Case Study -UK Retailer

"How I slashed my cash handling costs..."

An interview with Nisa member, Sukh Gill

Sukh Gill runs Nisa stores in Derby with his brother and father. Recently they introduced Volumatic’s CCi technology in one of their stores...

"Whilst we were expanding our business, we could not simply expand our time as business owners, in the same way. So we were looking for ways to give ourselves, our managers and our staff more time, especially around the issue of cash management.


Like many Nisa members, historically we processed cash in seven stages...

1. The customer hands cash over to the cashier in payment for goods

2. Our cashiers skim £200 into an envelope every time they reached a certain float level.

3. Supervisors collect the envelopes and place them in a safe.

4. Managers open envelopes and check that the contents are correct.

5. The takings are then sorted into denominations and deposit paperwork prepared for banking.

6. A staff member goes to the bank and waits in line to make a deposit.

7. At the bank the cashier would again count all of the money, whilst we waited, and then credit our account.


This meant that we were handling our cash routinely for around 1 hour per day. If we assume that the cost of a senior staff member averages £10 an hour and since we are open 365 days a year, we saw that our cash handling was costing us around £3,650 a year at an absolute minimum; but only when everything went according to plan, which of course it does not!

Inevitably the more cash you take in, the more anomalies that you have. On one occasion a cash discrepancy took hours and hours of reviewing CCTV footage to identify what had happened.

Of course, the more cash they have around them the less secure staff are and feel. And where cash goes missing there is the specter of suspicion that descends on everyone in the store pending satisfactory resolution of the matter. That is particularly unfair and distressing for staff that have done nothing wrong. And of course the busier we got, the more cash we handled and the greater amount of time and cost required.

We came across Volumatic’s CCi at a national trade show...

Having made our first installations our experience has been outstanding. We have taken our cash handling process down from seven steps to just two. Our cashier accepts the money and a member of staff takes it to the bank – we don’t need to count it and neither does the bank. It is that simple! The CounterCache intelligent (“CCi”) is a simple unit into which cashiers feed notes as they are accepted at the till point. As the note is fed into it, the unit instantaneously validates the note, to make sure it is not a forgery, counts it, stacks it and stores it in a tamper evident bag pouch within a strong outer casing. As business owners we know how much cash is at any till point at any time day or night. By simply hooking up a laptop remotely, and using very simple software called CashView, we can see how much has been taken and what denominations are at any till point. Our cash handling costs have been driven down rapidly. And then there are also the additional benefits to our business, such as improved staff morale and safety.

The cashier only accepts the note – we never handle it again...

That’s it! So there is no real cost in cashier time with counting skims and envelopes, etc. Since CCi checks for forgeries with 100% accuracy, we never get forged notes anymore. Anyone trying to launder that sort of money goes elsewhere because they know they cannot pass it through our tills. The only thing left to do is have any member of staff drop the pouch off at the bank. Simple!

Banking paperwork is completed at just the touch of a button...

The cash is safely stored in a pouch that is tamper evident which means money cannot be removed from the pouch without leaving evidence. When we deposit the full pouch at the bank, the CCi has proven itself so accurate that they do not even count it.

The CCi unit itself is compact and fits well with the counter system. The price point was also very good and we will receive a 100% ROI easily within 18 months, possibly within twelve.

The best thing about CCi is that it helps us serve our customers better...

By freeing up hours of back office staff time, we can spend that time with customers, delivering a better customer shopping experience. Initially staff were skeptical about the CCi solution. People do not like change, especially when it is going to revolutionise a tried and trusted cash handling system. I think staff expected that the machine would go wrong, cause problems and inevitably fail to live up to the hype. Actually nothing could be further from the truth. Skepticism turned to enthusiasm very quickly as people saw for themselves how easy it was to use the system.

The ultimate endorsement of the CCi is that word has spread and other staff are asking for the equipment to be installed at their locations, so that they can simplify their cash handling procedures too. They feel that they are having to work harder because they must offer new higher levels of customer service AND handle cash the old way too. They feel that they are working harder than their colleagues who use CCi! They will be pleased when that installation is completed too.

nisa case study uk retailer volumatic cci

Our business motto has always been “How can we do business, simpler, faster and cheaper than the competition and the CCi has helped us do exactly that!”.

For more information on the Volumatic CCi, click the button below...

Read More on the CCi

 

Case study article published with permission from Volumatic UK | Image Source: http://www.nisalocally.co.uk/

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