There was a time when having a camera system in your business was merely for security.

By positioning your security system near points of interaction with customers or zones where your employees linger, you could watch employees or points of access and record this information for later viewing, allowing you, as a business owner, to observe the activity in your establishment. In many cases, this was seen simply as a way to capture attempts at theft for personal use, or perhaps providing information to police following theft. Along with the rest of the technology at your fingertips, camera systems have evolved beyond such a singular use and have become a method by which you can not only observe and record, but allows for tracking of employee behaviors and enhances your ability to monitor customer behavior as well.

Text Overlay

With our SMS/grocery systems, as well as the POSitouch restaurant software, we provide the ability to see a text overlay of each transaction as it occurs. When paired with the ability to access recent camera systems remotely, your ability to monitor potential theft increases exponentially. No longer do you have to squint through the video to determine your employee’s actions, but can see exactly what they enter into the system you’re operating. In grocery environments, this text can also display the items scanned, to potentially show any items an employee may have missed, intentionally or not. From the comfort of your home or while away on business, you can watch the activity within your store as if you were there. In fact, with the ability to swiftly switch between camera views, it’s as if you are an observer of every corner of your business covered by cameras.

Analytics

Additionally, analytics may be applied to camera systems which can be used in a number of ways. Through recent software updates, we may now provide you with information related to the numbers crossing a virtual line in the store, alerting you if a customer enters a pre-determined area or lingers in a specific area for longer than the average customer may be expected to stay. This technology may also be used to track the flow of customers through a retail environment, analyzing how they move to find the points where displays or notices may be used most effectively. In a purely practical sense, this may be used to alert a manager when the flow of customers toward checkout lanes may require additional personnel to meet the demands of the customers, rather than rely on “eyeballing” the number of customers in each lane.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, these technologies may be tied together to assist you in preventing theft and loss in a more effective manner. But, the modern surveillance system is not used merely for this sort of traditional operation. With the new features described above, you may use analytics tools to optimize staffing, count customers (and track their flow through your business), lower wait times and even assist with arrangement and layout of your store’s floor plan to optimize sales opportunities.

Regardless of your business space – hospitality or retail environments – the question isn’t whether you should have a surveillance system, it’s how you get the most out of it. If you have further questions about how you can increase your ability to manage your business through use of your existing camera system, or a brand new application for the future, please contact us at (insert email here).