Robin Bawa installed Henderson Technology’s EDGEPoS system in his Premier Burnpark Services in Kilmarnock last year and has found the solution a revelation, as he told SLR.
First of all, Can tell us a bit about yourself and your business?
My name is Robin Bawa from Burnpark Service Station in Kilmarnock on the Ayr Road. We started using EDGEPoS from Henderson Technology last year and we are very, very happy with it. We came into the forecourt business in 2016 when we inherited this unaffiliated petrol station at the time. We then joined Certas Energy, originally with Pace branding and now with Gulf branding.
What challenges are you facing and how are you tackling them?
Business is getting a little bit harder because of the price of fuel continually rising so it’s critical to us that we maximise efficiency. When we took over the store it had an EPoS system but we found it horrendous to work with. We quickly changed to a different system but, again, it just wasn’t right for us, so we changed again. In total we trialled four systems and none of them did what needed them to do.
What happened next?
We eventually moved to EDGEPoS and we have been absolutely delighted it with it. It has some brilliant features that I haven’t seen in any other system.
Such as?
Well, if a cashier puts a sale of fuel through as cash instead of credit card, in most systems you can’t bring it back. If a customer wants to pay by fuel card, it is an issue because they only go through if it’s a fuel sale, you cannot do any other product like grocery or soft drinks. So, when you do a refund for that fuel sale on Henderson POS, which was put through as cash, the fuel drops straight onto the pump. That’s great! I’ve never seen that before. So you can bring that sale back up and put it through as a fuel card, which has saved us a lot of hassle over the years. We used to have to phone the fuel card company to ask them to manually process the transaction and then have to wait another week or two weeks for it to come through before double-checking the stock, which is a lot of hassle.
What other features do you benefit from?
We do manual dips, we don’t have electronic dipping just yet. Over the years we found it really hard to find a system which can very easily do our wetstock management, instead of having to pay an outside company to do it. Henderson Technology has reduced the cost when it comes to wet stock management. We used to have to do it every day. Now we do it once or twice a week and the fuel stock is always perfect to within a litre.
What has your relationship with Henderson been like?
Ever since I first spoke to Christine, our sales rep, she has been phenomenal. She was so helpful. I did my homework, and I was going forward and backward with her for nearly two-and-a-half months to make sure it was the right system for us. Everything she promised, she delivered on. We even asked for things that were not available at the time, but they went away and fixed them and made them available to us. Henderson just keeps working with the retailer to make sure all their needs are getting looked at.
How was the installation process?
The customer support was exceptional. We were initially advised that down time would be eight hours and they eventually did it in just one hour and twelve minutes, to be precise, which was phenomenal. Even after that, you can give them a call any time. With many companies, all you get is voicemail when you call them out of hours – but not with EDGEPoS. You phone them at 6am on a Sunday morning and someone always answers, straight away. There’s no down time on the system with support like that. We haven’t had any problems at all with down time, but if we had any hiccups over the past year, if it’s a Saturday morning – and it mostly always is! – the guys are brilliant. They answer immediately, are straight onto the system then boom! Job done.
What else do you use EDGEPoS for?
We have an integration through EDGEPoS with our Navarra cigarette vending machine. I don’t know if many retailers are looking at the Navarra link but it’s brilliant and very secure. Before I started using Navarra, I asked Henderson for advice and they told me they have great links with them, and it worked seamlessly. I had heard horror stories about other EPoS companies when the installation goes ahead then cigarettes aren’t dispensing, the stock’s not right, the wrong cigarettes dispense and so on. I had no down time with Navarra and EDGEPoS. We’ve been using it for nine months and I haven’t had one issue. Everything ran very smoothly. The links are brilliant. They deliver on what they say, which is very good.
Final thoughts?
EDGEPoS is a very robust system and easy to use, they have delivered everything they promised on. From day one the customer service has been brilliant, whether it’s out of hours or during the day. They have cut my costs when it comes to stock management. What I was paying before was a little bit more every month. Then there’s the no-headache element and the customer service. I think I made a very good decision last year to adopt EDGEPoS and I hope many of you can join me on this journey because it’s one of the most amazing systems in the market for forecourts.
