What do your charity shop volunteers get up to in their day to day? They turn up for the day, open up the shop, man the tills, organise the stock, and take donations. Maybe it’ll be a relatively quiet and peaceful day. Other times it might be hectic with people constantly coming in and out.

There’s no predicting what each day will hold. And that’s part of what makes being a volunteer so fun. But no matter the day, and no matter the charity, there will always be common problems that affect them. Inefficiencies that slow their day down and keep them from bringing their best to the table.

They might seem like nothing more than a small nuisance, but they add up. A wasted minute here and there builds up to hours worth of wasted time across a week. And your volunteers won’t want that getting in their way. It’s frustrating! Let’s take a look at four common problems that are likely slowing them down.

Slow or complicated shop tills

There’s nothing more awkward than having to twiddle your thumbs while you wait for something to load. And when it’s stopping you from serving a customer, it can be downright embarrassing. All they want is to buy a new outfit and your EPoS is acting up. It only takes one bad experience for customers to stop interacting with brands.

Or maybe it’s not slow. Maybe it’s complicated. With volunteers coming and going, the last thing you want is an EPoS system that’s difficult to understand. It should be intuitive and designed for volunteers with varying levels of digital skills.

Large queues

Do you know what the above leads to? Large queues. And these are going to really annoy customers, as well as your volunteers. You serve customer after customer and it never feels like the queue is going down. If you only have one till, there’s not much you can do other than deal with it slowly.

What would be better is if your volunteers could take the EPoS to the queue. That way, one person could be seeing to customers at the till while another is taking care of them while they wait using a mobile device.

Gift Aid is a roadblock

Claiming Gift Aid can be an issue. It’s a detailed process of collecting information, slowing down the purchase process and potentially annoying customers. Because it can be so laborious, too much Gift Aid slips between the cracks and goes missed. Not to mention all the unnecessary paperwork it can cause.

Volunteers want this to be easier. It should be an included part of every purchase and rely on digital forms to make data collection simpler. This way, you can secure more Gift Aid opportunities.

Managing stock

Donations are the lifeblood of charities. Where would we be without people donating their old clothes, furniture, and possessions? But keeping track of what you have is a huge issue. How can volunteers see what’s available? How do they know whether they should or shouldn’t accept certain donations?

This information needs to be at their fingertips, not spread across multiple different platforms or in a spreadsheet. Combine it with an easy-to-use interface and they’ll have what they need to handle stock queries quickly.

Volunteers are giving up their spare time out of the goodness of their heart. So the least charities can do is make it as simple and enjoyable as it is fulfilling. This means equipping them with the tools to get their work done to the best of their ability, with nothing slowing them down. What they need is the perfect charity EPoS solution.

CHARiotWeb is the culmination of decades working in the retail and charity retail sectors. Each feature has been designed with you and your volunteers in mind. Large queues, Gift Aid, and stock management are no concern. Book your demo today to find out what we can do for you. Or call us on 01204 706000.