As a small pharmacy owner, you have plenty of responsibilities on your plate — and the biggest hurdle of all is managing to give customers the care they expect from a local business while still being able to compete with bigger chain pharmacies in terms of pricing and product selection.

Many customers won’t automatically assume that a retail pharmacy POS system is something that your business needs in order to function properly, but business owners from every industry will know just important this equipment is. The thing that many business owners don’t know, however, is when it’s time to update that POS system, either by replacing the entire thing or simply getting some updated software.

So how exactly can you know that it’s time to update your pharmacy POS software and equipment? Here are a few of the most common things you’ll start to notice:

• Your customers are queuing for so long, some are even leaving the store. When your checkout lines get too long, customers are going to leave without making a purchase — we’ve all done it, and we know that a store with long lines isn’t one you want to go back to. If your POS system is too old, the time it takes to make a transaction is going to keep getting longer and longer.
  

• You’re having trouble managing inventory — either you have too many products, or you have empty shelves. Newer pharmacy POS software will help you manage the front end of your store, with respect to item negotiations and reordering. This is an incredibly important feature because you need to utilize every inch of space in your store.
  

• Your POS system keeps getting viruses. If your POS system has had a virus, you’ve definitely had to get the software repaired before; if you notice that your system keeps getting small viruses after it’s been repaired and after you’ve installed malware protection, it’s a sign that your system is too vulnerable to cyberhackers and needs to be updated.

So what do you think — is it time to update your pharmacy POS system yet?