Australian Newsagency Blog

Newsagents around Australia have the Tax Pack available now.  To better handle the customer queries this week and next, our team has placed the Tax Pack in an easy to access location in a small display with financial year diaries.  While we are giving over valuable retail real-estate to this loss leader, we know from […]

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I am concerned at reports that the Royal Australian Mint is planning to scrap the 5 cent coin.  I don’t want the 5 cent coin scrapped.  I like that I can price items at 5 cents under a round dollar amount.  The 5 cent price break is a service to consumers.  The arguments put for […]

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The small display supporting prepaid Visa at the edge of our lottery counter is generating good sales of prepaid Visa cards and attracting good top-up business.  For a bit of passive marketing it is doing very well.  The growth over the last few months has been excellent. We are finding former BOPO customers happy with […]

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When speaking at newsagent conferences and workshops over the last two years I have asked what do we stand for?  A common answer from newsagents was community connection, being local.
Being connected with the local community is a good unique selling proposition when most of what we sell in our newsagencies is available from other businesses, […]

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Tower Systems is hosting four newsagent specific free online training workshops this week:

Magazine putaways management 21/04/2009 11am
Newspaper home deliveries and customer management 21/04/2009 2pm
Magazine management workshop 23/04/2009 11am  (The most popular online workshop this year by far!)
Retail stock management 23/04/2009 2pm

To book a free place, please go to the Tower Systems website, and click on online training.  You will […]

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Tattersalls and Intralot have both suffered network outages recently and both failed to keep their respective networks informed. It is hard to believe that it is 2009 when you experience such poor communication followed up by buck passing and lame excuses.
We have old technology like mobile phones and email and new online communications channels […]

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Check out the photo of a pair of pink booties we received at one of our shops last week.  What should have been Angel has been spelled as Angle.  The misspelling gave me a smile.  Sure, QA processes for the Australian supplier ought to have picked it up but, hey, nobody is perfect in spelling […]

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Click here for a PDF copy of our April 2009 customer newsletter for our newsXpress Forest Hill shop.
We have copies of the newsletter on a stand at the front of our newsagency  - for any passer-by to take. This is in addition to advertising flyers promoting ink, books and other deals we also make available […]

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In another first, Tower Systems launched Software Ideas on Friday, a facility at its website which gives its newsagent users a greater say in the direction of the software and delivers greater transparency over the product development process.
The Software Ideas initiative is as a direct result of several Tower team members reading Jeff Jarvis’ book […]

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The power to the Tower Systems Head Office and several blocks around was knocked out just before 9:30 this morning.  While it is back on now (10:15), we were able to keep our 1,500 newsagent customers informed of alternative support access points through various information channels including this blog.  Since we take between 200 and […]

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My software company, Tower Systems, formally launched its online Training Academy for newsagents today.  This is an exciting move for us and for newsagents - guaranteeing a on-goinging training opportunities which will help produce better outcomes for newsagents, their customers and their suppliers.
Free online Training Academy for newsagents and newsagent staff
MELBOURNE – March 10, 2009 […]

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Newsagents who see their businesses as being important and connected to the local community ought to check out My Shop Is Your Shop.  The My Shop Is Your Shop - Local And Proud Of It campaign was established in 2004 in support of a campaign promoting independent retailers in the UK.  It focuses effort around […]

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Click here to download a copy of our March customer newsletter.  As the photo shows, we have this in a help-yourself stand at the front of our newsagency at Forest Hill.  While it is a bit of work to produce the newsletter, it is a valuable way we spread our stories to passers-by.

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Tower Systems yesterday announced a comprehensive schdule of free online training for newsagents using its point of sale software.  There are several new training programs including help for all the POS Solutions users transitioning to Tower.  Online training is free.  It is time friendly - do it at the shop or at home - and […]

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I served a customer yesterday who had been told by a friend to come to our newsagency for a calendar for her favourite dog breed. This customer drove past two major shopping centres in 46 degree heat to get the calendar – for her dog. She bought another calendar, a magazine and a […]

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A customer has asked to buy one of the Valentine’s Day posters we created for our Sophie Randall businesses.
This is the second time we have encountered this in the last few months at Sophie. Apparently, the customer loves the image of the girl kissing the frog and they want it for their bedroom.
The requests […]

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Following four filled to capacity workshops already this year, Tower Systems has scheduled four additional free online Magazine Management training sessions.  The additional magazine management training sessions will cover the latest requirements for fficient and compliant magazine EDI returns and control.  They are to be held:

Tuesday January 20 11:00am
Thursday January 22 2:00pm
Tuesday January […]

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These postcards make customers happy - when they browse and when they purchase.  Their positive message is infectious to people open to feeling happy.  They are part of a range we have from Compendium.  In several of our stores are have a happy space where everything is about nurturing happiness.  We have not signed the […]

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Jason, the Manager of our newsXpress Forest Hill store was bitten by a customer yesterday.  The customer was trying to retrieve two credit cards he handed over for a transaction.  Jason suspected, based on a call from our bank’s fraud department on Monday, that one of the cards was stolen.  The customer became agitated and got […]

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A customer complained at one of our stores yesterday that because of us, their son now knows that Santa Clause is not real.  Their son saw a Letter From Santa at our counter and when they got home he asked them about it.  The customer returned to the store and complained face to face and […]

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I spent five hours behind the counter working in one of my shops this afternoon.  While I am in my shops regularly and invariably serve customers, I rarely put in more than a hour at the coounter in any one stint.  The experience today reminded me…

Good customer service is appreciated.  I saw customers spend mroe as […]

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I was driving past another Tattersalls billboard promoting their online offering yesterday and was thinking about how we can compete against their lure of customers from retail  
Customer service is the best way we have of competing with the growing online lottery business. 
I can hear people yawning or reaching for the back button already.  […]

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Sam, a Sydney taxi driver, delivered one of the most amazing customer service experiences I have ever had. Yes, a Sydney taxi driver!
Sam, I don’t know his surname, has been driving taxis for nine months. Prior to that he owned a couple of Italian restaurants and had worked in hospitality in Sydney for […]

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Some phonecard companies recently changed their terms, effectively increasing costs for customers.  One introduced a surcharge of 69 cents once a call passes three minutes, another introduced an 80 cent disconnection fee and another introduced a daily service fee.  There are other changes beyond these.  The per minute cost is just part of the equation.  […]

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At the River View Hotel in Brisbane on Friday, I received one of the best customer service experiences I can recall. What really excited me about the customer service experience is that it had nothing to do with personal service. No, this exceptional experience had to do with business standards and processes.
I was […]

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