3 Soft Costs for Your “Customer Services” (and how to ditch them)

Running a convenience store or grocery shop isn't easy. You're always looking for ways to cut costs and improve operations. Many stores try to bring in more customers by offering extra services at the register. These customer services might include paying utility bills, adding money to phones, lottery payouts, or money transfers.

At first glance, these services seem like a good idea. They bring people into your store who might buy other things. But here's the problem: these services come with hidden costs that eat away at your profits.

Really Long Lines (And Really Annoyed Customers)

Extra services take time. Each money transfer or bill payment adds additional people to your line, and the steps to perform those services usually take several minutes, especially those that have added compliance, ID checks, or other requirements. This creates longer lines at your register.

According to research from 6sigma, once a customer waits more than 3 minutes, each extra minute feels even longer. Even worse, while two-thirds of customers will wait up to 15 minutes in a line, they are far less likely to return to your place of business. Research from Waitwhile shows that over 80% of customers will actively avoid stores where they’ve experienced long waits. Even worse, they might tell others to avoid your store.

While your employees spend time on these low-profit services, they can't help with more important things, like selling products that actually make you money.

Accounting Nightmares

Most add-on customer services don't just make small profits – they also create accounting headaches. Each service usually requires:

• Separate bank accounts to manage
• Different profit-sharing agreements
• Special reports for each service provider
• Extra paperwork to track everything

This hidden cost means your employees spend more time in the back office. They're balancing books and running reports instead of focusing on profitable tasks. Time is money, and all this extra accounting steals time from growing your business.

Compliance Headaches

Money transfers, money orders, bill payments, and phone top-ups all come with risks. The government requires stores to:

• Follow bank secrecy and anti-money laundering rules
• Check customer IDs carefully
• Verify bank account numbers
• Keep detailed records

If you mess up, you could face fines or lose your ability to offer these services. Other risks include:

• Sending money to the wrong person
• Customers not having enough money in their accounts
• Meeting strict compliance rules that change often

These compliance requirements create stress and take time away from running your store.

How Can You Ditch These Hidden Costs?

There is good news. Now you can keep offering your add-on customer services without the headaches. BANK IN A BOX is a self-service kiosk that handles these services for you.

Here's how it works:

• Reduces Long Lines - Instead of customers waiting at your register, they use the self-service kiosk. This means:
  • Your registers stay free for buying products
  • Customers get more privacy when handling personal finances
  • Lines move faster because regular purchases don't get held up
• No More Accounting Headaches - BANK IN A BOX manages all the financial details directly with service providers. You don't need to:
  • Keep track of multiple bank accounts
  • Run special reports
  • Handle profit-sharing calculations
  • Deal with extra paperwork
• Bye-Bye Compliance Problems - The kiosk connects directly with service providers. This means:
  • All compliance rules are handled automatically
  • Customer information goes straight to the right company
  • You're not responsible for checking IDs or verifying accounts
  • The money transfer or bill pay company handles all the legal stuff

Keep the Service, Lose the Problems

With BANK IN A BOX, you can keep offering popular customer services without the three hidden. Your customers still get what they need, but you don't have to deal with

• Angry customers stuck in long lines
• Hours spent on extra accounting work
• Stress about meeting compliance rules

The bottom line? You can offer customer services that bring people into your store without losing money. The kiosk handles the complicated stuff so you can focus on what really matters – running a profitable business.

Don't let hidden costs eat your profits. With BANK IN A BOX, you can ditch these problems while keeping your customers happy.

TL;DR - Your add-on customer service perks (bill pay, money transfer, etc.) cause longer lines, accounting issues, and compliance headaches. You can ditch the issues but keep the services - with BANK IN A BOX!