Not surprisingly, the amount of time a customer spends on your checkout line can impact their perception of your business.

To be exact, 88 percent of U.S. adults would prefer faster point of sale transactions. But as your business flourishes and your checkout line grows, you might find yourself struggling to keep wait times low and transaction numbers high. To help you get over this hump while maintaining extraordinary customer service, we’ve put together a 5-step guide guaranteed to speed up your checkout lines and keep customers smiling.

Adopt Apple Pay

If you don’t already provide your customers the option to complete their transaction with Apple Pay, now’s the time to start. For any business operating in a high volume environment, Apple Pay offers an incredible opportunity to blow through point of sale transactions much more quickly. Though Apple Pay has been around for about a year now, the key here is to educate your regular customers about Apple Pay and walk them through their first Apple Pay transaction. When used correctly, Apple Pay transactions take only a few seconds to complete. While newer EMV chip card transactions can take up to seven to 10 seconds.

SEE ALSO: 4 Ways to Get More Customers Paying with Apple Pay

Adopt An iPad-Based POS System

You might already know that adopting an iPad-based POS system helps future proof your business and increase sales, but having the mobile capabilities of an iPad-based system will allow you to line-bust when your store gets busy. This decreases wait times and increases customer satisfaction. POS systems are also easier and more intuitive for your staff to use. They are customizable, allowing you to quickly add new items and delete those you no longer carry. The easier it is for your employees to complete transactions at the point of sale, the faster your checkout times will be.

Upgrade Your Wifi

Though it might already feel like you are paying through the nose for your Wifi, upgrading your connection can cause a significant reduction in point of sale transaction time when you use mobile credit card processing or virtual wallets. It might seem like an unnecessary additional expense at first, but when you start breezing through your checkout lines, you’ll be glad you did!

Send Digital Receipts

When lines get long, the last thing you want to do (or should be doing) is waiting for a receipt to print from your register. Allowing your customers the option to have receipts emailed to them will not only allow you the ability to collect emails and grow your email list, but will also speed up your checkout time. It might take a few minutes to input new customers’ email addresses into your POS system at first, but when those customers turn into regulars, your checkout lines will start to fly!

Hire and Train Extra Staff

You’ve heard this from us before but we’ll say it again: your employees are your most valuable asset. They’re the ones on the front lines that can impact the speed of your point of sale transactions. So ensuring that your store is neither understaffed nor your employees overworked is essential. Exhausted employees will not only hold up your line but can also make mistakes at the checkout line, which will irritate customers and cost you valuable money. Hiring additional staff, even if just seasonal, during your busy months will help ease the burden on your long-term employees. Just make sure that this support staff is properly trained and familiar with both your stock and POS system. Ultimately, your goal is increase the speed of point of sale transactions, but employees that are not properly trained will ultimately hold back your efforts. Want to learn more about hiring staff? Checkout our post on hiring and keeping the best employees for your business.

If you’re still skeptical that having superfast point of sale transactions is possible, give these suggestions a whirl. Then let us know how it went by leaving us a comment below. Good luck!

Sara Sugar

Sara Sugar

As Managing Editor at ShopKeep, a leading iPad Point of Sale System, Sara Sugar uses her distinguished journalism background to boil down small business and point of sale topics.