fewer buttons to press and no waiting for a terminal to dial out or another cashier using the credit card machine
2. Reduced errors. Because the cash register and credit card are fully integrated the cashier does not have to re-enter the amount of the sale. They simply press the credit card button, swipe the card and the register gets the auth at high speed. No longer does the cashier have to get a subtotal from the register, move to the credit card terminal and key in the total and swipe the card. More often then you think a cashier will enter a $19.75 dollar sale in as $9.75 or $1.97 etc etc. The customer never seems to notice when it is in their favor. The cashier is not stealing they are just trying to be quick and make mistakes.When interfaced even if the cashier over-ride the amount the cash register will error until the entire amount is satisfied.
3. Reduced Theft. Cashiers will often not ring a credit card sale into the cash register and take out the cash from the register from another sale of the same amount that they did ring in. When interfaced the ONLY way to get an auth on a card is to have a sale rang in. Many merchants are being stolen from like this right now and they have no idea because your register will still balance if a thief is good and believe me some of them are that good!

Integrating a private label gift card is just as important. Most good merchant services companies will offer you a free gift card program when you process with them. That allows you to sell your own private label gift card instead of paper gift certificates. People us gift cards as real gifts far more often than paper certificates, they come in and spend more than the card quite often and often they don't use them and the beauty is YOU HOLD ALL THE MONEY not a credit card company!

So should you buy a cash register that has the ability to interface credit card and gift card YES you should!