As I sit down to write this, I honestly can say it is hard to put down into words all that has happened this last year to our customers, employees, vendors, friends, family and communities near and far.
Our support department has been fielding questions about the new alcohol tax being implemented in the Municipality of Anchorage - so we decided to ask the experts! And, we had a very useful and informative follow-up meeting with representatives from the Treasury Division at the Municipality of Anchorage in December. We really appreciate the time they spent with us.
What does it mean to share credit card fees with customers? We have had several inquiries lately, so thought we would pass along a little bit of information.
If you are a business that accepts credit cards, you know that there are fees involved. And historically, a customer that pays in cash pays the same price as a customer that pays with a credit card. Many just accept this as the cost of doing business. However, with card acceptance at 80% or higher, businesses are starting to take a second look at the fees and ways they can share these fees with customers that want the convenience of using their card.
Start saving some of those fees to put back into your business.
During the pandemic, one lesson quickly learned by many businesses is that they needed an online presence - for restaurants, grocery stores and retail. Consumers are demanding the online shopping experience and convenience. For restaurants, in many ways, the task is fairly simple - as menus are limited and easy to quickly put online.
We know that you have a million things on your minds right now, so we want to help you and your business with this process. February will be here before you know it - so we want to help you prepare now.
We have been in communication with the folks in the Tax Department at the Municipality of Anchorage and are meeting with them again today to get clarification on some of the details. In the meantime, we wanted to share with you some of the resources from their website. You can read more on MOA's website or download their informative presentation from this link.
After our meeting, we will be sharing more details on collecting, reporting, and auditing requirements. We will also be providing specific instructions for our customers that are affected by this new tax.
Here are some of the highlights from their presentation:
Important Dates:
• December 1, 2020: Online registration opens
• February 1, 2021: Begin collecting alcohol tax
• March 15, 2021: Last day to register for certificate without incurring late registration penalty of $250
• March 31, 2021: Last day for filing first monthly tax return reporting taxable sales
and tax due; Last day for remitting tax due for the reporting month of February
First of all, I wanted to preface this story to say how sorry we were to hear about the theft of the ATM at Tastee Freez last week. I am sure many of you have seen the video by now. We are saddened and also mad that this happened to our good friends.
At Skurla's we are always looking at ways to improve customer service. And while you may not be able to phone home, our new system will allow us to answer your calls any place, any time, with our new Microsoft Teams Calling System.
We can take your call on our smart phone, tablet, computer and even on a traditional phone. And if you want to "talk" to us face to face, we even have a meeting app and conference phone number.
We were motived to migrate to a cloud solution at the beginning of the pandemic - as we are committed to providing seamless customer service no matter what the situation - working at home, in the office or wherever.
In the beginning, I am sure it will be a learning curve, so we appreciate your patience.
To continually improve ourselves and our service, we are completing a series of professional development workshops, facilitated by Jim Roddy, from the Retail Solutions Providers Association.
The first series is centered on Customer Service. In the last session, we read the book, Raving Fans, A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service, by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowes.
Ken Blanchard coined the term “raving fan” to describe a customer who is so overwhelmed and floored by the customer service they’ve received that they can’t stop telling everyone about it.
I thought I would share some of the highlights of this book to share with our customers:
MEDICINE HAT, AB and ANCHORAGE, AK – Auto-Star Compusystems Inc., an innovative developer of grocery software, and Skurla’s POS Solutions, Alaska’s premier POS and IT solution provider, are excited to announce an integration with the Star-Plus point of sale and Alaska eWIC program.
The solution provides retailers an efficient method of accepting eWIC cards, while offering WIC participants a number of benefits including:
- A quick and convenient checkout experience
- Increased privacy and security
- Improved customer service
- Fewer errors and loss due to unsigned or expired checks
- The ability to purchase items over multiple visits
The Alaska eWIC card looks like a debit card and can be used to purchase WIC approved foods. With eWIC integrated directly into the retailers point of sale, the system will automatically check the balance on the customer's card and verify that the purchases are WIC eligible.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five. The USDA requires that all states implement electronic benefit transfer (EBT) for WIC program benefits by October 1st, 2020. For more information on the Alaska eWIC program, please visit http://dhss.alaska.gov/dpa/Pages/nutri/wic/eWIC.aspx.
